Grandma Stories» christmas ornaments

Handmade Christmas Decorations – Indoor Christmas Decorations to Make

Grandma — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 19:21:01 +0000

Making handmade Christmas decorations, Christmas tree ornaments, diningroom table and fireplace mantel xmas home decor is just one of the many reasons why I’m anxious to receive my new sewing machine for Christmas this year. Christmas is my all-time favorite holiday, not because of all the festive Christmas gift-giving or receiving gifts that goes with the holiday season, but because of what Christmas means to me personally.

To me, Christmas means spending time with those you love and who love you, remembering that Christmas is all about Jesus and all He did for us, not about Christmas presents. Christmas is a time of sharing and being with family and close friends, helping those in need who are less fortunate than ourselves, like people living in shelters or homeless people living on the street or those who don’t have enough food to eat. You don’t have to be a Church-going attendee to understand the true meaning of Christmas.

Decorating for Christmas, indoor and outdoor, can get very expensive. I’m not really interested in decorating every room in the house for Christmas, but I’ve gotten quite a few great ideas on ways to decorate for Christmas from online pictures and sewing patterns of things I can make myself, at a much cheaper price than simply buying decorations at retail or online stores. As a self-proclaimed sewing beginner, finding simple, quick and easy craft projects that I can make with my sewing machine or by hand, gives me so many Christmas decorating ideas that I don’t know where to begin.

I’ve made my own Christmas wreaths before and the wreaths turned out quite nicely, so much so that I’ve been asked a few times to make Christmas wreaths for others, and I was happy to oblige. A few years ago I was asked to make several wreaths of varying kinds and styles that would be sold at a church craft sale and the proceeds donated to charity, and I fully intend on making and selling other Christmas decorations and crafts where the profit proceeds are once again donated to charities.

I enjoy handmade and commercial Christmas decorations and ornaments of all kinds just like everyone else does. Angels, gingerbread houses, snowmen, reindeer, Santa’s and elves, they’re all beautiful and unique in different ways. Indoor and outdoor animated Christmas decorations make us laugh and smile, but I have no lofty plans of making animated decorations or wooden outdoor Christmas yard art whatsoever. I’ll leave the animated stuff and lawn décor to the skilled and experienced professionals.

To make Christmas decorations that are homemade, made by hand or with my sewing machine, will be a long-term project of making a variety of crafts to display throughout the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season at home, to give as inexpensive gifts or to adorn Christmas presents with homemade Christmas tree ornaments rather than using typical cheap ribbons and bows sold in stores.

I become a kid-at-heart during the Christmas holiday season, especially during our annual visit to a relatively expensive Christmas decoration store where I get some great ideas for decorating at Christmastime without actually buying much of anything at the very high-priced store. Virtually everything sold at the local Christmas décor store is handmade, including artificial Christmas trees, ornaments, stockings, tree skirts, countdown calendars, garland, home decorations, tablecloths, wreaths etc, but buying unique handmade Christmas decorations there comes at a very high cost that will drain your wallet dry rather quickly.

With my adoration for reindeer and snowman Christmas decorations being at the top of my list of craft projects to start making, besides the usual Santa’s and elves and sleighs of course, decorating the front door, fireplace mantel, kitchen, bathroom, living room and dining room areas for the Christmas season is going to be a lot of fun. It will also give me plenty of time and opportunity to greatly improve my sewing and crafting skills in order to feel competent and good enough to sell (or give as gifts) the homemade Christmas decorations I decide to make.

I’ll of course be watching closely for after-Christmas sales, discounts and clearances on exterior Christmas decorations to save for next year’s lawn displays. Finding unique and inexpensive blow up outdoor decorations shouldn’t be too hard, except at retail stores that have already been picked over and the only yard art left is stuff no one else wants either. I have no intention of turning the inside or outside of our house into a Santa’s village or “winter wonderland” at all, but it will be a lot of fun to at least have a few rooms decorated nicely for Christmas parties and family gatherings and not look so primitive and bare.

