Christmas Crafts

I have sworn myself off crafts for a while.  I like crafting things a little too much and have needed to take a step back.  These are my no-fuss Christmas crafts that we have had as a tradition around here.  Calling them crafts is a bit of an exaggeration since they are just simple ways I try to add some spice to our holiday home.

 

Our Christmas Scrapbook

Both of these are paper-backed scrapbooks from Hobby Lobby.  Christmas Memories is a little journal of holiday memories I keep for our family.  I started it in 2008 so we now have a nice little collection of memories :)  In the book I dedicate one page to each year and journal on the page about what we did during that holiday season.  In fact, I have one of these for each holiday season during the year.  Instead of keeping a family scrapbook I have committed to keeping holiday journals (and this blog!)  If I am on-top of my game I will include pictures in the journal... in the last 5 years, only 1 year has pictures :)

Our gingerbread scrapbook includes pictures of our gingerbread homes.  We do not always make a gingerbread house but I like the idea of keeping track of those that we do make :)

 

Gavin's scrapbook for Grandparents

Last year I started this book.  I purchased scrapbooks at Hobby Lobby for our parents.  Each Christmas we give them 2 pages of pictures on scrapbook paper for them to insert into the book.  Overtime they will have pictures of little man growing up throughout the years.  Also, when little dude is older the grandparents may want to keep cards or art work he sends them in this book.  To help keep this a simple project, my idea is to decorate 2 pages each year (a spread) and then gift it to the grandparents at Christmas.  Each child we have will have their own book with the grandparents.  My mom's family had a tradition similar to this and I thought it was a neat idea to carry on!

 

Christmas Cards

Last year I started keeping birth announcements, wedding invitations and holiday cards we received throughout the year on a ceramic tray in our living room.  This year I decided to create mini-books of the cards.  Super simple: I hole punched the cards, put them on a binder ring, added a simple cover with the year on it and a holiday colored bow.  This project made me feel sooo accomplished and it took 15 minutes :)

 

Stove-top Potpourri

I saw this idea on pintrest.  I put cloves, cinnamon sticks and dried fruit into a pot and let it simmer.  David is even a fan; I saw him adding water and turning it on Saturday afternoon :)))

 

Our Hot Chocolate & Apple Cider Station

 Some store-bought gingerbread cookies are in the tin along with some pre-packaged cider and hot chocolate mix.  In my fantasy world I would have time to make it all from scratch and it would be delicious.  In reality, I am happy to have this available as it is.  Along with the holiday linens I put on top of the fridge, just the act of pulling this stuff out of the pantry has helped us remember to enjoy it during the winter season.