Show Me Christmas

For many families, decorating for Christmas is one of the best bonding experiences to come around all year. Dressing the evergreen tree with elaborate ornaments – both store bought and homemade – is an activity that brings back happy memories from another place and time.

Hands blown Christmas ornaments are a great way to decorate your mantle for the holidays. With a well decorated mantel, the homeowner expresses their own individual tastes and personal ambitions to the world. There’s no reason not to have a well-decorated mantel, and homeowners shouldn’t be afraid to purchase all kinds of ornaments and express themselves through their home!

Whether you call them knickknacks, cha-chas or simply collectibles, you are sure to be familiar with miniature figurines. Everyone knows someone who loves to collect various miniatures, and for me that person is my grandma. She has an extensive collection, mainly featuring selections that she has gathered close to her home in southern California.

Last Christmas I decided to help expand her stockpile, and I wanted to give her an item that was unique to her collection. Since most of her figures had a California theme, I opted for a couple of handblown glass Christmas ornaments. She loved the thoughtful gift and now displays them next to her dancing suns and Disney figures.

Adding a variety of differently crafted decorations to your home is a guaranteed way to revive any ordinary living space. The days of tailoring everything in a room to look identical expired years ago. Your home should reflect who you are as a person. You don’t want your home to read: an obsessive compulsive plain Jane liver here – or do you?

It’s very easy to spruce up your home by adding touches of handcrafted wood décor. Carvings of animals, puzzles, collectible ornaments and wall plaques are highlights of the many options to choose from when revamping your home. They’re great as wall decorations, centerpieces and mantel objects. Your friends and family will be jealous of these detailed and flawlessly crafted decorations. You’re sure to be the talk of the town.

With a little bit of work you can give new glass ornaments an antique look. All you need are glass ornaments, a tube of white gouache paint, a tube of black gouache paint, two small bowls, two sponges, and tissues. Arrange all of your materials and begin creating your hand painted Christmas ornaments as follows:

1. Put one teaspoon of white paint and one teaspoon of black paint into separate bowls. Dilute each bowl with water until the paint has the same consistency of heavy cream.
2. Using a sponge dipped in white gouache paint, coat the entire surface of each ornament. While the surface is wet, dab the surface with tissues to create a mottled look.
3. Use another sponge to lightly apply black gouache paint to the ornaments. With clean tissues you can lighten, blur and blend the paint to create the effect you desire. When you’re finished, let the ornaments dry.

A friend of mine is expecting the birth of her first child around this coming Thanksgiving. This means that she’ll be a new mom in time for her favorite holiday, Christmas. Already she has started planning ways to commemorate her baby’s first Christmas.

To date, she has bought baby’s first Christmas outfit (complete with a red and white Santa hat), babys first ornament, and has booked a photo session with a local photographer for the family Christmas cards she intends to mail out. Now she’s got me in a panic because I don’t think there will be anything left for me to give to the baby! Maybe instead of a material gift, I’ll make a donation in the child’s honor to a worthy cause.

Glass ornament wreaths can retail for $50 or more, particularly around the holidays. You can make your own gorgeous wreath for a lot less. All you need are an assortment of glass ornaments, a foam wreath, and a hot glue gun. All of these items can be purchased online or at your local craft store.

Start by heating up the glue gun over scrap paper to catch any drips. Lay out your colorful glass ornaments and clip off the loops, but keep the rest of the tops intact. Lay out the foam wreath and play around with how you want the ornaments to look when attached. When you’ve come up with a design, attach the ornaments to the wreath using your hot glue gun.

Some people can’t function in the morning without a cup of coffee. For me, tea is my addiction. I’m not partial to one particular brand or another; I truly enjoy trying out different flavors and brews. I’m also a collector of decorative teapots- the more ornate the better!

This Christmas, my kids bought me teapot ornaments by Tannenbaum Treasures. The collectible holiday ornaments are really exquisite. The two inch tall ornaments are handcrafted in Europe and each displays a different theme. My three favorites are the blue bonnet, clover, and silver teapots. Don’t you love it when people actually put consideration into holiday gift giving?

American Flag Finial

Over the last few years I have collected unique finials to decorate with at Christmas time.  I know some people use them all year round, but to keep them safe and sound, I just put them up with my special Christmas decorations.

I like to use finial stands and put groupings of finials on the mantal or dining room table.  I like to put finials in a pretty candle holder and use instead of candles on the table.   I was always taught that if you use candles on a table you need to light them, but if you use finials you can avoid the mess of dripping candles.  They also make a very unusual and elegant table.

If you would like to use a finial all year round, I can’t think of a nicer finial to use than the flag finial.  This is a gorgeous hand blown and hand painted glass finial made in Poland.  It would definitely fit in with any decor and be a nice addition throughout the year.

Happy decorating!

The winter holiday season is a time of year that everybody enjoys. With a fresh blanket of snow on the ground, carolers echoing in the distance and the smell of Christmas trees for miles, how can you not be seduced by the spirit? Not only do you get to enjoy the whimsical ways of all your neighbors and friends, but you get to enjoy adding that festive memorabilia to your very own home. This way you’ll be able to savor the holiday spirit everywhere you go, even when lounging at home in your bathrobe.

Add some extra special holiday flare to your house this year with snowman Christmas tree ornaments. Frosty the Snowman wasn’t just a fictional character in my mind. I see him in each and every snowman, actual or pretend, I see during the holidays. You’ll be sure to have your very own winter white wonderland when you decorate your home with snowmen and other winter themed accessories.