Similar Posts:

Real Live Christmas Trees VS Environmentally Friendly Eco Christmas Trees

Grandma — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 03:14:51 +0000

The real live Christmas trees vs. environmentally, eco-friendly artificial Christmas trees debate rages on. Is it better to buy a real live Christmas tree, with the fresh clean smell of pine, or should you buy a fake artificial Christmas tree? If you celebrate Christmas, you would likely agree that it’s just not Christmas without a tree, decorated with beautiful Christmas ornaments and decorations for all to enjoy. Which is more eco-friendly, the real Christmas tree or the artificial (fake) Christmas tree, and does it really matter?

I don’t know why the cost of live Christmas trees has gone up so much in recent years, but there was a time when buying a Christmas tree from a “choose and cut” tree farm was the cheap way to buy a Christmas tree. From what I’ve heard, tree farms are feeling pressured to raise the cost of their trees because of how expensive it is to run the tree farm all year long, plus the rising cost of gasoline to transport the trees from location to another.

Real Live Christmas Trees

Until a few years ago, we would buy a live tree from a local Christmas tree “farm” so to speak that took up shop on the corner lot near a busy intersection. The trees were always in great condition and came in all sizes and shapes, and we typically ended up buying a live tree for Christmas that would almost touch our high cathedral ceilings.

That meant we had to find a very tall tree in the best condition humanly possible, and then bring it home and deal with the mess of the pine needles falling off, constantly checking to make sure there was enough water to keep it alive until after Christmas. What a mess live Christmas trees make!

After Christmas, we would throw it out front of the house on the curb where everyone else on the block put their tree, for the garbage man to come along and pick it up and take the trees somewhere to recycle the old dead tree and turn it into mulch, or whatever is typically done with dead Christmas trees.

We began to wonder if we were really doing the environment any favors with our tradition of always buying a live tree that had been cut down, overloaded with Christmas ornaments, lights and trimmings that took days to wrap around the tree, for the tree to finally end up being put through a mulch making machine or whatever you call the machine that turns things into mulch.

Sure, the live tree we used for Christmas was made into mulch, which is eco-friendly in and of itself and helps the environment, but we weren’t helping our pocket book by annually spending more money to buy a new live Christmas tree and then turn it into mulch once the holidays were over. We felt like we were throwing our hard-earned money out the window never to be seen again, or perhaps I should say we felt like we were putting our money through a mulch machine each and every year at Christmastime.

We began to wonder if we shouldn’t consider the amount of money we would save if we simply bought a real-looking artificial Christmas tree that came pre-lit with flickering lights of every color you can imagine. Some say that live Christmas trees are more eco-friendly and better for the environment, including a long list of reasons to back up the claims, while others say that artificial Christmas trees (let’s just say Fake Christmas Trees) are more environmentally friendly.

Who is right? Should you buy a real Christmas tree or an artificial Christmas tree?

Artificial Christmas Trees

Considering how much it costs to buy a live Christmas tree these days, we began doing some research and started looking for an inexpensive Christmas tree that looks real. I’m embarrassed to admit that I didn’t know there were so many kinds of Christmas trees such as Douglas Fir or White Pine, because what is most important to me is that we find the perfect Christmas tree for us, get it home as fast as possible and start our annual tradition of decorating the Christmas tree as a family.

We were happily surprised to find a huge variety of artificial trees, some pre-lit and some with no lights or pine cones attached, and the colors of fake trees came as a big surprise! I had no idea there was such a thing as a black artificial Christmas tree! We saw artificial trees that come in pink, blue, brown, white, purple, silver, just about any color, size and shape you can imagine! Have you ever gone shopping for artificial Christmas trees and suddenly come upon a red colored tree? What about a blue artificial Christmas tree?

After spending a ridiculous amount of time browsing in stores like Home Depot, Lowe’s and Walmart trying to find a cheap Christmas tree (that didn’t really look cheap if you know what I mean), we decided to visit a local Christmas-themed store called Decorator’s Warehouse friends had told us about, and oh my gosh…what a beautiful collection of real looking artificial Christmas trees we found there.

