First, I feel like I need to tell you that this is NOT a sponsored post. Bronner’s is just a store that I love and which I wish more people knew about. We make a trip to Bronner’s about this time every year, and I get ideas for how I want to decorate our home for Christmas. Of course, we stock up on new ornaments for the tree while we are there too. If you are ever in mid-Michigan, you must pay Bronner’s a visit. It is an experience. To give you an idea of what visiting Bronner’s is like, I stood in one spot on the showroom floor and turned in a circle while taking this video:
And that is just one part of the more than two acres of salesroom floor. Bronner’s has a Google StreetView style interactive tour of Bronner’s that is fun to use too.
A few of my family members and I had a girls’ day and went to Bronner’s and few other spots in Frankenmuth. While at Bronner’s I used up my phone’s battery snapping photos of my favorite ornaments and other decorations. I noticed a few trends along the way. Not all items sold in-store are available online, but I have tried to find as many of them as I can for you. None of the links in this post are affiliate links.
I noticed more geometric shapes at Bronner’s this year than I remember seeing before. Perhaps my eye is just trained to look for them now, since it’s been such a strong trend in crafts and decorating this year. There was a wide variety of ornaments in non-spherical geometric shapes, like the one in the photo above.
Woodland themed Christmas decorations are not a new trend, but those deer, foxes, and owls don’t seem to be going anywhere! Woodland creature decorations can skew rustic in natural materials or glamorous in glitter.
Star Ornament with Deer and Tree Pattern
Another trend that I have seen, especially in clothing, this year is the recurrence of fair isle patterns. I love fair isle sweaters, so I am looking forward to finding ways to work them into my Christmas decor this year. Stockings and blankets are obviously places to work in the patterned stripes, but ornaments and other pieces of decor can have some fair isle flair too.
Perhaps as an unexpected aftershock of the 2014 Frozen craze, I have been noticing a push toward Scandinavian-inspired Christmas decor this year. I like the painterly florals and imperfect symmetry. It all seems like decor that has been or could be homemade.
Speaking of homemade, a trip to Bronner’s tends to give me ideas for Christmas decorations that I can DIY myself too. I grabbed a few shots of a few items that I thought were good inspiration pieces.
All over Bronner’s were ornaments that were just variations on clear ball ornaments. Clear ornaments are things of crafters’ dreams because they can be decorated a million different ways. Here are some of the different spins on clear ornaments I saw along the way.
As a continuation of the Scandinavian theme, I was drawn to these rosemaling-style painted ornaments. I bet Colleen from Just Paint It! has some painting tutorials that would help you to DIY this look.
I had to actually feel this ornament to determine whether the texture was inside or outside of the glass. Determination: inside. You could pull off something similar by shoving some of that spun glass angel hair inside of a clear ornament. My mom actually had some of that when I was little. I remember vividly being told not to get anywhere near it because IT WILL CUT YOU.
Technically, this isn’t a clear ornament at all, but actually a blown glass ornament. It is a Mount St. Helen’s ornament aka the inspiration for the blown glass inspired ornaments that I shared awhile back.
I should have composed this photo so you could better see what’s actually going on here, but, in my defense, I had to elbow my way past two dudes to get close enough to take the picture in the first place. There is a small hummingbird made from a fish hook suspended inside of the ornament on monofilament. Even if fishing lure birds aren’t your thing, the suspending something inside a clear ornament idea is steal-worthy.
You could easily DIY this kind of ornament with some homemade cinnamon applesauce ornaments and Mod Podge collage clay. I’ve always wanted a Christmas tree full of ornaments that look like Christmas cookies!
I don’t think these interesting trees could be replicated exactly, but you could probably achieve a similar look by putting a bottle brush tree in a champagne flute or a snifter glass. It would be sort of a pedestal/terrarium combination.
While we are on the topic of trees, I want to share one more video with you. Bronner’s has a small forest of Christmas trees set up in a back corner of their showroom. It is one of my favorite parts of the store, and I love taking my kids through all the lit up trees. It’s pretty magical.
Bronner’s showroom is filled with decorated theme trees. Check out this silly post to see what your favorite theme tree says about you!
Bronner’s is not just a store, it’s an experience. I wish I lived closer because it’s amazing! Some of my family even plan vacations around a visit to Bronner’s!!