Christmas nowadays is so commercial. We worry about how much we need to buy. We panic that we haven’t bought enough. We buy gifts for people that we barely see and send cards to everyone we’ve ever met. We wrap it all in paper which gets thrown away without ever really being looked at, and we surround ourselves with food and drink, which we’ll never have the time or stomach capacity to eat.
This is all terrible for the planet, but it’s also bad for Christmas itself. It has become a time of enormous wastage when we should be focusing on love, our friends and family, and the things that make us happy.
A fantastic way to remind yourself, and your family, what Christmas is all about, is with some crafting. Spend quality time together with your craft supplies and arts glue guns and enjoy creating festive treats, gifts and surprises for your loved ones. Here’s a look at some of the ways that you can get crafty this Christmas.
Send homemade cards
Homemade cards are one of the easiest ways to have fun with crafts this Christmas. All you need is some card and pens to get started. Add cutouts, sparkles and other decorations if you want or experiment with potato printing, stencilling and other festive designs. Homemade cards are thoughtful and fun and a great way to save money.
Make decorations
Homemade decorations on your tree can be lovely. Every year when you get them out, you’ll remember making them and marvel at how much your children have grown. Salt dough tree decorations are easy to make, can be painted afterwards, and if dried out well, can last for years. Paper decorations can also be fun.
Bake homemade treats
One of the biggest wastes over the holidays is food. We get excited when we see all of our festive favourites in the shops, and we buy it all. You might not get a chance to eat it all, and even if you did, you’d hate yourself in January.
Instead, bake some treats yourself. You are less likely to end up with far too much and more likely to enjoy what you’ve created. Homemade cookies, mince pies and cupcakes are all easy enough for the kids to help with and can be great for when you’ve got guests.
Send homemade gifts
Homemade gifts are much better than those presents we buy people just for the sake of giving something without any real idea of what they want. Handmade food gifts can be ideal but look for other homemade Christmas gift ideas too.
Let the kids get messy
Remember, Christmas crafting is meant to be fun for everyone. Don’t stress out about a little bit of mess or a few mistakes, or it won’t be. Your Christmas crafting doesn’t have to be perfect. It just has to be fun.
Create new traditions
Who knows, you could create some new festive traditions for your family. Like adding one more homemade decoration each year, or spending the first weekend of December creating your Christmas cards.
Please note – this is a collaborative post
