Tinsel is a hallmark of holiday nostalgia for Riebe, who remembers tinsel-covered trees from childhood.
Leben Riebe
Fort Worth-based vintage enthusiast and collector Leben Riebe can’t count the number of ornaments on the Christmas tree in his dining room. He can count, to be clear, but there are really too many to number. This year, he lost track once he reached 1,000 — and that was on only one of the three full-size trees in his house. In his 1940s Arlington Heights cottage, festive decor abounds. “There’s a little bit everywhere,” says Riebe.
Though his day job is as co-owner of Waco clothing boutique Grae Apparel, he began sharing his passion for vintage holiday decor in 2018 on his Instagram, @vintageholiday. And when he bought his first home in 2019, he set out to infuse every inch (or nearly so) with festive spirit. Since then, he’s amassed a following of more than 150,000 like-minded lovers of vintage.
Riebe traces his love of holiday decor back to childhood, when decorating was his favorite part of Christmas. When he took up the task of filling his own home with holiday spirit, he realized his hodgepodge collection of gifted holiday decor and purchased pieces didn’t capture the spirit he hoped to create. Riebe wanted to cultivate a point of view for his holiday decor, but he kept coming up short. “It didn’t feel like it felt like when you were a kid decorating the tree,” he says. He thought maybe he was aiming for a design that was too trendy, safe or even too put together.
A close-up photo of the fireplace mantel shows Riebe’s collection of antique Putz houses, arranged in a Christmas village.
Leben Riebe
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One day, he did a Google search for antique Christmas ornaments, and a set of Polish indent ornaments popped up. It reminded him of childhood, and he knew he’d hit on something. “That image kind of got burned into my brain,” he says. “I couldn’t stop thinking about how beautiful they were.”
Though Riebe concedes that decorating with vintage Christmas ornaments isn’t a new idea — there are whole design aesthetics centered around it — it was new and novel to him. He was excited by the thrill of the hunt and the process of searching for and collecting festive items. “Once I started buying it, I realized I love this. This is bringing me that kind of joy that I love about Christmas.”
Discovering the world of vintage Christmas decor unlocked memories, too. “A lot of the vintage things that I’m collecting would have been things my grandparents or great-grandparents would have had on their trees,” he says.
Riebe’s dining room is a melange of vintage and antique pieces. When he layers in holiday decorations, the room transforms into a festive wonderland.
Leben Riebe
On the buffet in the dining room, Riebe tucked vintage Santa mugs into his collection of Delftware — and vintage bottle brush trees were tucked into the mugs, resembling hats.
Leben Riebe
For example, the avalanche of vintage tinsel on his living room tree is an homage to the tinsel-covered trees of his childhood. Toy soldier blow molds, remnants of 1950s and 1960s Americana, flank the fireplace in the cozy living room that’s painted an almost Christmassy hue of green (Farrow & Ball’s Bancha). On the mantel, his prized collection of antique Putz houses — sparkling cardboard houses that date back to 18th-century Central Europe — glisten in the light of the Christmas tree. And in the dining room, those thousand-plus colorful ornaments on the tree are mostly vintage designs from the United States, Germany, Poland, Italy and Japan, all imported between 1940 and 1960. Nearby, on a sideboard, Riebe tucks vintage Santa mugs into the tops of his Delftware collection and tops the mugs with vintage bottle brush trees that end up looking like hats.
His bedroom, which he has dubbed “The Willow Room” for its Morris & Co. Willow Bough wallpaper, has its own tree. The room, he says, is a little more subdued than the others, and the tree has a botanical theme with dried orange slices, alliums, and popcorn-and-cranberry garland. Even the kitchen gets festive treatment: He hangs wreaths on the cabinet doors.
Riebe starts decorating in November, just after Halloween, and the task takes him the entire month, as he unwraps each treasured collection and finds its perfect spot. The process of Christmas-fying the house is neither clean nor organized, he says. “Sometimes it gets pretty messy and chaotic when it’s all coming out and going out because, you know, I work on this for a bit, and I go here and work on that, and then I’m working on something else,” he says with a laugh.
In the “Willow Room,” Riebe’s name for this bedroom decorated in Morris & Co.’s Willow Bough wallpaper, festive decor is on display. The bed is adorned with garland, and the full-size tree has a botanical theme.
Leben Riebe
While most of his decorative pieces return year after year, he never tires of his vintage holiday decorations. In fact, the collection is so vast there’s room for creativity. “I’m able to decorate with it in different kinds of themes every year to keep it fresh and new, but I’m still using the same things. Instead of going out and buying a whole new look every year, I’m able to create a new look with what I already have,” he says. The trees change each year, for example. One year, the living room tree was flocked and lilac colored, with tinsel and sparkling vintage ornaments. Last year, he used only red ornaments and tinsel for the living room tree. This year, it’s a multicolored ornament combo (with tinsel, of course).
Altogether, the whole design is unique to Riebe. He didn’t inherit family heirloom decorations; alas, he has no idea where those ended up. Instead, his festive home is an assemblage of nostalgic items found at auctions, vintage shops, estate sales and online. “It’s kind of a mix of finding my own unique [style] — what I’m really drawn to — but also it gives me those kind of same feelings that I had when I was a child and decorating and going to my grandparents.”
A close-up of the dining room table shows more festive decor, including a Christmas tree centerpiece and peppermint-striped Christmas crackers on every place setting.
Leben Riebe
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