Our Handmade Christmas House

This is our second Christmas in our first house, but since we moved in 4 days before Christmas last year, we didn’t really decorate, aside from hastily putting up a Christmas tree on the 22nd.

Coming from a one-bedroom apartment, we had only a few Christmas decorations. I spent ages looking around second-hand shops, thinking there must be a million cast off Santa Claus figurines, but unfortunately, anything good was long gone. I find it hard to justify buying things brand new, especially when shops are just rammed full of Christmas decorations - it seems like people must be constantly replacing old decorations, and what happens to all the old ones? It seems like there should be plenty of cast-offs at thrift stores, but somehow, I’ve had very little luck finding any. I’ve resigned myself to slowly acquiring holiday tchotchkes over the years, and looking year-round, instead of buying up a full house’s worth of brand new decor in one season.

So, while our decorations are few, they are mighty! Most of them are handmade, either because they were something special we could make with our tiny human (ornaments, stocking holders), or because I just preferred the things I could make myself (embroidered stockings). A few were just to keep my hands busy and pass the time (garlands, snowflakes). So, without further ado, I present to you: our handmade Christmas house.

PAPER GARLANDS & SNOWFLAKES

The French doors in our living room were a perfect blank canvas for a little festive tableau. I cut out some paper snowflakes, just like we used to do as children, and taped them to every other pane. The bottom-most ones, I taped on the opposite side of the door, so that little hands wouldn’t grab them and rip them down (a couple had to be replaced before I figured this out).

If you’ve forgotten how to make paper snowflakes, here’s a handy diagram.

I wanted some classic paper garland, but what I found in stores was completely coated in glitter. Aside from the fact that most glitter is terrible for the environment, it’s also messy and gets everywhere. I opted to make a garland myself, using sheets of poster board that I cut into strips about 1 inch by 5 inches long, taped into loops. I could have opted for staples - that would probably have been more satisfying, and quicker - but didn’t want little fingers to find them.

EMBROIDERED STOCKINGS

Of all our decorations, I think I’m most proud of these. I know we aren’t supposed to hang the stockings until Christmas Eve, but they’re just too pretty to not be on display!

In our families, Mike and I both grew up with our own embroidered felt stockings, but the felt takes a beating over the years. Mine got all stretched out of shape, and the little felt Santa Claus appliqué is in pieces, so the entire thing has retired to my memory trunk in the attic. I made our new stockings with sturdy printed cotton and flannelette.

I made Adeila’s stocking last year on a whim when we had to rescue Mike’s parents from Fabricland where their car had broken down. While we were waiting for CAA to arrive, I walked around the store with Adeila and got the idea to make her a stocking. I made my own pattern by tracing an old stocking, and just played with the elements until I got what I wanted.

Overall, these were very enjoyable to make. I embroidered the names while watching my brother’s live stream on Twitch. I wrote the name on scrap paper exactly as I wanted it to appear on the stocking, then cut out the paper, pinned it in place, and embroidered right through the paper, carefully removing it when I was done. Voila!

OUR “FIRST CHRISTMAS TREE” ORNAMENT

Growing up, my parents would pile me and my brother into the car and drive out to a tree farm in the woods. In the fall, we’d wander through the lot, half field, half forest, picking out a tree and tying a ribbon on a branch to stake our claim. Then we’d come back in December, wading through snow a foot deep, trying to locate that same tree. My dad would cut it down with a hack saw and drag it back to the farm house. There would be hot apple cider and candy canes, and we’d watch the tree be wrapped in netting in a great big machine, and tied to the roof of our car for the trip home.

Mike and I had our first Christmas together in 2010, and we both were adamant that we needed a live tree. Unfortunately, there are no tree farms in this part of the country, so we found our little tree at a Canadian Tire instead. In the interest of keeping it alive longer, Mike’s step father sawed off the bottom inch of the trunk, making a clean cut for the tree to drink from. It was such a perfect little slice, I decided to keep it, thinking it could one day be a nice ornament.

