Reviving crafts from the past to celebrate Christmas.

When my children were young they all brought home from Kindy and school the handmade Christmas decorations which would hang on the tree with pride for many years.  Sad and sorry Santas, crooked stars, papery constructions overloaded with glue and glitter all sitting side by side in spectacular ugliness.

Now my children would argue that over the years these glorious works of art would move further and further round the back of the tree until they mysteriously disappeared.  What they didn't know was that over the years cockroaches quite enjoyed the doughy stars and cotton wooly snowmen and each year as they were unpacked the ravages of insect feasting and breeding which should have condemned them all immediately to the bin meant that fewer and fewer  could retain their pride of place on the tree.

It was during those years as a stay at home mum that I started making my own christmas decorations.  We were living on a fairly tight budget and couldn't afford much but with a few simple materials I did most of my own decorating (couldn't quite manage tinsel though).  Not only was it cheaper but it was so much fun and that sense of creating our own Christmas together as a family is one of the values we really wanted to entrust to our children.

It wasn't long before I had other young mums asking me how to make Christmas decorations and so I actually ended up teaching craft to a bunch of playgroup mums all eager and enthusiastic.  It was a wonderful time sitting with a group of women balancing babies and toddlers with glue guns, fabric scraps and bead pins.  Amidst the chaos, confusion and laughter there was also a huge dose of personal pride and achievement as each girl took home their 1st creation (even the disasters) to take pride and place on their own tree.

Recently there has been a big resurgence in handcrafts amongst the younger generation.  This year young girls have asked me to teach them how to crochet (I'm only a beginner level granny square maker myself) and they are eager to learn all other forms of craft and handiwork.  It is heartening to see this revival and returning to handicraft and to what was once thought the cheaper and tackier alternative to buying the real "mass produced" thing in a highly consumerised society.

In response to this resurgence I myself have returned to a "craft from the past" and revived the handmade Christmas ornament once more.  Why not make something yourself this Christmas or better yet get the whole family in on it I know for my children it's the one they made they will remember not the really expensive and fragile one you bought in a shop (unless that really expensive and fragile one is also an xbox).   Here is a couple of cool places for how to's on Christmas ornaments.  I could try and do one of my own and maybe one day I can get organised or clean my work area enough to get that happening :)

howstuffworks.com
Mahalo.com
betterbudgeting.com