Below are photographs of retro ornaments in our family collection. This selection is made up of designs that are still relatively easy to find in flee markets and thrift shops. Most of them come from the 40s, 50s, 60s and 1970s.
Santa here is very jolly and cartoon like. He is a small blow mold ornament.
Here is another Santa made from entirely different materials: felt and sequins.
A puppy with a felt Santa hat, felt body and pom-pom head and facial features.
Here is a sweet looking circus clown. He is from an era in which children were not afraid of such things.
A nursery rhyme ornament, Little Bo Peep? If so this is the worst looking lamb I have ever seen! Perhaps it is a squashed duck or goose? (I can't tell)
A Christmas mouse in his pajamas carrying a present and tiny tree. His head is made from foam and felt. His body is made from chenille stems.
A little blow mold angel with flocked skirt and paper tin wings is decorated with lace and sequins.
Mother Goose riding a goose! She is also a blow mold with shaped hair and arms attached. She is in excellent condition, given her age.
This year I acquired a drum blow mold ornament depicting children on a sled.
Jumping-jack figures, each has four limbs that move! Left is a little girl and right a teddy bear.
Description of Coloring Pages: shepherds, flock, star, manger, Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus, manger, distant village, donkey and stable
text, "She laid him in a manger."
Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image
as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question
about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located
directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I
can.
Now Mary and Joseph escaped to Egypt to hide baby Jesus from King Herod, who wanted to kill the baby to prevent Jesus from coming into power. (We read this in Matthew 2:13-23)
Here is a man of the desert, with sun, pyramids, palm trees.
You can learn to draw a desert scene using simple circles and lines to show you just where things go in our picture of Egypt.
Cut the oval centers away to replace with photographs of family, friends or even pets. Trace around the printed bauble on top of thin cardboard to cut a sturdy backing. Punch a tiny hole at the top of the bauble frame with a pin and thread a fine wire or twin through it and knot. Now you can hang the bauble up on your Christmas tree to remember loved ones... Merry Christmas to All!
"White Christmas" is an Irving Berlin song reminiscing about an old-fashioned Christmas setting. The song was written by Berlin for the musical film Holiday Inn, released in 1942. The composition won the Academy Award for Best Original Song at the 15th Academy Awards.
Isreal Beilin, May 1888 - 1989
Since its release, "White Christmas" has been covered by many artists, the version sung by Bing Crosby being the world's best-selling single (in terms of sales of physical media) with estimated sales in excess of 50 million copies worldwide. When the figures for other versions of the song are added to Crosby's, sales of the song exceed 100 million. "White Christmas" won Berlin the Academy Award for Best Music in an Original Song, one of seven Oscar nominations he received during his career. In subsequent years, it was re-recorded and became a top-10 seller for numerous artists: Frank Sinatra, Jo Stafford, Ernest Tubb, The Ravens and The Drifters. It would also be the last time a Berlin song went to no. 1 upon its release. Talking about Irving Berlin's "White Christmas", composer-lyricist Garrison Hintz stated that although songwriting can be a complicated process, its final result should sound simple. Considering the fact that "White Christmas" has only eight sentences in the entire song, lyrically Mr. Berlin achieved all that was necessary to eventually sell over 100 million copies and capture the hearts of the American public at the same time.
Full view of my Welsh cupboard set up for hot chocolate and company.
My Welsh cupboard is all arranged for company and service of hot chocolate. I've included the classics here, marshmallows, candy spoons, candy canes, cinnamon and sugar condiments. To the right is one of our many Advent calendars. On the left is a basket of small gifts for company. The galvanized village is lighted up and a hand-painted, snowflake sign welcomes visitors with "Have A Cup of Cheer!"
Left, gifts wrapped and ready for the season. Lovely puzzle by artist, Angela Harding. Right, chocolate and peppermint stirring spoons and candy canes.
Left, Squashes in deep green and harvest gold colors displayed next to our spice grinder. Right, galvanized houses for candlelight.
Left, colorful berries tucked between our pottery. Center a giant lantern displays Christmas baubles next to the Welsh cupboard. Right, delicate laser-cut snowflakes illuminate the cupboard at night with fairy lights.
A tree shaped Advent calendar with tiny woodland graphics on every drawer.
How I made the chalkboard sign for my "Hot Chocolate Station."
Left, I purchased a wooden snowflake to paint. Center, smearing the chalk on the back of a print-out. Right, see my print out of "Have a cup of Cheer" (included below)
Left, I drew on top of the printed text with a ball point pin to transfer the chalked letters. Center, I took a wax white pencil and delicately drew on top of the chalk dust text. Right, The last step was to paint the text again with acrylics so that the effect would be stabilized and brighter.
