I used to make some sort of Christmas craft every year.
Granny has always loved to make things and when I was a girl the months leading up to Christmas were full of Granny’s latest crafting endeavors.
She made all sorts of things from macramé Christmas wall hangings to small wooden trains that Pap helped her make.
One year her and her friend Frankie Gillenwater made beautiful snowy scenes for Christmas. They took a piece of styrofoam and layered fluffy white batting on it to look like snow. Then they decorated the top by attaching Christmas trees, animals, presents, carolers, and other Christmas related miniatures. I just adored every piece they made.
Knowing Granny there’s probably one put away somewhere in a back room but I haven’t seen one in ages.
I made the trees at the top of this post about seven or eight years ago. Really simple craft if you have someone handy with a saw. The Deer Hunter cut the triangles out for me and then I painted them various colors and used a contrasting color to put dots (ornaments) on them. The wood was some leftover shelving board we had on hand.
Here’s another craft he helped me with. He sawed a small diameter branch we found in the woods into rounds then drilled a hole in the center of each of them. All I had to do was gather small pine branches to stick in the holes. I like this one a lot because the pine can be discarded leaving only the small rounds to store until the following Christmas when more pine can easily be gathered to use. Another added plus is the wonderful scent of fresh pine.
Last night’s video: A Coal-Camp Christmas.
Tipper
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Those are very lovely and innovative decorations!
I so enjoyed reading about your little trees and other creative ideas by your readers today. I’m somewhat a wanna be artist, but I’m more a “jack of all trades, but master of none.” The famous artist, Pablo Picasso, once said, “Every child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up.” I think there’s just something about the Christmas season that brings out the child in us, and we want to create. I know that’s true for me personally. I get inspired every Christmas as I gingerly unpack the delicate homemade ornaments made for me by friends and family over the years … the beautiful Faberge’ egg ornament made by a friend’s mother (both friend and mother are gone now); a sweet Native American clay angel made by my niece; the cute little crocheted boots and bells made by a co-worker; the felt doves, bells, and gingerbread men, made and beautifully decorated by my mother. I get inspired by the beautiful Christmas cards I get that make me itch to paint. So, in 2025, I intend to “scratch that itch,” so I enrolled in a watercolor class. I don’t envision becoming a Grandma Moses, but I’m looking so forward to the opportunity to let my inside child out in 2025 and just have fun.
Love all the special handmade items. My husband did something similar for me with cutting a small cypress tree into 1/2” rounds. I printed colored pics of our girls and their families, cut into rounds about the same size and used mod podge to glue and a top coat to give a shiny gloss. Drilled a hole at top and strung silver or gold cord through to hang on their trees. That would be something really special to do for Ira and Woody’s first Christmas. Make a new one for each consecutive year!
Continued prayers for Granny
Tipper, I think both pictures of your trees you made would make lovely Christmas cards. They are beautiful! I love homemade things, especially at Christmas. Every year, we hang many homemade ornaments on our tree that our son made from preschool on into elementary school. We always enjoy seeing them. We hang the same ornaments year after year because so many have special meaning to them. We also have an ornament for each person in our family that has passed and that has grown to be quite a few but that’s our way of remembering them.
I loved watching Katie make those paper ornaments and giving them to Granny to hang on her tree. Tell Granny I also love the purse she made for her tree. I enjoy seeing all of her ornaments each year but the purse in my favorite!!
I have a signed piece of your artwork in a Miss Cindy frame. It’s not exactly Christmasy but with only a tiny piece of garland it very well could be. It’s small enough to hang on a Christmas tree but my one and only decorated tree sits outside where all trees should be.
So to ALL who are not special enough to have been given such a gift as mine, NA NANA NA NA!
Love those simple but beautiful crafts, Tipper. I make various crafts through the year but haven’t done anything for Christmas in a while — except a couple of snowflake ornaments made from t.p. rolls, in a senior center class this year. They turned out beautifully.
Got a Christmas card yesterday from 2 old friends in their 90s who live in Black Mountain. I have no way to communicate with them besides mail and hadn’t heard from them since Hurricane Helene hit. So thankful to hear they and their home survived and they are still enjoying life at 93 and 97.
To bring the outside inside is part of Christmas.