Even with the best intentions, our poor Christmas tree dried out so much that the entire thing became a cactus. I had to remove the decorations while wearing oven mitts. When Mike dragged the thing out of the building (I had wanted him to just throw it out the window, but we lived on the third floor), it dropped every single needle into the carpeted hallways, making it very plain just who was to blame. It turns out, we weren’t even allowed to have real Christmas trees, since they’re a fire hazard. It was our first and last real tree.

That wooden slice of the tree floated around our box of Christmas tree ornaments until this year, when I caught Adeila sitting at the table, trying to eat it like a cookie. Now that we own a drill, I decided it was time to make this thing into an ornament, at long last. When I see it on our tree, it reminds me of that first Christmas together, and that prickly little Christmas tree.

BABY HANDPRINT ORNAMENT

This was last year’s project, and last year’s gift for everyone in our families. When we decorated the tree, I was so excited to see this ornament again, and the first thing I did was grab her little hand and compare it to last year’s - something I’m sure we’ll be doing each year for a long time.

I loved making these. Adeila was six months old, and I’d strap her into one of those wearable baby carriers, facing outward. She’d watch me roll out the clay, and then I’d gently press her hand into it, transfer it to a baking sheet, and cure it in the oven. I used Sculpey, which was very forgiving - sometimes, it took a couple tries before we got the handprint to look right. There are lots of baby handprint kits on the market, but if they don’t involve baking, that means you have a limited time to get the print right, and sometimes, that means you only get one shot. Yikes!

We made something like 8 or 9 of them, and it took us weeks to finish them all. We’d do one every evening, and then I set to work painting them all white, and carefully wrote her name on the back - first in pencil, then in Sharpie, erasing any stray pencil marks - and then coated them in Mod Podge. I added a little bow (I had to sew it to make it look so perfect) and a tiny decorative bell to the ribbon of each one.

It’s something that can be a Christmas decoration, or not. My mother has hers hanging in her home year-round.

BIRD HOUSE STOCKING HOLDERS

Okay, no, wait. THESE are my favourite things on this list.

These are our stocking holders. Growing up, we always had a few, but these are surprisingly harder to find these days, especially on a budget. In the end, I decided we could make them ourselves.

I picked up these bird houses at the Dollarama, along with a bottle of acrylic paint. I gave them each a few coats of white, and then set Adeila loose on them, using washable Crayola paint. I put her in her high chair, showed her how to hold the brush, and gave her a little dollop of paint in a bowl. My job was to hold the bird house and point out the white spaces where a brush stroke might go, and turn it to a fresh side when we had added enough paint in one spot.

This little activity kept her busy for a couple weeks. We’d paint with one or two colours at a time, once a day. When she was finished for the day, if she still felt like painting, I’d let her paint the tray of the high chair (it washes off with water instantly). I’d sometimes give her extra colours for this step, and watch her swirl them around. The next time I gave her crayons, she repeated these swirling gestures, when previously, she had only been making jagged lines.

Keeping her branding consistent year to year.

To make the bird houses heavy enough to support the weight of a stocking, I made a mixture of sand and glue, and poured it into each one. I rolled it around to make a thin coat all over the inside, so that it would dry more quickly. I meant to add more coats, but one coat was enough to give them the weight they needed.

I love that we’re starting this tradition of annual mama-and-baby collaborative decorations. I wonder what we’ll make next year..?

Well, it’s 8PM as I’m writing this, and I’m about to curl up into my bed. I’m coming down with something, and Mike and Adeila both have the flu, so it’s probably that. This afternoon was so miserable - after her nap, all Adeila could do was weakly cry “mama, mama" until bedtime - four hours straight. Today was day 2 for her, and she was doing well this morning, so I’m hoping tomorrow will be at least a little better for her (although it’ll probably be worse for me).

Today I actually thought about having Christmas early, since we’re so goddamn miserable, maybe that would be something to cheer us all up. But maybe, if we wait, some of us will be feeling better by Christmas morning, enough to really enjoy it.

Hope you and yours have a happy (and healthy) holiday season! See you in 2020!