That's right, it's that time of year again. Some of you may be thinking "It's only November!" but honestly, look at the date! There's only six days left of November! For me, this is the most wonderful time of the year. For the most, I love the snow and the Christmas lights and the holiday music playing on the radio. But I also know for some, it is the most dreaded time of the year. Whether it is memories of childhood Christmases not going as planned or just the fact that sometimes, our wallets don't exactly let us get everyone the gifts we want to get them, I'm sure quite a few of you are more stressed then excited for this holiday season.
Especially when the gifts kids want today are all the tablets and cell phones and laptops that cost a small fortune when this time a year rolls around. But honestly, to me, it isn't the gifts that make Christmases so wonderful. It isn't how empty the bank account is after we've unwrapped all the oh so carefully wrapped presents rather sloppily. My favorite part is just surrounding myself with the people I love and care about. That is the real gift to me! I know what you are thinking... blah, blah, blah, nothing you haven't heard before from Santa Claus, about the "True Spirit of Christmas". So I'm sure you aren't going to go all "I am your gift this year!" to your family and friends... but that doesn't change the fact that you have literally NO money. Why not do some rather simple DIY Christmas themed gifts and decorations?
Take, for example, those glass spaghetti sauce jars. There are so many endless possibilities with those! Clean it out and off, make sure you scrape all of the sticky glue off of it to make it nice and shiny. Grab a small ornament from the Christmas box, or even a small child's figurine. All you have to do is hot glue or super the object to the inside part of the lid. Then fill the jar up almost to the top with water, add as many sparkles as you see fit, add some more hot glue or super glue to the rim of the jar, quickly screw on the lid and make sure it's secure. All that's left to do now if flip it upside down and, VOILA! Your very own snowglobe!! This is such a fun and easy project and can be pretty entertaining for the kids! They can play around with the object they want to use, maybe use sequins as well as sparkles for snow, the possibilities are endless!!
Or maybe try a Snowy Pine Cone Center Piece for a festive touch to any table! All you need to do is collect some pine-cones from outside, use some white acrylic paint to paint just the edges of the pine cones, sprinkle some white glitter on the wet paint and then let them dry. Cut out a square or rectangle of cardboard, the side of a cereal box will do! Glue some tinsel onto it, or just wrap it in festive wrapping paper. Once the pine-cones are dry, you can arrange them on the cardboard however you would like, then glue them into place! You could glue them in a ring big enough for you to fit a dish in, to create a nice touch to a chip bowl, or you could even arrange them to look like a tree! If you don't want to use them as a center piece, you could also tie some twine to them and hang them around the house or on your tree!
There are so many different options for things to make and you probably have all the stuff you need at home!! Just get creative using trees, Santa's, presents, snowmen and reindeer as your decorative inspiration!! I'll be posting some pictures of DIY christmas ideas soon, what three siblings and a bunch of other people to make gifts for, I should have lots of things to share!
What DIY projects will you or the kids be doing this Holiday season? Don't forget to play some music to get those creative juices flowing!!
xoxo, Jess
