Homemade Christmas Ornaments Are The Best

Every year when I take out the Christmas decorations it brings back memories.  Every ornament makes you remember where and when you got it.  When our daughters were young, we made a lot our ornaments.  They would also make ornaments in school.  Even our friends would exchange home made ornaments using bottle caps, popsicle sticks, yarn and thread.  Back in those days we didn't just make a trip to Hallmark and load up on ornaments.  My daughters just took it for granted that is how we decorated the Christmas tree.  When they got married and left home, they took their ornaments with them.  For a few years I had to accumulate my own ornaments in my own style.  We live in a cabin and I tend to go with woodsy items.  I have used dried hydrangea flowers, we dried oranges, apples, lemons and limes and of course pine cones.  I have made gingerbread man ornaments from cinnamon and applesauce.  Back in 1995, my aunt passed away.  I won't say she was a hoarder, but she had a lot of stuff that needed to be disposed of.  I lived nearby, so day after day I would go to her apartment and go through things.  There were many things that were thrown away and donated to charity.  I bring this up because there was an old tin of cookies in the kitchen.  I opened them up and there were some old gingerbread man cookies.  I took them home and varnished them.  Then I poked a hole in the top and strung a red ribbon.  They are still being used to this day.  You have to wonder what they were made of in the first place.  We probably don't want to know.

Applesauce cinnamon ornament and 18 year old gingerbread man cookie ornaments.

Another favorite ornament was made by my oldest daughter when she was just starting school.  When the girls were little and decorated the tree, Sarah would always put her homemade ornament front and center…Heather hated it and would move it. Sarah would move it back.  They would go around and around.  Then when they were grown adults, Sarah made Heather one nearly identical to hers so she could have one of her very own.   Now every year Heather places her own ornament front and center on her tree.

I actually made some for myself.  Here it is, hanging on my tree.  It makes me happy.

This is the perfect project for kids of all ages.  All you do is find a plastic lid.  It can be any size as long as it is flat on the bottom.  Pour some school glue to cover the bottom of the lid.  Sprinkle with any kind of seeds.  I used lentils and yellow  and green split peas.

All you need to make an ornament.

After you put everything in the lid with glue, it has to dry.

Pop it out of the lid and tie it with ribbon or string.