week one – 10/5/15
If you’ve decided to join me for my handmade Christmas challenge, welcome! I’m so glad you are here. If you’ve stumbled upon this post by accident, grab your coffee and visit awhile. It’s not too late to learn how to make this Christmas a very dear one.
Today is the first week of October, and it’s time to start planning for Christmas. Don’t worry, there are no complicated tasks for this week (those come later). Just a chance to think about what you want your holiday to include. An intimate gathering of family only, with lots of peace and quiet? A hoopla of excitement, catered to all the wee ones with hopes of a Santa spotting? An opportunity to show off your stunning decorations with a festive party? There’s room for all of us here, but at the core of our Christmas planning let’s not forget the most important thing. Whether we opt for a psychedelic, multi-colored tree that would have made Jimmy Hendrix proud or choose a subtle nature-inspired ambiance that will bring a tear to Martha’s eyes, we need to use our creativity to honor Jesus. Doing this will make your Christmas special. And I, for one, believe God wants us to have JOY. Lots of it. And what better way to usher a little joy into our holiday than to let our creativity flow.
This week’s tasks are simple.
Think about the elements that will make your Christmas special. Does hosting a fabulous party make you happy? Perhaps following an organized checklist to keep the frenzy and chaos at bay is all you desire. I personally love to throw a Christmas party. My husband and I have never lived near family, so planning and hosting a party for neighbors and friends has always made Christmas seem less lonely.
Decide on a theme. Just humor me, folks. A theme is fun. It will get your juices flowing. It’s like party games. Everyone thinks they’re silly until they start participating. Then they turn into crazed, competitive maniacs and guess what? They have fun. So spend a few minutes on Pinterest this week and come up with your Christmas theme. It can be a color, a charity, a medium such as paper or burlap, or even an item. One year my theme was pineapples. I made a beautiful Williamsburg centerpiece topped with a pineapple. Then I sprayed pineapples with artifical snow and placed them on the bottom of my staircases. You get the idea.
One year my cousin’s Christmas theme was nostalgia. She even tried to re-create our grandparents’ Christmas tree from our childhood. She insisted her husband chop down a spindly Cedar tree from the woods (just like our grandfather did.) Then she strung large vintage multicolored bulbs on it. She searched high and low for poufs of angel hair and boxes of icicles, then topped it off with an angel. I think she succeeded, because she said every time she came around the corner into the living room, she was startled more than once by the hovering atrocity that looked more like an abominable snow monster than a tree!
Here’s some inspiration to get your creative juices flowing.
Be sure to download this free SELECT A THEME WORKSHEET to make choosing your theme a bit easier.
NOW… I’ll even reveal my own personal theme for this Christmas. Drumroll please… mercury glass.
Here’s my inspiration board. Of course, it always includes a disclaimer, as it is an artist’s prerogative to change direction as she creates.
Mercury glass.
Just you wait & see.
