How To Make New Christmas Ornaments Look Vintage

Do you love the look of patina that happens over time on vintage Christmas ornaments? If you’ve priced them at a vintage store, flea market or shopped on Etsy lately they can be expensive! Why not get the look for less and make your new Christmas ornaments look old! This easy tutorial will show you how.

It’s no secret that I like patina and imperfection, except when it comes to those trendy ripped jeans! Sometimes vintage pieces can be a bit hard to find or overpriced. That’s when good old ingenuity can come into play and recreating a look yourself. When it comes to Christmas ornaments it’s so easy and takes just a couple of minutes per piece. There are so many ways you can use Christmas balls, so grab some and let’s get started making these new plastic Christmas ornaments look like their vintage counterparts!

How To Make New Christmas Ornaments Look Vintage

Grab yourself a handful of new Christmas ornaments. If you don’t have any, I’ve listed some that you can buy in bulk below. Scroll and tap on the links…

You’ll also need:

• A bottle of acetone nail polish remover
• Gloves to protect your hands
• Soft cotton rag
• Old toothbrush
• Eye dropper
• Dark wax – THIS  is my favorite furniture wax, hands down!

So easy…put your gloves on and dip a small part of your rag into some nail polish. Don’t use anything but straight acetone nail polish for this. Then just rub off a section of the painted finish. You’ll see it come off on your rag and the ornament should look more silver and dull.

For some additional texture, take a toothbrush and gently scrub the plastic.

Another way to remove some of the finish is by dripping the acetone on with an eyedropper. Hold the ornament by the hanger and let the acetone drip down. Turn it before it stops dripping to create some interesting patterns.

When you’ve finished a handful or so, take another small rag and apply dark furniture wax. Rub in and let it dry for a little while and then buff some of the wax off. Let the piece dry…it shouldn’t take long.

That’s it…I told you that this was easy! Now you have a bunch of new Christmas ornaments that look vintage and can style them as you like! I put some in a gorgeous embossed vintage silver bowl that I have. The patina on the bowl is perfectly imperfect and now has a seasonal look to match.

I really got on a roll with these and decided to tie ribbon through a few and add to my bedroom mantel. What do you think?

By the way, one of the reasons that I stopped using vintage Christmas ornaments is that they are glass. Inevitably I would drop some every year and what a pain to have them shatter! If this sounds like you…don’t despair. See what you can do with those broken glass ornaments in THIS POST!

Want to add a mercury glass look to your new Christmas ornaments, as opposed to distressing them? Check out THIS POST then…you’ll love it!

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