Making Old Ornaments Look New Again

Examples of old ornaments that can be made new again

Don’t toss those old 2-1/2”- 4” glass Christmas ornaments which have seen better days. You can redo them with paint, glitter or micro beads and turn them into the perfect decoration for your holiday home. Redone ornaments can be grouped together and set in a bowl on your buffet table mixed with holiday fruits, candy or nuts and used as a centerpiece for your holiday dinner table. Hang them on a garland around the mantle or on your staircase or attached to your holiday gift packages. How about using them as place markers or napkin decorations at the dinner table? Or hot gluing them together to form a glass wreath for your windows or door? Re-dones can be gifted to friends and family members who have an unusual holiday color scheme for which ornaments are not normally available in stores. Be prepared to make 24-48 (2-4 doz) for maximum impact on 4 ft Christmas tree.

   Old ornament with a burn spot from sitting too close to a bulb.

What kind of glass ornaments can be redone? Any ornament with a surface that is not broken or cracked. Sometimes the finish on an ornament appears to be cracked but the ornament itself is intact - perfect for a redo. Look for ornaments with faded color, cracked paint, burn marks from tree lights, missing paint, uneven coloring, dirt on the painted finish, mottled metallic finish etc.

The existing finish can be removed by either running the ornament under warm/hot water until it peels off or by removing the cap filling the ornament with water setting it in a bowl and covering it with water until the finish loosens and can be easily peeled off. Let the ornaments dry thoroughly (1-2 days) before you commence with your treatment.

Here are examples of damaged glass ornaments which can easily be redone after the old finish is removed:

         Cracked, mottled, peeling paint

The best places to find usable old ornaments are house or garage sales, estate sales, second-hand stores (Salvation Army, Goodwill, St. Vincent dePauls’ Veterans Thrift, etc.) after Halloween and eBay (the worlds’ largest second hand store) all year around. But the closer it gets to the Christmas holiday, seller prices usually go up on eBay.

Thanks for visiting I Love Christmas.com holiday decorating blog. Use our Contact Form to request permission to reprint or quote from this article. For more Christmas decorating ideas visit my Christmas blog: https://www.i-love-christmas.com/Christmas-Decorating-Ideas . Get beautiful, handmade glass ornaments, garlands, metal ornament trees, ornament hooks, tabletop Christmas trees, photo ornaments and other holiday decorations at I Love Christmas! https://www.i-love-christmas.com . Note that I assume no liability for the use or misuse of these instructions or those provided by the product manufacturers.

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