One of my favorite things to do at Christmas is to decorate the family tree. It’s no magazine showpiece. It’s a walk down memory lane. Photo ornaments from when my kids were babies. Ornaments they made in school. Ornaments we made together at home. The handmade ornaments are always my favorite.
As an avid cross-stitcher, I love to make ornaments as gifts for others. My publishing team has been on the receiving end of several such gifts. Here are the jar ornaments I stitched for them last year.
One of my other favorite ornament-making activities is the handmade ornament exchange that we do in my Facebook group, The Posse, every year. This is our third year to do the exchange, and we generally have around 100 people participate, including members from other countries. This is the ornament I stitched this year:
We always share pictures with each other, and it is the highlight of my year to see all the wonderful creativity of our members. Since this is a book-loving group, many of the ornaments tie into books in some way. I’ve included a sampling of a few of my favorites from this year. You’ll see ornaments made from paper, some used actual book pages for their design. Others have fun with cover art. Some match the western theme of my books, and some capture the coziness of reading by the fire. Aren’t they great?
If you are interested in getting in on the ornament action next year, I’d love to have you join The Posse. Click here to join.
In my new Christmas collection, An Old-Fashioned Texas Christmas, the first story is a family reunion with the Archer brothers, with a focus on Jim and Cassandra Archer. In An Archer Family Christmas, Auntie Cass has a Christmas craft planned for her nieces. They are creating cornhusk angels to decorate the tree that the Archer males are busy cutting down. Here is the website where I found the instructions for a simple version of these homemade decorations that Cassie and the girls made with cornhusks, yarn, and scraps of fabric and lace.
How do you like to get crafty at Christmas?
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I’ve been watching the ornament exchange in The Posse and have been most impressed with people’s creativity! I enjoy making homemade gifts so this year I made small zipper pouches for each of my sisters and book cozies for my book loving niece and nephew.
Those sounds awesome, Joy! There is just something extra special about handmade gifts. Next year you’ll have to join in the Posse exchange fun!
I do love to make ornaments. This year I didn’t get a chance for myself, but I found wooden snowflakes, trees, and a very cool Nativity scene ornaments for the grands. They used markers on the tree, but for the Nativity and snowflakes, I had them paint them with very strong coffee and grounds. Such a lovely finish! Love your cross stitch ornaments! Merry Christmas!
What a neat idea, Angie! Some of my favorite ornaments on our tree are the ones the kids either made in school or that we made together. I bet the ones you made with your grandkids will become Christmas treasures.
I made ornaments with my kids when they were little to give to family members for Christmas. It was sometimes a frustrating experience, but when I hang those 20+ year old ornaments on my tree now, they are so special!
Yes! That’s it exactly, Anne. The frustration of clumsy fingers and inattentive eyes all melts away and leaves only cherished memories behind. 🙂
I love the jar cross-stitch ornaments you made. Where did you get the pattern?