I’m sure some people like the fake Christmas trees found at Home Depot, Walmart or Lowe’s, but we weren’t impressed with the quality at all. Inexpensive is one thing when it comes to buying an artificial tree, but after seeing what we found at those stores, we realized that having a fake tree that would last a few years meant we had to be willing to spend a little more money to get a quality tree.

The collection of artificial trees we found at Decorator’s Warehouse is nothing like anything I’ve ever seen before. The trees came unlit, pre-lit, clear lights, multi-colored lights (my favorite), a combination of clear and multi-colored lights, flickering lights (or dancing lights), and some trees even had pine cones already on the trees!

The artificial Christmas tree we ultimately chose is a 12-foot high pre-lit tree with pine cones attached to the branches. I couldn’t possibly tell you how wide the tree is around, but the boxed-up tree took up every inch in the back of the pickup truck we used to deliver it to our front door, and it took four men to carry the tree into the house.

I don’t know if a real Christmas tree is more eco-friendly than an artificial Christmas tree and better for the environment, because the Christmas ornaments, lights and decorations are the most important thing to me. All I know is… the prices, colors, sizes and varieties of artificial trees appeals to us more than what can found in real trees that eventually end up in someone’s flower bed.

Similar Posts:

Christmas Gifts For Grandparents-Homemade Christmas Gifts For Grandparents

Grandma — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 02:59:00 +0000

Being a grandparent is one of the greatest joys in life, and when Christmastime rolls around, finding special Christmas gifts for grandparents can sometimes be challenging. Most grandmas and grandpas fall into the category of being grandparents who have everything they need or want already, and most grandparents will tell you not to buy them a Christmas gift that requires a lot of attention, dusting, or money.

For a grandparent who has everything, there are still many options in choosing creative and unique presents for grandparents that don’t cost a lot of money. Grandparents understand the financial strain that the economy is having on families struggling to provide for themselves and their children, and grandma and grandpa gifts don’t need to be expensive.

Christmas presents for grandparents that are homemade are some of the best gifts anyone would be thrilled to receive, especially when the gift carries some special meaning and sentiment between the grandparent and gift-giver. Grandchildren can make homemade Christmas ornaments that have been hand-decorated with their name, age and date as a creative and cheap gift for Granny and Pop Pop.

Gift baskets for grandparents that contain sweet treats, cookies, candies, chocolates, gourmet coffee and tea, bath products and other cheap additions are an excellent gift idea for grandparents that won’t break the bank.

Homemade Christmas gifts from your kitchen can be given as gifts in a jar such as muffins, breads, hot cocoa, dry soup mixes, brownie mixes and other tasty treats that are layered in mason jars and decorated with Christmas ribbon and recipe instruction note cards.

Many grandparents have gone digital and are quite computer savvy. If Granny or Grandpapa enjoy sending cards to family and friends, consider buying the Hallmark Card Studio software where printable cards can be created and printed right from the computer! That’s a time-saving, cost effective way of giving cards throughout the year.

Out of all the gift ideas that grandparents could suggest, there aren’t many that would suggest giving Grandma or Grandpa a new puppy or kitten. Some grandparents might be thrilled to be surprised with the gift of a new pet, but other grandparents may not wish to be responsible for feeding and taking care of a pet at this stage in their lives. If in doubt, always ask a grandparent about their interest in having a new dog or cat to love and take care of before buying or adopting a pet for a grandparent.

The best Christmas gift grandparents of all ages would enjoy is the gift of time spent with children and grandchildren. Pull out some of the old classic board games, card games or dominoes the family used to play together, take some family photos of everyone having a good time together and create some lasting memories with the pictures being placed in a digital photo frame for grandma and grandpa to enjoy.

There are many Christmas crafts for grandparents who are crafty and like to make things with their hands, so consider your grandparents interests and hobbies when deciding on a Christmas gift. Does Grandma like to sew, knit or crochet? Is Granny active or more sedentary? Does Grandpa enjoy fishing, hunting or sports like golf? Make your grandparents a homemade shadow box of their favorite things to do, or a shadow box of their accomplishments, awards and achievements from days gone by as a treasured Christmas gift.

Similar Posts: