It’s never too late to sit down for an hour or so alone or with the youngsters in the family to make simple decorations to add to the festive ambience of hearth and home.
Sitting down with craft materials at hand, I find, is a great way to slow down and enter into the spirit of the holiday season, which is about hope, joy, sharing, light and, of course, making things by hand.
Each December I set aside time on a Sunday to take a walk in my neighborhood to look for natural materials that might be useful in holiday decoration projects. I look for dried weeds and leaves, an evergreen branch broken off by the wind, lengths of dried grass, interesting rocks, twigs and curls of bark.
After I gathered materials from nature, I assembled other supplies I’d need — small glass balls, silver and gold tinsel garland, votive candles, beads, ribbon, lace, yarn, buttons, shells and anything else that appeals to me. I gathered up the tools I’d need — scissors, glue gun, wire nippers, pruning shears.
Then I reached for a wineglass I found at the dump recently. I brought it home because the minute I saw it I knew it would make a pretty centerpiece. It has a green top and clear glass stem.
I cut a small circle of aluminum foil to line the bottom of the wineglass. The foil will reflect light and keep candle wax from sticking to the glass. I added a white votive candle, making sure that it was centered on the foil. I set the wineglass on a glass saucer and placed gold-colored glass balls around the wineglass base. I tucked in sprigs of evergreen here and there and added a small red velvet bow to the greenery.
And there it was, a nice little concoction to twinkle and glow on Dec. 21, the longest night of the year. It cost nothing to make.
On my nature walk, I found bittersweet vines at the end of the road. I snipped a few and coiled them into circles for wreaths, which I embellished with a raffia bow, seashells and beach glass. A wreath like this can serve in January and February as a reminder that summer days will return just as they always do.
I was careful to bring home bittersweet vines that had no seed pods attached. I don’t want a stray seed taking up residence in my yard where it might strangle the life out of trees and shrubs.
Next, I turned my crafting attention to manila gift tags I purchased at a local office supply store. I used Christmas-themed rubber stamps to imprint star and tree shapes on the tags. I wrapped packages in plain brown paper — grocery bags I cut up — and tied with natural-colored raffia. I tied the tag on the package with more raffia. It was an easy way to make a pretty package for very little money.
The tags are easy enough for children in the family to decorate using markers, crayons or glitter glue.
A gift tag idea in the December issue of Martha Stewart Living magazine also caught my eye. It involves arranging fir sprills in a tree shape and gluing each one in place. I haven’t tried this yet, but it’s on my list. The magazine also contains many other easy-to-do Christmas ideas, especially helpful now that time before The Day is short.
If there are no children in the family to enjoying crafting with, invite a friend over for tea and a session of decoration crafting. It’s the perfect way to slow the pace of the season, to take a breather from nonstop shopping, to put aside the stress and share special time.
For me that’s what the holiday season is all about and what I remember most long after the gifts are opened and the tree is consigned to the shredder.
Every year when I decorate my tree, I hang on it ornaments that my sons and I made together many years ago. Without fail, I smile as I think of the fun we had cutting, gluing, sprinkling glitter and twining yarn into tree decorations. In the long run, those crafting times were all about making memories that infuse the holiday season with wonder and joy.
Snippets
— Pine Tree Quilters Guild is offering a chartered bus trip to the 34th annual Vermont Quilt Festival, Friday-Sunday, June 25-27.
The festival has hundreds of quilts on display and more than 80 vendors.
A visit to Vermont wouldn’t be complete without experiencing the Shelburne Museum. Located in Vermont’s scenic Lake Champlain Valley, Shelburne Museum houses more than 150,000 works exhibited in a setting of 39 exhibition buildings, 25 of which are historic and were relocated to the museum grounds.
More information is available at http://www.mainequilts.org or by calling Tina Mann at 441-2971.
— Lynne Thompson will conduct a Sea Glass as Wearable Art workshop at 1 p.m. Thursday, Dec. 17, at Spectrum Generations Coastal Community Center, 521 Main St., Damariscotta. The cost is $20. The class is limited to 10 participants. To register, call 563-1363.