What Crafts Do You Do For The Holidays?

[Cecilie1200]

So here it is, the beginning of October and the opening of the holiday craft season. I went to Hancock's Fabrics and Jo-Ann's Crafts this weekend for their big Hallowe'en sales, and they were crazed. Women with baskets full of fabric bolts for everything from Hallowe'en to New Year's. I can't even imagine planning quite THAT far in advance.

This year, I'm making costumes for my 9-month-old son and my 20-month-old grandson, as well as myself. Thankfully, my 14-year-old has decided he wants to buy a costume, so I don't have that on my list. Quinn, the 9-month-old, is going to be a dragon, and Angel, my grandson, is going to be a mouse. I'll worry about Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year's crafts after the costume rush is over.

What sorts of crafts do the rest of you do for the holidays?

 

[Si modo]

For Halloween, I used to carve a pumpkin into a Jack-o-lantern, but I haven't done one for a few years now.

 

[Cecilie1200]

For Halloween, I used to carve a pumpkin into a Jack-o-lantern, but I haven't done one for a few years now.

I want to do a really fancy one. I've wanted to for several years, but I just never seem to have time to mess with it on top of everything else I need to do. My husband expressed an interest in spiced pumpkin seeds, though, so he might insist this time.

 

[Luissa]

carving pumpkins is about all I do.
Know any simple crafts for someone who has anxiety attacks if she sews. I know how to sew, I just mentally cannot handle it.

 

[Cecilie1200]

carving pumpkins is about all I do.
Know any simple crafts for someone who has anxiety attacks if she sews. I know how to sew, I just mentally cannot handle it.

Check your local craft store. There are tons of no-sew fabric projects on the market these days, because fewer and fewer women know how to sew now. The domestic arts in general seem to be dying out.

 

[Luissa]

my mom taught me I think when I was about eight and I used to like it when I was younger but then during home ec I just had bad experience.
I am not a very patient person.
But thanks for the idea, I will have to check it out.

 

[strollingbones]

i agree the domestic arts are dying...i do a small fall display at mailbox...nothing fancy....hay bales and pumpkins, squash etc...i will let the kidlet next door carve one of the pumpkins for halloween...

i do some stainglass for winter solstice...i try to bring in a live tree but that has been the subject of much debate in the past few years with 3 cats and 2 dogs...so i normally do a wreath...which i will buy the basic wreath then decorate....

we also do a tree in the pasture....about half way up the hill...in lights....as many lights as we can get on it..that stays up till for a week.

and i make liquior concoctions....for presents...

 

[Luissa]

you need to send me a present bones!

 

[Cecilie1200]

my mom taught me I think when I was about eight and I used to like it when I was younger but then during home ec I just had bad experience.
I am not a very patient person.
But thanks for the idea, I will have to check it out.

And there are always things like cooking this time of year. I've learned lots of shortcuts for doing a nice Thanksgiving dinner without making myself insane, and I always make fudge and rum cake and chocolate rum balls for Christmas presents.

 

[Cecilie1200]

I will see what I can do about posting a picture of the three of us in our Hallowe'en costumes. Nicky's face won't show, anyway, because his costume has a mask. I'll turn Quinn so that his face doesn't show, since the important details of the dragon costume are the tail and spine fins, anyway. I don't mind if you guys see what I look like.

 

[goldcatt]

I always do a lot of cooking and baking, sewing for halloween and lots of different projects for Christmas - mostly presents, and of course our wreaths. Although I'm not sure I'll have the kids' costumes done in time to do much on the Halloween treats this year. Maybe I need to spend less time online, more time getting busy!

 

[Cecilie1200]

Oh, I'm doing another project for Christmas this year that you all might be interested in. Like many women, I periodically call my mother to ask her how she made that spiffy chicken with orange sauce that I liked as a kid, or what she puts in the cornbread stuffing every Thanksgiving, stuff like that. Now that my daughter is an adult with her own family, she calls me to find out how to make my chicken enchiladas or shrimp jambalaya. Many of my favorite recipes, aside from the ones I got from my mom and grandma, are derived from a variety of different cookbooks or notes where friends have scribbled them down at dinner parties for me: in other words, kind of scattered.

With my mother's health failing and one of my kids grown and on her own, I've been feeling a desire to compile all these beloved recipes into one book before they're lost, so I've been transcribing them into a computer document, which I will then format with nice font and pictures, adding personal notes and anecdotes like which ones are good for potlucks, what happened when I took this one to a friend's, useful substitutions, that sort of thing. Then I will print it out on nice paper, have the pages laminated (to make them splatter-resistant), and have Kinko's bind them into a nice book, one for me to use and one as a Christmas present for my daughter. When each of my boys gets old enough to get married/move out on his own, I can have another one made and present it to him as a wedding present/housewarming gift. And, of course, my best friend, Blair, is actively looking to get married, so it would make a nifty wedding gift for him and his new wife, especially since I know he likes most of the dishes included.

 

[JD_2B]

I love carving pumpkins.. We bought three this year- a big one and two small ones, so that we can have one to share, and one each to carve any way we want.

I used to have a fireplace, also- but right now, we don't have one, so as a part of the Christmas decorations, I like to make a fireplace out of a small enclosed bookcase we keep in the living room. Not a real one, lol- but one with construction paper, of course, and a paper cutout "fire" in the center. Then we just decorate our "mantle" with stocking hooks and stockings, and Snowmen and whatever..

We also like to use paper machet for creating big scary witches or snowmen. We live in the tropics, so we have to work harder to make a snowman, lol- but it is worth it- except that it has to be pulled out of the rain sometimes..

And of course, making fun stuff to eat is always a time honored tradition, lol.. Gingerbread houses, and sugar cookies decorated with frosting.. and occassonally we help our friends with making buckeyes. (sweet peanut butter balls covered in chocolate).. And I like to do fancy stuff with hams and turkeys, and make the most out of the dinner presentation. We might iron some big leaves in between wax paper, and use them as place mats, too.

Oh and I would really be interested in learning how to do ice sculptures. Those are SO awesome. =)

 

[SFC Ollie]

My wife is a Ceramics instructor, for Halloween we decorate so that kids remember our house. this year was the floating ceramic Bone yard of skulls.

 

[manu1959]

i collect wine corks and put them in a box....one day i will make something.....

 

[Zoom-boing]

I eat homemade Christmas cookies.

 

[Dis]

Crafts? Does baking a lot count? Putting up 4 Christmas trees? Decorating?

That's about as crafty as I get. I can't walk into a craft store without having an allergic reaction.

 

[strollingbones]

wreaths are up for tomorrow...all natural wreaths....hopefully lol

 

[Cecilie1200]

wreaths are up for tomorrow...all natural wreaths....hopefully lol

I finished the Hallowe'en costumes, which I will post pictures of as soon as I get them from my daughter, and then sewed for two solid weeks on medieval garb for an SCA event. Can't believe the sheer amount of stuff I'm churning out these days.

Now I'm sewing garb and other items for the biggest SCA event on my calendar, which will be in February, and I'm working on my embroidery and crochet. And, of course, there's the cooking and baking. Can't forget that. Got a new recipe for punkin cheesecake I'm dying to try.

 

[strollingbones]

my cuz had an sca wedding.....you people are strange lol