Christmas Traditions: Making Ornaments

When I was a kid, I always wanted a themed Christmas tree like you see in stores or in the movies. We had the kind of tree with mismatched ornaments that had been handed down or picked up secondhand. No one can really afford to have all their ornaments match, right?

When my oldest daughter was 2, I noticed all the fun projects she would bring home from daycare. I didn't want her to do all the fun stuff with other people. I decided that we would make good memories at home too. We started making ornaments. We pick a new color or theme every year.

The first, year our colors were red and white. She made very simple pipe cleaner crafts like candy canes and I made ornaments with red ribbon and scraps of lace. The second year, we made white snowflakes with cornstarch dough and decorated them with beads and glitter. We've put starched string around small inflated water balloons, popped them when they were dry and then glittered them. This year, we got pretty ambitious. We are making butterflies and dragonflies with wire and pantyhose, then decorating them.

We never spend much money on supplies, we usually just use stuff we have already in the house. We keep a few ornaments to remind us of what we've done and either donate or toss the rest of them. We also make extras for teacher gifts, again saving money. We have a beautiful tree every year and the time we spend together gives us the best Christmas memories!

By Lisa from Lena, WI