Christmas is the most popular holiday for decorating your home. It's also the time to find and make Christmas crafts! While it is very easy to purchase ready made decorations and Christmas crafts, it is far more festive and fun to make your own special Christmas crafts!
Christmas crafts can be made from a variety of materials. If you like working with wood, you can cut out typical holiday designs, like snowmen, Christmas trees, or Santa figures and then spend some time painting to bring life to your Christmas crafts. There are many websites that offer free patterns to make these items, or you can print an image from your computer and use it to create your own pattern. If it's your first time working with wood as a Christmas craft, start out simply- cut out a rectangle and make a sign for your holiday guests! You could paint little trees or stars, and print out “May all your Christmas wishes come true!” or a similar saying.
Halloween decorations made by The Beistle Company are some of the most popular collectibles among fans of vintage holiday decorations. Specializing in paper party supplies such as die-cuts, centerpieces and paper plates and cups, The Beistle Company has been manufacturing Halloween novelty décor and supplies since the beginning of the 20th century. Founded in Pennsylvania by Martin Beistle, The Beistle Company is still in business today and is one of the largest manufacturers of Halloween goods in the US. But for collectors, it isn’t Beistle’s new products that cause the most interest. It’s their highly sought after vintage Halloween decorations that have become highly collectible.
One would think that Christmas lights have been around for as long as Christmas itself. Can any of you imagine Christmas without lights? How would the children find their way in the dark, so early on Christmas morning without them? The history of Christmas lights is intricately tied to the dawn of the modern era, when houses began to be supplied with electricity.
As you are likely aware, Thomas Edison invented the first functioning light bulb back in 1879. A few years later, in 1882, an associate of his first employed the use of lights on his Christmas tree. Edward Johnson was the first to electrically light his family Christmas tree in his New York home. His home was located in one of the first sections of the city to be wired for electricity.
Kids, young and the young at heart, love the holidays and there are an almost limitless number of crafts that can be made to keep the kids busy, especially when the weather gets bad and they are home from school. Many projects can be done with common items found around the house.
Paper snowflakes are always a favorite and all you need is white paper, scissors and possibly glue and glitter. Fold the paper in half, half again and again, until you have a triangle. Cut small shapes, unfold carefully, you have beautiful one of a kind snowflakes. If you have glue and glitter, the kids may want to make them a bit fancier. They also make wonderful decorations to hang from the ceiling and windows for the holidays.
Halloween inspires all kinds of activities to do with your toddler, especially pumpkin fun! Visiting the pumpkin patch together, shopping for (or making) Halloween costumes, and decorating the house. But one of the best Halloween activities is doing art projects together.
Here are two very simple pumpkin crafts that every toddler will enjoy. Prepare for the activity in advance, so your little ball of energy can dive right in.
Simple Paper Jack-o-Lantern
There's nothing at all fancy about this idea. Simply cut a few pumpkins out of orange construction paper. Then, cut several triangles and a few big goofy grins out of either black or yellow paper. Lastly, cut a stem shape and leaves out of green or brown paper.
Present the pieces to your toddler along with a glue stick and watch his creativity. Consider framing this work of art with some photos of your child at the pumpkin patch.
Store your Halloween decorations so they will be easily accessible and in one piece year after year. Here's the scoop on how to do just that.
Designate a special color marker, such as the Halloween color orange, to use when labeling the outside of your Halloween decoration storage boxes and containers. This color-coding technique will make them easier to locate.
When you buy plastic storage containers for storing Halloween decorations, ornaments or costumes, make sure that either the lids or the entire container is a Halloween color (usually orange, purple, black or grey). That's another easy way to find your Halloween items at a glance in your garage, closet or attic. Obviously, you'll mostly find these colors at walk-in retailers sometime between September and November. But if you look around, you can problem find them at some online retailers year-round.
Is your Christmas list starting to look like a telephone book? It's time to consider making your own gifts. Here are several easy ideas for wonderful homemade Christmas gifts.
* Winter Warm-Up Baskets with Homemade Marshmallows and Hot Chocolate
You can purchase hand-crafted marshmallows in a gourmet store like Williams Sonoma, for $15-$18 or simply make your own.
Place 4-6 marshmallows into a clear plastic bag and tie with a decorative ribbon. Put the marshmallows in decorative fortune cookie boxes (found at your local craft store) or put them in a decorative basket with gourmet hot chocolate and holiday mugs.
