How to Pack Vintage Christmas Ornaments

Last weekend came a sad day in our house, when we had to pack up our beautiful aluminum tree and colorful glass ornaments. We had to explain to the kids that if we kept it out all year long, it wouldn't be an exciting and special thing when Christmas came around. That corner of the room is so dark now, I'm insisting on getting a mirror to stick over there.



This year, I inherited all kinds of vintage glass ornaments from my grandma. Some were picked up at a small town auction, some were hers and some belonged to my great grandma. Even with a 3 and 5 year plus a very mischevious ferret in the house this year, we didn't have any casualties and I hoped to keep it that way as we packed.


Smaller glass ornaments fit beautifully in an empty egg carton. We wrap the carton in a layer of bubble wrap and make sure it stays on the top layer of the box



Some ornaments came with their own original boxes. I love these ornament boxes so much. I may try to find a way to display them next year. The tiny Shiney Brite bells are my favorites!



Many of my ornaments came in a shoe box, just floating around loose. I'm surprised that they haven't been broken yet!



This year, I wanted to make sure to have them last so I put a layer of plastic shopping bag on the bottom of a shoe box, then used another bag to snake between the ornaments, creating a little next for each of them. Make sure that the ornaments aren't touching each other.  Next came a layer of bubble wrap, tucking them in for the season and repeat with the next layer until the shoe box is full.

The glass garland, last year's Target find, still has its own box to keep the strands separated and protected. I remember great grandma had some glass garland that she had for decades. She'd wrap the strand in newspaper and shove it in a plastic ziplock bag. I imagine that a plastic storage box with layers of bubble wrap would be a safe spot for delicate garland.