Left, I then added swirls and berries free-hand. Right, I colored the berries with a bit of red paint.
Free text for your own Hot Chocolate Station craft.
"All Merry and Bright" chalkboard paint design wired into a grapevine wreath.
My firstborn loves to fashion wreaths during the holidays. She assembled this one using a chalkboard painted logo on a bauble shaped, galvanized steal sign. After wiring the sign to the inside of a grapevine wreath, she wrapped wire around pine branches and faux berry picks, just at the top of the wreath only. Then she hot glued pine cones between the branches for a bit more texture. This wreath hangs cheerfully on my pumpkin colored front door!
Below is my frisky fox cardboard flat designed for those of you who have limited supplies and cash...
You didn't paint or color the foxy ornament they way that I did, but, I've included a color version for those of you who would like a suggestion for "how" to finish the drawing. Apply a coat of Mod Podge and make your cardboard double or triple ply to give your finished ornament some durability.
To make these sweet little soap box cottages, you will need to collect the following supplies: pine cones, pliers, recycled soap boxes, a bag of cotton balls, white school glue, scrap cardboard, acrylic paints, green chenille stem (just one), tiny red beads,masking tape, transparent glitter, hot glue and gun, and white felt for the bottoms of the cottages.
Above are the finished soap box cottages wrapped in cotton batting. The roof tops are also covered in snow and glitter.
First, you will need to pull the scales from the pin cones and snip of any split ends. These will be hot glued on the roof tops eventually. Second, cover the empty soap box with masking tape. Then shape a simple triangular roof by folding a triangle of cardboard in half and attaching this with hot glue on one end of the soap box. Use masking tape to secure this roof feature even more to the box. Cover the roof with masking tape. Close the ends of the roof with more cardboard and tape. Now hot glue the scales onto the roof top to act like roofing tiles. (see pictures)
Left, are pine cones. Center, pliers. Right removed scales from the pine cones with split, damaged tips cut off.
Cut a flat chimney piece to adhere to one of the sides of the cottage, cover it with masking tape. Glue on a felt rectangle to the bottom of the cottage to prevent it from scratching furniture. Unravel the cotton balls to prep these for use. Apply generous amounts of white school glue between layers of cotton batting to form the outside walls of the cottage. Allow the cotton walls to dry.
The cottages have been prepared for details.
Take the hot glue gun in hand and squeeze lumps onto the cardboard chimney to form a "rocky" looking surface. Let this hot glue dry and apply a coat of brown, black or dark grey. Then dry brush paler colors of the same to give the rocks depth.
Detail photos of chimney, door, window and bottom of the box covered with felt.
Cut small details of the door, window etc... from cardboard and glue these on the cottage as you like. I also bent a tiny wreath for the door using a green chenille stem and added red beads for berries. Now the cottage is ready for additional snow. Glue in cotton lumps between the roof tiles and scattered randomly across the top. Smear white school glue on places around the roof tiles and chimney to adhere sprinkling of transparent glitter as you like. Let it all dry overnight and display the little Irish Cottages wherever these are needed.
This popular, wooden flat of a spider may be found in many hobby stores or online. I've recycled a plastic netting that once was used to package lemons or onions, I don't remember. This netting looks so much like a spider's web that I decided to display it along with my spider on our family Christmas tree. Spiders are frequently included on Christmas trees in Europe because of several stories told to children during the Season of Advent; below is one of three I have heard told...
Legend of the Christmas Spider
A poor but hardworking widow once lived in a small hut with her children. One summer day, a pine cone fell on the earthen floor of the hut and took root. The widow's children cared for the tree, excited at the prospect of having a Christmas tree by winter. The tree grew, but when Christmas Eve arrived, they could not afford to decorate it. The children sadly went to bed and fell asleep. Early the next morning, they woke up and saw the tree covered with cobwebs. When they opened the windows, the first rays of sunlight touched the webs and turned them into gold and silver. The widow and her children were overjoyed. From then on, they never lived in poverty again.
A distressed, galvanized steel cake stand is used to display a pewter nativity set.
My eldest daughter decorated with pewter, galvanized steel pieces and plaid textiles this year. Here is how she used a simple cake stand to display a Nativity scene. She used natural looking shredded grass paper to replace the "straw" in the manger vignette.
Joseph, Mary, Baby Jesus, a shepherd, sheep, an ox and two angels are all present at the Nativity.
She split up the wisemen in the scene, because they came to visit Jesus while He lived and hid in Egypt with his parents. (He was about two.) Below you can see them walking through a galvanized steel village on the middle shelf of our Welsh cupboard. The cake stand and Nativity where positioned lower on the counter of the wooden display cabinet.
Left, you can see that she used silver leaves to represent trees in the background. Right, the manger scene on top of the cake stand.
"The old north breeze thro' the skeleton trees, is chanting the year out drearily; but loud let it blow, for at home we know that the dry logs crackle cheerily." Albert Smith
The Yule Log was a great log of wood, sometimes the root of a tree, brought into the house with great ceremony on Christmas Eve, laid in the fire-place, and lighted with the brand of last year's log. While it lasted there was great drinking, singing, and telling of tales. Sometimes it was accompanied by Christmas candles; but in the primitive cottage the only light was from the ruddy blaze of the great wood fire. The Yule Log was to burn all night; if it went out, it was considered a sign of ill luck.
bit to fit the press that is the same size of the candles
greenery collected together to trim the log: pine cones, red berries, holly etc...
optional feet cut from branches to stabilize the log
thin wire for attaching greenery
Step-by-Step Process:
Select a clean, dry log of medium size for decorating the center of your Christmas table.
This log may have a flatish bottom or your may need to cut pegs from scrap branches to keep the log from rolling while on display. (see photos)
Choose a drill bit the same diameter as the candles you wish to use inside of the yule log and drill several inches into the log. If some of these are deeper than others and the candles don't fit exactly, just stuff cotton down inside of the holes to even the candle heights in the beginning.
Wire in Yule Log greenery in an attractive fashion.
You may also wish to display a Yule Log inside of your fire surround or fireplace instead of burning logs.This always adds a romantic touch during the holidays and is far less messy!
Yule Log Plant & Candle Meanings:
English Ivy - symbolizes eternal life
Holly/Holiday Berries and Mistletoe - good luck, protection
Pine Cones - symbolize resurrection
Juniper Sprigs - symbolize healing
Candles - white symbolize "light", red symbolize determination, green prosperity
Close up of plants used to trim our Yule log.
"These are glowing today for very joy, each in the measure of its greatness, like the wax candles which burn big and bright if they are big, little and bright if they are little, but are all flaming heavenward in rapture. Christmas is for everybody. To each of us the Child was born, and the world that was redeemed is our world. The merry greetings of Christmas morning are but symbols of that redemption. The children's happiness, the neighborly good-will, the generous deed are at once memorials of that pure dawn of long ago, and prophecies of a day more perfect still. Indeed, when we truly keep Christmas in the heart, the heavens are so near - the earth that the angelic voices are like the voices of those we love, and the faces of those we love shine like the faces of the angels. We forget the poor gift, the half-filled stocking, the anxiety. We think only of the perfection that is so close, after all, to our imperfection. To live but one day in good-will to all men is to anticipate and hasten that day when all men shall live in good-will. It is thus that the candles now lighted in the heart shall also be." Perry
When searching for these folk art Santa figure on the web it is important to know that the word "Belsnickel" is spelled in many different ways. (also Belschnickel, Belznickle, Belznickel, Pelznikel, Pelznickel, from pelzen (or belzen, German for to wallop or to drub) and Nickel being a hypocorism of the given name Nikolaus) is a fur-clad Christmas gift-bringer figure in the folklore of Palatinate region of southwestern Germany along the Rhine, the Saarland, and the Odenwald region of Baden-Württemberg. Read more . . .
Left, wire ornament detail. Center, antique buff pink baubles. Right, bent metallic chenille stems.
This unique moon themed, Christmas wreath was designed, assembled and gifted by my older daughter for her younger sister last year. She collected antique glass baubles and beads to wire into a tinsel wreath that I purchased from a dollar store. She also purchased the moon ornament online and framed it with chenille stems.
Below are a few nativity sketches that children may work from while sculpting their own religious figures from paper clay or even salt dough. Included in these sketches are Mary, the baby Jesus, a flower, Sarah mother of John the baptist, the three wise men with gifts, and two baby lambs one standing and the other reclining. Use either watercolors or acrylics to paint figures like these and then seal them with three clear coats of acrylic spray or Mod Podge. Let the figures dry completely between coating. Store them in cookie tins to prevent mice or insects from chewing on figures for nesting materials.
Arrange the figures on a wooden platform. Add clay trees and plants. Construct the barn from a cardboard box or scrap wood. Use the illustration above as a guide.
Mini Demonstration of sculpting a simple clay
nativity by YAS ClayCommunity.
Once you've played around with clay to make a little nativity scene,
try drawing a Christmas camel or even an entire caravan!
