Get ready for some wild Christmas sweaters!

I have a fun collection of photos for you guys! The mall did not disappoint when it came to crazy sweaters this year. I'm not even going to say ugly sweaters, because I don't see these as ugly. Just crazy, creative, and a bit of a shout out to what my grade school teachers used to wear. In fact, I wouldn't even be surprised if some of their old clothes were at one of these stores!

Remember Ragstock, the store that had all kinds of fun (mostly used clothing) for Halloween? Well, they did a lot of decorating for Christmas too. Here are a few shots of their window displays. 

How fun is their vintage sign? "Lo! Lo! Lo!" 

They decorated the ceiling again. Do you see the tiny sweaters on a banner up there?

A few sweatshirts snuck in there too.

Like at Halloween, there was a rack of accessories. 

Is that elf on a reindeer llama? 

This is my favorite of the (new) Christmas sweaters they had in. You've probably noticed already that the newer ones have a sticker that says "Put your drink in my pocket". 

Another cool shark sweater. 🦈 Maybe I like these shark sweaters best because I'm drawn to the shiny material. 

There were Hanukkah sweater options too. This sloth one is my favorite of those. 

This cat sweater actually scares me a bit. I think it's the eyes. As I look at this, I don't even think it's a Christmas sweater. This feels more like a funky Valentine's Day sweater. I'm going to be nice and not say "ugly" here but I will say funky! Yikes. 

Ragstock actually has a Christmas sweater section on their web site: 

Shop Vintage Christmas Sweaters

I think you'll agree that our store has a cooler selection than what's on this site, but it's still fun to look. Also, the prices at the mall were a lot lower!

After Ragstock, I visited JCPenney. There were no funky Christmas clothes to be found there! I did find these two in the Christmas ornament section, though. If only I had a Halloween tree, or in this case, a Day of the Dead tree. I wanted to have a reason to need this pink Chihuahua head. 

Penney's did have a number of those types of gifts that only appear around Christmas time. I've never seen an electric s'mores maker, have you? It reminds me of a fondue pot, because it looks like it could be a group/party treat. At first it seemed kind of goofy, but the more I looked at this, the more I wanted to try it. 

From Penney's to TJ Maxx... Oh did TJ Maxx ever have some wild Christmas sweaters! I learned that the men's section is the place to be for those. I noticed that people in that section were watching me take photos and I assume they were wondering "What man is she shopping for?" 

This. Hahaha! Every time I see it, I laugh. It's creepy, though. 

This one's pretty cute. It has an actual ringing bell on it. 

They'll hear you coming in this one! 

I had to get a picture of the brand name on the tag.

This one is adorable. I'd wear it. 

This close-up picture of the sweater is the wallpaper on my phone now.

A couple walked by as I was photographing this and just stopped, stunned. This is what David S. Pumpkins wears for Christmas, right? It would be good for a performer of some type. Maybe every guy in a band could be wearing one of these for a Christmas concert? I'll tell you one thing, this jacket is heavy!

Yeah, we're still in the men's section here. I had thought that was a skirt, but I think it's a pair of shorts. For the reindeer that doesn't mind being a little cold. 

A few from the ladies section:

A close-up, because this one's pretty cute. 🐻

And yes, even dogs can't escape from this. I don't know about that buttoned Grinch face over the butt. I understand it's an old fashioned long johns thing, but for a dog? 

Well, there you have it! Pretty good selection, eh? I've actually been invited to a party where we're encouraged to wear something kooky like this. I don't know what I'm wearing yet, although I did get some glittery silver present decorations from Dollar Tree to clip on myself. Here's an example of one that's clipped to my Santa hat:

These actually look pretty classy clipped onto a black scarf, like old-time brooches. What's fun is that I can decorate a present, floral display, garland, etc. with these after the party!

A Halloween and Christmas Switcheroo!

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas! I was surprised to actually get my wish and have a Christmas with Halloween weather after having a Halloween with Christmas weather! I know we all had unusual weather this past Halloween. In my case, that meant a good amount of snow. As for Christmas, I was treated to a sunny day that was in the 60s - at least where the sun had collected on the porch. I had a tiny bit of time to enjoy that porch on Christmas and I did so with a Halloween book.

The inside cover:

Someone I follow on Tumblr had shared this book and said it was the best Halloween book they'd read in years. So I checked to see if it was in our library system and was surprised to see that it was! The librarian I checked this out from said "Oh, preparing for next year?" and I said "Oh, I'm a Halloween year-round kind of person" to which she said "Why not? It's fun!" Yes, yes it is.

This book is a collection of vintage Halloween traditions and history. I have already learned so much from it! I'm tempted to share all the trivia I learned, but you'd probably have more fun reading it for yourself. You get an idea from this book about the Old World celebrations around the end of October and you also get a clear idea of how Halloween would have been celebrated in early 1900s America.

The book is beautifully illustrated! The old Halloween pieces of art really add a lot.

And there are such fun details, like burnt edges and decorative corners. Even the sides of the pages are orange!

I think it's awesome that the author did so much research into early traditions and is keeping them alive through this book. I really can imagine what it was like back in the day from reading this.

I think Halloween may have been filled with more surprises and danger a century ago. I can go without the pranks, but they sure are interesting to read about!

I plan to investigate the author's reference material at some point. Perhaps some of you would like to as well?

Hopefully you can read this. As decorative as that page is, the design makes it difficult to read. 

So I had to shovel snow on Halloween night, but I got to read a Halloween book on a sunny porch on Christmas day. I'd say that evens things out in a way. :) Here's a glimpse of what Halloween looked like for me this year:

As for Christmas, I didn't have a lot of time to blog this month. So I'm just going to add a few highlights from the month to the end of this blog post.

Starting with a few of my favorite photos from this year's Miller Lights show.

We didn't have real snow that night, so some had to be created. I think this is probably some form of soap?

The beer tasting was fun as usual! Mom stuck with Miller Light and I had Miller, Blue Moon, and La Colombe. 

The tour and tasting were so packed on the night we went that we couldn't even get a table right away! I had to get resourceful in finding a place for my beer.

Yes, at Miller even the fire extinguishers make fine beer holders. :)

So here is that La Colombe I mentioned. It was listed as a "hard cold brew coffee", as you can see. I figured this was either going to be very good or very bad. It turned out to be very good! I was suspicious at first since it was listed as "black". I was thinking it would be a mix of beer and black coffee. But there was a good deal of sugar in there. Have any of you tried this drink?

I'd wanted to share some pics from Farm Girl Antiques earlier this month too! Mom and I went to their Christmas party and had a good time. They had Christmas music playing and lots of good snacks. As you're about to see, they had some great displays put together. I thought you guys might be interested in seeing how this shop looks at Christmas after seeing it at Halloween. I'd be interested to know if any of these antiques or vintage pieces look familiar to you!

Thoughts on this? :)

Kind of a neat bird's nest display:

Isn't a muffin tin or cupcake holder a cool way to display ornaments?

Isn't this a pretty display? I'm feeling motivated to put something together like that garland or swag up top.

Didn't the store look beautiful for Christmas? It's hard to believe that's even the same building we saw at Halloween! I'll leave you guys with a pic from our village. This Santa statue is new this year, and isn't he the perfect photo opp?

In case I don't update in the next couple days, Happy New Year everyone! 💖