Christmas crafts, decorations and cards
with the look of Christmas Past

Making Christmas crafts and decorations at home is a centuries-old tradition. "Deck the Halls" the Victorians would sing, as they filled the house with holly and evergreens, and set about stocking the kitchen with once-a-year delicacies for the feasting and merriment of Christmas. Everyone in the family was busy making decorations for the proud Christmas tree; glittering ornaments of tinsel and cut-out pictures, paper chains and garlands, lace angels, embroidered stockings and carved wooden toys.

Christmas crafts are half the fun of the holiday, especially when you can make them with love and give them as special gifts.

Here are several projects that will get you in the spirit - fun and easy ones - to begin decking your halls. We are providing the vintage images and clip art that will bring that touch of Christmas past into your present.

As always, if you need anything for your crafts, Joann.com is online with fast delivery, and only a click away.

Christmas Crafts

	"Ten Vintage Christmas Greetings to Make" is a 40-page e-book with ready-to-print vintage images, complete instructions and card-making tips! This is a must-have handbook for handmade Christmas cards that deliver a vintage punch. Pop ups, window cards, fabric inserts, paper tole, textured collage and many more techniques!
	This snowflake Tea Bag Ornament is a dangling variation on the classic folded paper craft. We provide the cutest Victorian cat image to frame within the frilly octagonal snowflake. You might substitute a photo of your sweetheart or your children! We designed this as our 2011 inspiration piece for our "Christmas Cats" Creative Challenge.
	For 2010, we designed this Vintage Tag Christmas Card to wish our friends "Scrappy Holidays!" The shop tag is printed on manila file folder stock, with a grommet and some hemp cord. The FREE templates include the Victorian scrap tags and the card body. Easy enough for kids to make!
	Our Christmas Stamp Card was mass-produced for our personal 2009 cards. You can make two from one piece of red cardstock! It couldn't be easier. Just the paper, the FREE clip art images, some paint, glitter and glue, and a hole punch.
	Get the look of painted stained glass with this Christmas Window Decoration. It starts with an old window frame, and you apply vintage images, liquid leading, and glass glitter. We give you eight FREE templates and images - and the premier supplier of glass glitter!
	Need Christmas Place Cards - right now? This is the craft for you. All you need is our FREE download template, blank address label sheets, paper, scissors and a pen. You'll be ready to set the table in a minute.
	Craft a Vintage Christmas Ornament from a few simple ingredients like foamcore, tinsel garland and ribbon. We provide a charming Victorian scene with Santa and an angel for you to download and print.
	Handmade Vintage Christmas Cards are quick and easy using blank panel cards and envelopes. These were our cards for 2008 - embellished with a beautiful 1913 Santa illustration by Samuel L. Schmucker. Download this striking vintage image for FREE and craft these rich-looking cards.
	These Christmas Chenille Dolls were inspired by vintage ornaments in an antique auction. Just like their Victorian originals, these whimsical figures are simple concoctions of bump chenille rods, paper vintage images, and glittery embellishments.
	Christmas Napkin Rings will "ring" in the holidays in vintage style. With no more than paper, scissors and glue, you can create four different designs for your holiday table - choose from a Victorian Father Christmas, singing cherubs, a golden bell, or jolly Santa Claus.
	Antique Blocks are vintage treasures, gilded with an aged, cracked varnish finish. No one needs to know that they were once common milk cartons. We'll show you how to make them from the simplest materials and ingredients.
	Santa's Cookie Plate will be a Christmas Eve tradition. This plate combines reverse-glass painting and decoupage. We've even provided several Santa images for you to choose from.
	Christmas Candle resting in a fluffy bed of white whipped-wax "snow"! We give you six different images for this easy, glowing project.
	Tag Ornaments are dainty and sparkling, and the glass marbles magically magnify the vintage images of children. Who would know they started out as common cardboard key tags?

The Many Symbols of Christmas

Christmas is a holiday rich in historic and cultural influences. As the early Christian church grew, its leaders studied Jewish Messianic prophesies to determine the date of Jesus' birth. It took several hundred years for the church to settle on December 25, and the date seems chosen, in part, to distance it from the Roman winter celebration of Saturnalia. The earliest written reference to the Christmas celebration on that date comes from an illuminated manuscript from the year 354.

Many of the symbols of Christmas are scriptural; the manger, the three wise men and their gifts, singing angels, and the Star of Bethlehem. Many more are remnants of pagan myths and winter celebrations, including evergreen trees and wreaths, holly, mistletoe, the yule log, the feasting table, and yes - Santa Claus. As these filtered through the centuries and world cultures, a holiday season was distilled during the Victorian period.

By the mid-19th century, Christmas characters and events were being depicted much as we know them today. Manger scenes were lovingly assembled in churches and homes. Santa Claus had evolved from a number of magical gift-givers (the Nordic yule gods, St. Nicholas, the Russian female Kolyada, and the Christ Child or Christkindl) into the merry, red-suited, elfin figure we now recognize, as first depicted by artist Thomas Nast in 1863. The Victorians, with the help of writer Charles Dickens and the great carol composers, embraced the spirit of the holiday and wove its many symbols and legends into a celebration of redemption, love and generosity.

Did you know...

"Mistletoe was the most sacred of all plants to the Druids...The ancient Celts held the mistletoe in such high esteem that it could only be harvested by the chief Druid at certain times of the year. A golden scythe was used and the mistletoe was never allowed to touch the ground...In Victorian times, the hanging mistletoe enabled a rather stuffy and moralistic society to relax a few rules and allow public contact between the sexes in an acceptable manner. Mistletoe was placed in a prominent position and games and forfeits were eagerly played and paid under it. It is said that the sweetness of a kiss given under the mistletoe will last the life of the giver." From Postmarked Yesteryear, by Pamela E. Apkarian-Russell.

Do you have a favorite Christmas craft? We would enjoy hearing from you with ideas, comments or questions. Please, contact us with a note!