Christmas Decorations

A season of preparation

Yes, yes, I know it’s too early. You are absolutely right. However, there’s a reason I’m doing this now. You see… well, ok, it’s a bit of a long story. I’ll start at the beginning.

Once upon a time, in a farmhouse far away, there were four children. Every year, as children do, they made Christmas ornaments. Every year, the tree was hung with them, those imperfect beautiful irreplaceable things made of a paper and glue and popsicle sticks. And then… there was a chaotic time of life, where everything was upside-down and scattered and after it all settled out, the boxes of ornaments were lost. So the family began again, when they had a new home and a new place to safely set up a tree. The children were older, but the only thing their mother asked for, year after year, was for them to make something. A piece of art. Some years they did, and some years they just collected weird ornaments. The tree became highly individual to this odd little family. Then… it happened again. In the chaos of moving, the box of ornaments went missing. This time, there was only one teen nearly-adult at home, and after a year of a half-hearted tree, there were a couple of years of no trees. Christmas was about family, and food, and it was good. But something was missing.

Some time ago, in a faraway place.

Last year, right after Christmas when it was on deep sale, I bought a little fake tree, just about as tall as I am. The Balsam Firs I love so much for Christmas, with their soft needles and wonderful fragrance, are no longer an option down here in Texas. Also, the less-mess-and-fuss of a plastic tree is better for me in this season of life. So! I have a tree. Now, I need ornaments. I’ve collected a few at yard sales - there are always ornaments at yard sales. What I’ve really planned and wanted, though, are handmade ornaments. With no children at home any longer, I’ll make them myself. Which is what this post is about.

There are so many ways to decorate. I’ve been collecting blown eggs, not to do pysanky, because I’ve promised no more hobbies… and I don’t know that I can manage that beautiful, intricate art anyway. But I can paint the eggs and glue a ribbon to them. I can paint pinecones, and wood slices. I can make paper chains. I asked the internet for ideas, took a long look around my art studio at the supplies I have on hand, and have made a list ornaments I can make in the first 24 days of December. These are presented in no particular order:

• Photo ornaments – decoupage¹ a favorite photo to a wood slice and add fake snow or glitter around the edge.

• Cinnamon stick reindeer – Glue three cinnamon sticks into a triangle, add googly eyes, red pom-pom nose, and pipe cleaner antlers.

• Nature Ornaments - collect anything round² that can be dried out and hung, like oak galls, buffalo gourds, pine cones: so many ideas for the next nature walk

• Salt-dough snowflakes³ – Mix salt dough, cut with cookie cutters, bake, paint white, and glitter.

• Felt mitten garland ornaments – Cut tiny mittens from felt, stitch or glue pairs together, stuff lightly, add a hanging loop.

• Orange Slices - dry slices of an orange, glue on whole star anise and other spices to add decoration, add a ribbon loop to hang

• Beaded Icicles - on a piece of wire, string together sparkly clear or blue beads of different sizes (great way to reuse broken costume jewelry) and hang from a metal hook

• Origami ball - made up with washi paper, and a little ribbon loop glued to it

• Yarn-mouse - crochet, or make a little pom-pom mousie for the tree

• Pinecone gnomes – Paint pinecone tips white for “snow,” glue a wooden bead head and felt hat.

• Button wreath – Glue buttons in a circle on cardstock, add a tiny red ribbon bow.

• Card Ornaments - cut a motif or design from Christmas cards as they arrive, write the year and names on the back, and punch a hole to hang up

• Clothespin nativity figures – Paint wooden clothespins, add felt robes and tiny yarn halos.

• Shrink-film gingerbread houses – Draw on shrink plastic, color, bake, hole-punch for hanging.

• Pom-pom Snowmen - Make three white pom-poms in graduated sizes, glue them together and decorate with googly eyes, ribbon scarf, and beads for the mouth and carrot

• Macaroni angels – Glue bowtie pasta wings, a wooden bead head, and rigatoni body; paint gold.

• Origami star ornaments – Fold metallic or patterned paper into 3D stars

• Painted egg - paint a blown egg with acrylic paints, add glitter and a loop of ribbon

• Chainmaille dragons - make little dragons with wings and a charm tail

• Paper snowflakes - intricate cuts can make these from simple to stellar

• Paper chain - using pretty paper can make this worth keeping on the tree

• Tiny Books - make little 2” hand-bound books which can be used as small gifts from the tree

• Diorama Ornaments - in a clear ornament which has a front hole for the purpose, create a diorama with paper and dried grasses or flowers

• Glass Flowers - use pressed flowers between pieces of clear plastic⁴, with ribbon glued around the edge to hold it together

This is a good exercise for me in stash busting, it should be fun to do, it will give me lots of things to put on the blog, the way I did the spice advent calendar last year, and you can play along if you like, dear readers! I realize some of these may not be projects you can or want to do. Perhaps, though, they will give you ideas. Personally, I have always loved looking at the Christmas tree through the season it was up, and remembering. Memories of the little child who made that one, who has grown into someone awesome and very different. The time we got a rubber jellyfish at the aquarium, (when there were only two instead of four) and it lived on the tree for more than a decade. The ornaments made then are gone now. That doesn’t mean I should give up on having a tree and recreating a little of that feeling.

If you want to do this? Keep in mind that for many of these, you don’t need to spend much, if any, money on them. You likely have the components around the house for quite a few of them, already.

I plan to keep it silly, fun, and spend virtually nothing⁵ on this season of making pretty ornaments.

1. You don’t need Mod Podge if you don’t have that in your stash - dilute PVA glue one to one with water and finish with a spray of sealer fixative if you want it to last longer.

2. Or close to round! You could paint and glitter these, or not.

3. Or any other shape which suits your fancy!

4. Or glass bezels from the craft store, foiled and soldered, depending on your crafter’s age and ability.

5. Other than horrifying my husband by buying glitter. *evil giggles*