For the past 2 or 3 years, I have been more creative, especially around Christmas. And I give you 95% of the credit because you inspired me! Most of what I’ve made this year has involved Christmas cards we’ve received over the years. I’ve cut some of my favorites to make ornaments for the tree, adding glitter or sparkly string, and I have put some in frames. I even made a garland over 20 feet long out of about 100 circles, punched from the cards. Our tree has lots of handmade decorations, some of mine, and others I have thrifted. I know you understand how special it feels to unbox those treasures each year. Like you- I sometimes alternate between 2 ornament collections- 1 year using all the Hallmark-type ones that are mostly precious little animals, then the next year using the handmade ones along with wooden figures, straw angels and stars, and the ones that I still have from my grandparents tree. I’m 63, so there’s no telling how old those are. They are hanging on this year’s tree and they are as lovely as ever.
You all are a family of crafters. (Don’t know as if that is an official word but it is better than ‘crafty’.) About the pine rounds, I took a spell one time making buttons out of mountain laurel and holly rounds and also others out of deer antler. Each worked just fine though I never finished them off really smooth. I made a door wreath and a candle ring wreath this year using wreath forms. The door wreath has seven different types of greenery and the candle wreath has six. Even used mountain laurel and some mistletoe. Learned just enough to realize the thing to do is plan the textures and colors first and also more can be too much. Speaking of greenery, I hope you got the chance to collect yours. Still wish I could have had galax. I am fond of it.
I must say your wooden Christmas trees are really creative and simply adorable! I also think your little “Christmas trees” standing inside wood rounds is fantastic! Oh, I bet the smell of fresh pine is not only pleasant but exciting too around Christmas. You’re creative like granny. It’s a wonderful thing! Yesterday I cleaned and straightened and have 2 bedrooms uncluttered. When Helene the storm hit, I had to move all my stuff out of my master bedroom in case the roof collapsed so it’s been a crammed in mess wherever I can stick stuff. Things are surely and slowly coming together again and that is my prayer for all the wonderful people impacted and traumatized by Helene in NC, TN ,VA and WV-places that got demolished. God bless you all at Christmas especially the children and little babies!!! Love and life are the most important things in the world to me after salvation. Tonight it’s supposed to drop way down in single digits I think… stay warm all! God bless you and keep you safe.
My sister, who lives in Asheville, did have her roof collapse during Helene. A neighbor’s tree uprooted and came down on her roof right above where she was sleeping with her granddaughter Ellie. She looked up just in time to grab the baby before a piece of the ceiling fell right where she was lying. After they escaped to another room the whole roof collapsed in the part of the house.
If that isn’t a perfect example of devine intervention then what is?
My sister, her daughter, and grandaughter had to go to Franklin and stay with another sister until just last week when her insurance found her a place near their home. The last time I talked to her nothing had been done toward restoring her
I love the creativity you obviously inherited from your mom!
I love the simplicity of the pine branches. And you’re blessed with a fresh supply each year. The scent of fresh pine definitely says Christmas.
Carolyn, one of my aunts by marriage lived at Chattanooga. I never saw it, but have heard her say she would use a pine tree for her Christmas tree instead of a cedar or the other traditional trees. She was very talented and I would imagine it being mighty pretty.
I love the pictures of what you made, so simple, but so pretty!
My girls are very crafty and always make things for gifts. I just love the idea of making things instead of buying them.
I prayed for Granny all throughout the night. She was just on my mind so much last night. I will keep praying for all of ya’ll.
I like the little pine branch trees. If things were still like they use to be when my wife was still living, I would make some for her. She enjoyed decorating for Christmas. My son and grandson did put up a 3ft artificial tree last weekend. I no longer have a desire to do anything in the way of decorating. Without her, there is no longer any joy or happiness in doing any of it. I do enjoy the time spent with my boys as I call my son and grandsons and now with my wife’s family small get together, nothing like it once was in the past years. A lady commented yesterday about how much she missed her husband, I know exactly how she feels.
Caye, I wrote a reply to you yesterday and answered your questions, if you didn’t see it, look back to yesterday.
Randy, I can’t imagine being in your shoes. However, a thought struck me— you could make some sort of decorations for your wife (if you know what I mean) and if they did not bring joy to you, perhaps they could bring joy to someone else! If your wife loved you half as much as you love her, I believe she would want you to find happiness in your life until you meet again. Maybe easier said than done! Remember the poem that says in part, “Love’s not put in the heart to stay, love’s not love till you give it away”. Praying the joy of the Lord will be your strength today!!
Carol, I know my wife (Janice) would not want me to feel like I do. She was not only my heart and soul but also of her/our family. I know what she want me to do but like you said it is easier said than done. Thank you for your kind words.