Charlie Brown Christmas Craft

What’s Christmas without a little crafting?

I am not the best crafter in the world, nor am I great at sewing, but around this time of year I can’t help but literally dust off my sewing machine for a project. It’s frequently a disappointing experience for me as my skill level doesn’t match my imagination. My husband wonders why I torture myself with these projects.

I can’t help myself; Christmas needs to be hand-made.

Every year the commercialization of Christmas gets worse and worse. This year our culture went so far as to allow the the soot of Black Friday to spill over into Thanksgiving, essentially wiping out the most thoughtful and American holiday we have so we can buy more stuff for Christmas.

Happy birthday, Baby Jesus! We’re not grateful for anything and we don’t want to spend time with our families when we could be shopping instead.

Bah Humbug!

But I can’t let that horrible energy take away Christmas from my children.

And so, we make our own.

Projects bring forth creativity and build skills. They create something new, unique and special. Best of all, they require loads of time during the busiest time of year.

Why is that good?

Because it sheilds you from the more commercial aspects of the season. Also, the time spent on creating a gift is a part of the present: I love you and I spent hours creating something just for you.

When we brought down our Christmas decorations, Max and Jack were given their gingerbread boys for the third time. Their wide smiles as they embraced the first thing I ever made them lit up our home with delight. Those weren’t perfect, but they were perfectly loved.

This year I ran across a cute project from A Little Gray for Charlie Brown felt Christmas ornaments.

Without overthinking it, I just plunged into the project, because I already had almost all of the supplies. I followed the directions, but mine weren’t as great as the originals.

I decided not to let perfect be the enemy of good, so I didn’t redo them. Maybe I should have used my hot glue gun for better results, but the boys loved them, which was the whole point. I found a cute little tree for the boys for $5 at Home Depot. They are so proud of their tree and invite everyone who comes to our house to see it.