About the end of November I usually get a Christmas card letter from my friend Katherine. She describes how she has everything ready for Christmas. That means her gifts are all bought wrapped, her menus planned, her housecleaning done, her Christmas cards letters just about all away. Her house decorations are ready to put up on December 1.
Katherine's letter makes me sigh. Is she too eager for Christmas, or am I just lazy? What's the matter?
Then I got to thinking. She's shopping for most of that stuff. I'm doing things the homemade way.
There's a new rage for homemade Christmases, so I'm starting to lift my head, to share my secrets. The catch is, you have to read this early to make use of many of these ideas. If you follow my example, you're not likely to be ready early like Katherine, but hey, you'll have fun you can do this on a shoestring budget.
You can prepare your heart to worship the Christ-child without spending a cent. It does take time to sit quietly focus your thoughts on who the holiday is for, how you will honour Him in your heart.
Many automatically have relatives and dear friends that all come together to celebrate, but if it happens that you don't know enough people to make a joyous noise in your home, take charge, invite other lonely singles neglected people. They will surprise you with love.
For 24 years now I have not been able to buy cards for all the people I'd like to send greetings to at Christmas time, so I've made huge batches of my own, Often people send me their card with a note, hoping they are still on my list so they can see my card.
Go to a commercial print shop, politely ask if you could have a box of cuttings. You'll likely get enough for 100s of cards. Look over your loot. Sizes and colours will narrow down your options. Draw, cut glue, on the cards appropriate designs shapes.
Use bits of lace, ribbons, little strips of wallpaper, Carve a design on half a potato dip it in paints stamp your design on the card. or melt some broken wax crayons in a tin pie plate on the stove element. Touch/lay the front of the card in the glorious mix of colours pull up away quickly. Voila! Cool modern art into which you may scratch words or designs with a pen or sharp object./p>
Eventually you'll tire of all that fun.
Time to bake treats plan your celebration feasts.
Let me give you an escape tip though. Since sweets are not good for us, try forgetting them altogether. Concentrate on the basic meat, starches/potatoes, vegetables. If you can afford it have bowls of fruit ready when the guests come in. I discovered one year that the cookies never came out of the freezer, the guests were gone before I remembered. Now I save myself the bother.
But if you must bake sweets, find recipes that make a big batch with the least ingredients, do the mixing while you are waiting for supper to cook, bake while doing dishes, if you start now, doing one batch a week that way, you'll have enough to turn into buckets of gifts to give away.
(Want my Peppernuts recipe? They make popular gifts! (Contact me, and ask for it).
Gift-making continues in the same way. Containers of your special recipe dressed up with a label a ribbon make fine gifts.
Look around your place. What have you got lots of, that you would like to clean up? Are your plants sprouting babies? Got stacks of books everywhere? What can you package as gifts? What can you make with the materials you have right at home? What about coupons for services to be performed?
Soon you'll have more ideas than you have time left until Christmas!
Decorations can be made with things you have lying all around the house, if you look at them in a new way. I made trios of bells the other year, using yogurt cups tin foil, some with paper mache. The bows were made of newspaper, spray painted. Again, I could fill a book! Just look around you use your imagination. Think resourcefully.
However, if I may - I'd like to interject that a lot of the glitzy, dramatic decorations others use are not necessary. Stick to the simple things that honour the Christ, you'll save yourself a lot of bother expenses. Also time you can use elsewhere.
Clothes are always cheaper homemade than bought new. However, I know a couple of Thrift shops that sell used clothing which is of better quality than I can sew, much lower too. Why be so proud? Our true value rests in what comes out of our hearts, what we pass on to other hearts.
So prepare your heart to worship Christ, to love others. Then you won't need six weeks to get ready for Christmas. You could be ready before my friend Katherine, eagerly awaiting Christmas.
C~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
Ruth Marlene Friesen makes friends wherever she goes!
Her friends become her rare roses at Ruthes-SecretRoses.com
Order the softcover edition at Booklocker.com
And- Subscribe to her weekly ezine RoseBouquet
To follow and get to know Ruth better!
~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`~`
[Article may be reprinted only with this resource box].
Back Inspirational Articles (index)
Ruth Marlene Friesen
The Responsible One
Privacy Promises ~~
Sitemap
Ruthe's Secret Roses (official site)
©2001-2022 Ruth Marlene Friesen
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada