Homemade Christmas Decorations!

I'm sure you're tired of me mentioning the plastic Christmas decorations haha! I promise this will be the last time until Christmas next year. It just seems that myself and many other people in the world, are waking up to find ourselves longing to learn the forgotten skills of our ancestors. We want our homes to be more than just a place to sleep. We desire what's real, true, and meaningful. We're tired of consuming and spending money on things that are cheap and will fall apart in a one year only to live in landfill for hundred years. Hence, my desire to make homemade Christmas decorations. 

During Advent, my husband and I went to Hobby Lobby because everything in the Christmas department was 60% off. As we walked through the store, I got more discouraged with every new isle. Much of what was there-- with the exception of a few decorations and the wrapping paper-- was cheap looking, tacky, and quite unnecessary. For example: the bag of Cheetos ornaments and a neon green Grinch tree (poorly labeled as a "whimsical tree") yuck! Maybe it's just not my style. I just feel like Christmas should be nostalgic. Will our grandkids be talking about how excited they are for grandpa to get out the plastic Grinch tree? I don't know! Maybe! 

I just know that I want to collect good quality decorations that will last. My parents have a Fontanini nativity scene, A set of German Christmas dishes, and the classic Christmas drinking glasses (which okay, they came from Arby's in the 80's but they're still in great shape!) I still look forward to seeing these things every year and I want a similar experience for my children. 

Okay, we're getting off topic here. High quality household decor is another topic for another day. Let's go back to the homemade decorations...

Here are some of my Pinterest inspiration pictures:

photo credits

photo credits

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photo credits

Ah, don't those pictures just put you in a Christmasy mood? 

Although I didn't get close to my Pinterest dreams, (what else is new?) I think for my first time I did pretty good. Each year I can always add a few more things! 

Next year will be a big jump because Jonathan and I also decided that next year we really want to get a real tree. I grew up having one and it came with the whole experience of going with the whole family to pick one out. Sometimes we'd even stop for some hot chocolate on the way home. Then we'd go through the whole process of Dad putting it up, waiting for the branches to settle, and then decorating it of course. It's one of those things that you don't realize you really love until you don't have it anymore. Especially when all of a sudden, after getting married, you have the take the job of fluffing out the branches of a fake tree. Ugh. There's nothing I dread more when to comes to decorating for Christmas! 

All that to say, I'm hoping to thrift a tree stand and maybe score some discounted lights at Hobby Lobby (see, I'm not hating on Hobby Lobby, I truly love that place) I'd also like to make a homemade garland and/or wreath with either clippings from my backyard or clippings from Lowes or Home Depot where according to the girl in the article above, [see photo credits link under picture of the mantle garland] they don't mind if you go and ask to have them for free. 

This year, the biggest project I did was drying oranges. With a dehydrator it didn't take much effort at all. Jonathan and I made a garland and lots of little ornaments for our little tree on the screened-in porch.

I have this decoration in my kitchen that has three vases attached by a stand. In the Fall, I had some fake sunflowers that looked pretty good. For Christmas I was going to buy some fake Poinsettias but they all had sparkles and looked super fake. So, I took to the backyard and found some Cedar branches from our eyesore of a tree that I now have an appreciation for. 

With some red ribbons for the Christmas season, I thought it turned out decent enough! Jonathan also added some of the greenery to decorate another shelf where we put the three wiseman from our nativity before Epiphany. 

Below is my attempt at using candy canes for decorations. I used what I had and since I put them on our hutch, they didn't look out of place. Next year I'd like to get some cinnamon sticks and peppermint sticks like the Pinterest photo above and put them on the my kitchen counters, which looked a little bare this year.  
 

That's all I have! We kept it simple and of course I blended the fake with the real, using what we already have. It was a fun experience that I highly recommend! Winter can sometimes be depressing so having an excuse to go outside and play around in nature really makes the season more fun! More on this next year!

Merry Christmas! (till February 2nd!!)

Gina 💕