Do-It-Yourself Christmas Decorations

Christmas is just not the same without decorations because they add festivity, color and an aura of holiday which lifts spirits. You could go out and buy some very beautiful decoration this Christmas season, but why? Do-it-yourself Christmas decorations are so much more memorable and certainly a whole lot less expensive.

As I sit here in front of my computer monitor to key in the letters that will comprise the words, sentences and paragraphs of this article, I take a mental inventory of my own Christmas decorations and smile. They are bright, they are sparkly and each one of them conjures up a memory from the past. Some of these memories are precious and I shall cherish them for the rest of my life. For example:

* There is that irregularly shaped ornament that adds so many fun colors, it is really impossible to describe and dates back to my own childhood. It was a warm spring day, I remember, and I was to help my grandmother with her spring cleaning. But instead, she took out two boxes marked “Christmas” and asked me to sit next to her at the kitchen table which was unusually cluttered with a jar of glue, a few small paint brushes and a whole lot of rags. We sat down and my grandmother spilled the contents of the two boxes directly onto the table. There, before us were mounds of old clothe-pins which she hadn’t used for years because we had gotten her a clothe-dryer and odd buttons of every shape, size and color. My grandmother then showed me how to glue the buttons onto the clothe-pins. We completed about two dozen of them and my grandmother told me to pick my favorite to be used as a tree ornament for the following Christmas and the rest would be distributed among other family members and friends. My grandmother passed away before that Christmas but I have this wonderful memory to hold on to.

* I see it in my mind’s eye as if it was just yesterday. Every year just before Christmas my favorite uncle would come over with a camera to take my picture holding up my favorite toy at the time. He would then have it laminated, attached to a ribbon whose color I got to choose and hang it from our living room chandelier. I had done that with my own children and continue to do it with my grandchildren. These decorations seem to be everyone’s favorites and they open subjects for wonderful conversation and reminiscing.

* My kids loved play-dough when they were young and when they were especially proud of their own creations, we saved them for the Nativity scene. I can see a few in my head right now as I recall my kids’ joy and my heart swells with pleasure.

Feel free to emulate the ideas discussed above and here are a few more:

* Use old leftovers from your sewing kit. You could make wonderful bows from scraps of ribbon and lace.
* Use Christmas cards from previous years. Cut them up into any number of shapes and stitch colorful ribbon around their edges.
* Use pine cones. You could paint them, attach colorful little flowers and ribbons or sprinkle gold and silver glitter.
* Use multicolored paper to make paper chains.
* String popcorn and use it in its nature color or paint it.
* Take the pictures off your walls and wrap them in colorful gift wrapping paper and ribbons and hang them up again. You have never seen your wall this festive before.

Enjoy the savings, enjoy the process and enjoy the memories for years to come.