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If you’re lucky enough to own vintage holiday ornaments, then you likely have spent time admiring their charm, beauty, and uniqueness. Whether they were passed down as family heirlooms, or purchased from vintage dealers and estate sales, antique Christmas collectibles are not just lovely to behold, they also oftentimes hold a great deal of sentimental value for their owners. Some are even worth a fairly large amount of money. And they are built to last – as long as they are treated with loving care. Learning how to store antique Christmas ornaments properly will pay off by preserving these lovely decorations for many decades to come.
In the exhaustion that often comes after the Christmas and New Year’s Eve holidays, it can be hard to find the time (or the energy) to properly clean and store your vintage holiday ornaments. Having the right equipment and storage bins can turn a boring or frustrating task into one that’s easy and pleasant. Make the effort today to purchase what’s necessary to protect your antique Christmas collectibles so that when the time comes, you’ve got everything you need right at hand.
We’ve written about and linked to some ornament storage ideas and items to purchase below, but you can find more inspo and advice in these recent articles:
- How to Store Every Type of Christmas Decoration in the Off-Season – Martha Stewart
- How to Store Vintage Ornaments –House of Hawthornes,
- The Best Ways to Store Your Christmas Ornaments – Food52.
How to Clean Antique Christmas Ornaments
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Before you learn how to store antique Christmas ornaments, it’s important to learn how to clean antique Christmas ornaments. Storing ornaments with dust or tree sap on them will degrade the materials the ornaments are made from over time. Luckly, the process can be made a lot easier and more effective with the right tools.
Hit up the hardware store or big box retailer near you to purchase:
- Compressed air spray can
- Microfiber cloth
- Jewelry polish
- Glass cleaner
- Small paint brush or makeup brush
- Feather duster
- Lint roller
- Glass cleaner
Once you have all your tools in hand, it’s time to take a good hard look at the vintage holiday ornaments you want to clean. After you’ve assessed their condition, set aside any that are broken or damaged to get repaired. Also set aside any vintage items you’d like to pass along as a gift, donate or resell.
For those that you are left, follow the next steps to get them as clean as possible before storing them away.
- Divide them into groups based on type (wooden, cloth, glitter, glass, painted, etc.).
- Remove any hangers so as not to scratch fragile glass or damage cloth ornaments.
- Dust small or very detailed vintage Christmas ornaments with a makeup brush or paint brush
- Use a soft cloth to wipe away dust on larger ornaments or décor items
- Lint roll any fabric ornaments to remove dust and hair
- Check for any beading, sequins or other decorative materials that have become detached from the ornament and carefully reattach or sew them back on
- Spot clean fabric ornaments with a cotton swab and a mixture of mild stain remover and water
- Blast compressed air to clean wooden or metal ornaments
- Spray glass cleaner on a soft cloth (never directly onto the ornament) to clean glass collectibles
As with anything, use your best judgement. Never spray compressed air at an ornament with glitter or paint already flaking away. Painted or glittered ornaments also should not be cleaned with wet cloths.
Once your ornaments are sparkling clean, you’re ready to take the next step: packing them away.
How to Store Antique Christmas Ornaments
When it comes to storing antique Christmas ornaments, keeping them in their original boxes is oftentimes the best choice. If you don’t have access to the vintage packing materials, consider buying acid-free canvas storage boxes with individualized boxes for each ornament. You’ll also want to invest in bubble wrap and acid-free, dye-free tissue paper. Vintage fabric can also be used, as long as it’s soft and pliable.
Safeguard precious homemade ornaments from your children, your own childhood, or even generations before, by placing them in individual padded envelopes. They are often odd shapes (popsicle stick snowflake anyone?) and padded envelopes can be sized up or down to fit their specifics. Delicate pieces can also be stored separately in individual boxes (look through your old gift boxes for good candidates before buying anything new).
Wrap each antique Christmas collectible separately within either their original boxes or specialized storage containers. Make sure the containers are hard enough to be stacked, but try not to use plastic boxes as they can trap moisture. Metal and wooden boxes can be extremely useful for this purpose.
One last tip is to always properly label your storage containers with what’s inside. The last thing you want to do is find yourself tearing through boxes in your self-storage unit searching for your antique Christmas ornaments next December. If you find yourself decorating differently each year, it’s also helpful to mark what color the ornaments are on the containers. Sometimes, you might want a pink and silver vibe – sometimes, not so much. The point is to make finding the vintage holiday decorations you’re looking for as quickly and seamlessly as possible.
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Once you’ve got your specialized items packed away properly, it’s time to move the ornaments into climate controlled storage. Never store them anywhere they might get wet (like a basement or attic) or anywhere with wildly varying temperatures (like an unheated garage) or humidity levels.
Stack the boxes with the heaviest on the bottom and the lightest on the top. Make sure that none of the boxes are being crushed, and rearrange if necessary for maximum stability.
With a little time and effort, your antique Christmas ornaments can keep bringing smiles – and making memories – for decades to come.
Check out our article on How to Store Holiday Decorations for smart advice on how to care for of all of the rest of your holiday items, including trees, lights, and outdoor Christmas décor. You can also swing by just about any CubeSmart location for boxes, tape, and other packing supplies for all your Christmas ornament storage needs – and beyond.
