More Christmas Craftiness

I don't remember the source of the idea for this great block Christmas tree. I created mine more than 10 years ago.  I am thinking it may have originated in Southern Living.   I had a lot of help from a super talented friend (who has great spatial and pre-planning craft skills  - which I don't) creating this one.

It is, without a doubt, my most favorite Christmas decoration.  It is the first thing I take out of it's box as I begin my holiday decorating and the last thing I put away. It holds a place of honor at the center of our kitchen table. 

I used approximately 3 boxes of children's blocks, my glue gun and countless glue sticks to create this tree, which stands about 12 inches tall.  I purchased the angel on top and several of the toys from a local craft store.  Some of the most precious toys, like these:

The bow on this package is a work of art

Children's watercolor paint set complete with glass and paint brush

were created by my aunt - a very gifted, and at one-time professional, crafter. 

Truthfully, the  photos don't do it justice.  Many of the blocks are strategically placed (vertically, horizontally and diagonally) to spell holiday words as well as all our names, first and last.  The bottom row says "MERRY CHRISTMAS."  Okay, honestly, it says "MERRY CHRISTMAS NAIL" the nail part being completely unintentional (see I told you I wasn't a pre-planner).  If you look closely you will see that have generously shared my mistake with you in this photo.  

My kids love to call this to my attention on a regular basis,  "Hahaha, Merry Christmas Nail!"

The Childrens' Table

Sitting at the kids' table was awesome when I was growing up. I know for certain that there were at least one or two adults in my family who would have welcomed the opportunity to sit with "us kids" at the card table in the living room -- no kidding.  Sure “graduating” to the grown-ups’ table was a much anticipated rite of passage, but I still think the kids’ table rocked.  You could  eat just the things you liked and didn’t have to push the food around on your plate.  Eating dessert first, that was okay too. And there were inside jokes, lots of inside jokes. 

So, right now,  I’m thinking about preparations and seating for a crowd at the holidays. Alas, I don’t really have a crowd but I still try to think about ways to make those who aren’t fortunate enough to sit at the kids' table (if there was one) even more “jealenvious” (it’s a word, you can look it up).  

Last year, I had a crush on  these little Lego sets and placed one at each of the kids’ seats.   They were not too expensive and oh, so cute. 

This year I’m using these Slinky Jr. toys  as napkins rings. 

Think they’ll be a nuisance?!  I’ll let you know. 

O Little Town of Bethlehem

I am not a collector.  Okay, maybe a sort of collector.  I have a few teacups and saucers (mostly inherited from my grandmothers) and an assortment of childrens’ books (but only the classics, or ones with super cute illustrations).  If I was going to collect anything in earnest, however, I would collect these:

The delightfully retro plastic one in the front right is a personal favorite.

 

These little nativity scenes are adorable and, at least to me, made only more adorable by their miniature nature.  I can think of little that is more precious than a teeny baby Jesus.  I display these creches all year long. 

My sister brought this one to me from her vacation in Mexico. It came in a little 2 inch by 3 inch silver-plated box.  The photo quality is not very good and I think one of the wise men is AWOL (perhaps he preferred the Central American climate), but I don’t mind.  The cow, the sheep and the donkey are too cute. 

 

This one, however, is my favorite.

Look what's inside when you lift the top! I know, cute right?

Again,  this one is from my sister’s travels to Mexico.  Hey, it just dawned on me, if I could ever get to Mexico, I could start a real collection!

Advent

The season of Advent was not something I was familiar with as a child.  But I have grown to love the joyful marking of time that anticipates the celebration/commemoration of Jesus' birth.  The lighting of the candles on the four Sundays subsequent to Thanksgiving (and the center candle on Christmas Eve) is beautiful.  I'm partial to the regal purple candles, but I've recently learned that royal blue is now more in vogue, separating the season of Advent from the season of Lent. 

This is our Advent Wreath.

After Christmas last year, I bought this adorable  candelabra, and if I wasn't so married to the regal purple candles, I might be tempted to use this as our Advent "Wreath" because it has just the right number of candles.

There are tons of books and resources about Advent as well as suggested weekly readings online.  Our children take turns lighting the candles and reading aloud.  They'd never admit it, but last week we even broke into a spontaneous Christmas carol at the end of the reading.  It was sweet.

"Advent is the perfect time to clear and prepare the Way. Advent is a winter training camp for those who desire peace. By reflection and prayer, by reading and meditation, we can make our hearts a place where a blessing of peace would desire to abide and where the birth of the Prince of Peace might take place. ~ Edward Hays, A Pilgrim's Almanac

Christmas Crafty

When I decided to start writing this blog . . . eons, okay 3 days go, I didn't envision it being a Christmas blog -- after all, who'd read that when July gets here?  But because the next 18 days will travel by in lighting speed, I thought perhaps I'd include a fun, easy, cheap, quick and cute (if I do say so myself) Christmas craft that I recently stumbled upon.

I love crafts and craft stores but the truth is I'm only so-so at it.  When my genie with the magic 3 wish lantern appears, I'm definitely wishing for craft skills like these http://www.bakerella.com/category/pops-bites/cake-pops/.  Until then, when I find something that I can do with relative competence,  I latch on and don't let go. In fact, I'll probably be creating these same candy bar snowmen for my fellow nursing home residents 40 years from now!  Anyway,  this year I produced 16 of these Snowman Candy Bar party favors for my son's class Christmas Party.

The directions are easy (I know I already said that, but they really are).  I used standard size Hershey chocolate bars and wrapped them in white copy paper (I used 24# paper because it's heavier and seemed to look better).  I used a black ink pad and my pinky (sorry, Martha) to create "charcoal" eyes and mouths.  Now I'm thinking an eraser tip would have worked better and looked more uniform.  I haphazardly cut "carrot" noses from orange construction paper - no two noses are exactly alike anyway, right?  Glued those on.  Then I used 1/8" red satin ribbon for the scarf -- yarn would have been cute here too, but I didn't have any.  Anyway, I think they turned out swell.  You should give it a try.

Christmas Lore

 

One of the things I love most about Christmas (other than the decorations, the gifts, the food and the Birth of Jesus, of course) is learning about other families' holiday lore.  I'm fascinated by how other families celebrate, develop their traditions, etc.  In fact, our own family's 3 gifts from Santa rule "Good enough for Jesus" came from a friend's shared memory.  Today, my sister asked about my children and their thoughts about Santa, which prompted me to reflect on my own family of origin's notions about Christmas.  

Now, don't be mistaken, other than Christmas Eve spent with my dad's parents and relatives and Christmas Day spent with my mom's parents and relatives, there really seemed to be very little tradition in our household growing up.  

One strangely odd piece of lore however had to do with the stealth elves (i.e., Santa's helpers) who resided in our tree topper and came down to assist Santa when he arrived.  I have no earthly idea where that notion originated (too many episodes of I Dream of Jeannie?) or how we could somehow believe that even one Playmobile-sized elf could reside in there for 364 days (what did they eat for heaven's sake?) but, it is what we believed nonetheless.  

Yep, decorations, gifts, food, baby Jesus and a microscopic family of slave elves living in the tree topper, those are some of my favorite things about Christmas.