Classic to Quirky: Lean into Nostalgic Christmas Decorations for Your Tree

Few holidays channel our love for nostalgia as strongly as Christmas. A lifetime of memories and decades-long traditions shape not just our conception of the holiday, but the decorations we use to celebrate it.

Even so, everyone has different sentimental references for the holiday. Is there a soft spot in your heart for a traditional Christmas tree? Do you dream of the extravagant Christmas decor of the ’90s? Maybe you prefer a mid-century modern Christmas, with exuberant colors and large, colorful lights.

This year, decorators are leaning into Christmas nostalgia as strongly as ever. The warmth of Christmases past is reflected in the thought we put into our holiday decorations and the care we take in dressing our homes for the season.

While nostalgic elements can be incorporated into any aspect of your Christmas decor, we’re focusing on the Christmas tree. From tree topper to tree skirt, let’s take a look at the retro Christmas decorations that define their era but still capture our visions today.

Colors: Red, green, gold, silver

Lights: Multicolor C9 lights

Topper: Glass finial, angel

Featured Ornaments: Glass balls, heirloom ornaments

Garland: Beaded garland, ribbons

Call it “the tree most likely to be featured in a Christmas movie.” A traditional tree often lives in our imaginations as the blueprint for the perfect Christmas tree.

The classic Christmas tree is tastefully decorated with red, green, gold and silver ornaments and white mini lights with shimmery beaded garland draped from branch to branch. Poised on top is an elegantly dressed angel, with a solid color or tartan plaid tree skirt beneath.

For a traditional tree with more vintage appeal, add clip-on birds with feather tails and a few of grandma’s antique or mercury glass ornaments.

A Christmas train running around the edge of a solid red or green tree skirt adds yet another nostalgic touch.

Colors: Burgundy, hunter green, gold, silver

Lights: Multicolor, blinking mini incandescent lights

Topper: Lighted star

Featured Ornaments: Figures, homemade ornaments

Garland: Paper chains

There are many ways to describe the over-the-top aesthetic of a 90s Christmas: Chaotic. Random. Gaudy. Eccentric. Excessive. Haphazard. Overdone. Even – dare we say it? – tacky.

The fact is, in the pre-influencer era, people decorated their Christmas trees with much less regard for style.

Start decorating a 90s Christmas tree by hanging ornaments in trendy shades of burgundy and hunter green, then pack every available branch with hand-me-down glass ornaments, satin ball ornaments from the ’70s, figures depicting favorite movie characters and the paper decorations the kids made in grammar school.

Continue the 90s Christmas theme with lots of colorful blinking lights!

If everything seems a bit much, you’ve captured the look just right. All that excess just serves to punctuate the essential joy of the season. From the multicolor twinkling star to the ceramic Christmas village beneath the tree, 90s Christmas decorations refuse to be overlooked.

For a further dip into nostalgia, take note that several Christmas customs solidified in the 1990s, like the watchful presence of the Elf on the Shelf and the Christmas pickle tradition. Continue these traditions with your family with your own elf or pickle ornament.

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Colors: Pastels, bright color combinations

Lights: Multicolor lights, spotlights

Topper: Starburst, abstract star

Featured Ornaments: Shiny glass ornaments in playful colors

Garland: Tinsel rope garland

As the world entered the Space Age in the mid-19th century, Christmas decorations embraced all things sparkly and bright.

That aesthetic sometimes included the Christmas tree. This was the era of the aluminum tree, a shiny silver artificial pine that occasionally was bathed in the red-blue-yellow-green glow of a rotating spotlight.

A mid-century modern Christmas tree features glass ornaments in trendy pastels or candy-bright stripes and patterns, as well as reflector ornaments – concave ornaments designed to reflect the glow of large, colorful C7 and C9 Christmas lights. For added interest, incorporate bubble lights, with tiny lighted tubes of liquid that bubble like water in a pot when the bulb heats up.

Common retro tree toppers include shiny blown glass finials and star tree toppers. Mid-century designers also loved their starbursts and you can still find vintage starburst tree toppers featuring distinctly modern designs.

Wrap the base of your retro Christmas tree in a handmade tree skirt made from a Christmas-themed print fabric and trimmed with lace or rick rack.

Christmas tree decorations don’t just dress up a tree, they connect us to memories, family traditions and the stories that make Christmas meaningful year after year. No matter which era of Christmas decor speaks to you, each style has a warmth all its own.

If you’ve been reminiscing about Christmases past, choose the elements that inspire you most to infuse a little extra old-fashioned charm into your holiday decor this year.

Browse Christmas Central for all the lights, ornaments and decorations you need to create a tree that’s as nostalgic – or as on-trend – as your Christmas decorating dreams.