Santa Pillow

Needlepoint pillows look like small tapestries to me. They are richly detailed with lots of wonderful colors. Santa is shown in all his white-bearded, red-capped Christmas glory. Lavishly toss several of these throw pillows on sofas and chairs. Don't forget your favorite rocking chair or reading spot. Because these pillows look like tapestries they add a vibrant and sophisticated air to every piece of decor they end up on.

When you buy a pillow on ebay, you can buy the pillow and pillow cover together or you can often just find pillow covers for sale. The second option is a wonderful choice. It's so much easier to store just the pillow cover. It takes up so little space that you can have pillow covers for every holiday and fit it in less than on drawer. It's also a lot cheaper.

I love shopping for handmade needlepoint pillows made in the United States. So I always check to see if the person selling the pillow made it. If they made it, I check to see if it was made in a smoke-free environment. When in doubt about these two things, I email the seller and ask.

If you have a traditional or country home primitive folks art pillows can really enhance your home decor. My primary focus of seasonal and holiday decor is to swap out everyday functional items - salt and pepper shakers, throw pillows, and vases. Not only are they decorative but they are functional as well. Somehow it feels just as much like home maintenance and cleaning as it does holiday decorating. Quite frankly I don't know about your schedule, but while I always make time for cleaning, decorating can take a back seat some seasons.

I love shopping ebay, because it's very easy to get a sense of the ebay seller's reputation. The first thing I always look for is whether or not the seller has the Top Rated Seller designation. That means that that seller has sold a ton of stuff on ebay and generally met ebay's customer service guidelines. Now just because a seller doesn't have that doesn't mean they're not good to do business with. I then check out their Postive Feedback Rating and the comments that previous customers have left. If they're good, then I feel comfortable enough to make the purchase.

Vintage Santa pillows have the stylized designs of yesteryear. Almost any home decor can handle vintage accents depending on the decade. Some home interiors do better with Art Deco from the 1920s, while others delight in the kitsch designs of the 1950s. But when you add something from a previous decade, you add a richness to your decor. A temporal depth as well as a visual depth. All of a sudden your home has a story to tell.

I've noticed that it's mostly the vintage Santa pillows from the 1950s and 1960s that are shaped like Santa. I know that I Mom and Dad grew up in that time period and I often see them hugging their Santa pillows in those pictures. A pity they or their parents still don't have them. Authentic kitsch is hard to find these days!

So doll up your home for the holidays by tossing some throw pillows around. As I sit hear typing this there's a daisy pillow supporting my back. Yep, it's shaped like a daisy. But sometime in the future there will probably be a Turkey or Santa pillow performing the same function. I have a corner cabinet stuffed with them!