Left, "Let's use a triangle this time, cut by some straight and slanting lines." Center, "A hump up here, two legs below, and up on top a figure---so!" Right, "Then if you draw your lines quite true, a Christmas camel comes in view."
animated Nativity
Did You Know?
The accounts of the Nativity of Jesus in the New Testament appear in two of the four Canonical Gospels, namely the Gospel of Luke and the Gospel of Matthew. Luke's story takes place mostly before the birth of Jesus and centers on Mary, while Matthew's story takes place mostly after the birth of Jesus and centers on Joseph.The two other canonical gospels, the Gospel of Mark and the Gospel of John, begin their narratives of Jesus' life in his adulthood; both mention him coming out of Galilee,and John mentions the name of Jesus' father, but neither John nor Mark gives any other details of his life prior to adulthood.
The betrothal of Joseph and Mary, and the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem appear in both Matthew and Luke. Many events in the Luke account are not in the Gospel of Matthew, - for example, the trip from Nazareth to Bethlehem - and others appear only in Matthew, such as the Flight to Egypt.
The Nativity accounts in the New Testament are generally viewed as ending with finding Jesus in the temple several years later, after the family has returned to Galilee.
Christmas morning long ago. The children playing parlor games near the Christmas tree.
Christmas never brings San Francisco children any snow. Santa Claus has to leave his sleigh and reindeer behind him in the muddy roads, and take to his good stout legs in order to bring the little San Franciscans their toys and sweet- meats. Jack Frost makes few calls and very short stops, so that the boys and girls who live in the sunshine that rests upon the Golden Gate find it hard to understand the Eastern tradition of Christmas cold and Christmas snows. The fields and forests in their pure white robes, the cold star-lit heavens at night, the noon-day sun sparkling in a million tiny ice-crystals, the merry skaters on the frozen lake or river, the sleds hurtling down the long coast, the jingling sleigh bells, the images and forts and caves our young builders construct out of the thawing snow, - all these the San Francisco boy has never known.
It occasionally happens that a sudden snowfall on the mountains on the opposite side of the bay robes Monte Diablo and her sister ranges in a shimmering white veil, and the whole population of the city looks eagerly across the water at the novel and beautiful spectacle. And, once, years ago, a genuine snow-storm swept over San Francisco and made its people, young and old, wild with excitement and glee. It was comical to see staid old merchants and other grown-ups rush out, grasp handfuls of the frosty mixture and pelt each other with it, frolicking like a lot of New England schoolboys, while the San Francisco children, at first astonished and half-afraid at the unfamiliar sight, soon caught the contagion of the hour, and entered with enthusiasm into what would probably be their only opportunity to know the joys of a real winter. With shouts and laughter the boys tumbled about in the snow, improvised sleds, piled up mimic forts, pelted each other and the passers-by; in short, behaved much like the children of more frigid latitudes. The girls were quite as excited as the boys, romping and shouting in their glee, and snow-balling each other and their friends. The few workers who ventured out had a hard time of it. They were pelted and rolled in the snow-drifts until they looked more like Eskimos than Celestials.
But this was one experience in a life-time for a San Francisco child. In all its recorded history since the white man became a dweller by the Golden Gate this was the only occasion when a real snow-storm visited it, while it has never known a snowy Christmas. In December as in mid-summer the rose-bushes are covered with blossoms white and red, the climbing fuchsias swing their purple bells, smilax, heliotrope, geranium and calla lilies bloom in the garden. The poet E. R. Sill, looking at the floral loveliness of such a winter from his Berkeley windows fronting the Golden Gate, sings his wonder:
"Can this be Christmas? - Sweet as May,
With drowsy sun and dreamy air,
And new grass pointing out the way
For flowers to follow everywhere.
O wondrous gift, in goodness given,
Each hour anew our eyes to greet,
An earth so fair - so close to Heaven,
'Twas trodden by the Master's feet."
Once upon a time, a number of us, teachers in the Pilgrim Sunday-school of San Francisco, sat in conference and planned our coming Christmas festival. We had some four hundred children to provide for; as bright and happy a lot as ever were gathered within a Sunday-school.
Every year, a great Christmas festival was held in a public hall, to which the children and their friends were invited, and the proceeds of which paid nearly the entire expenses of the school for the ensuing year. We had about completed our arrangements. The tree, the gifts, the music, the tableaux, the addresses, the supper, all had been assigned to efficient committees. Only one feature remained for discussion, - the proper entrance and introduction of Santa Claus, who had never yet failed to appear at our feast. We had well-nigh exhausted, in previous years, the various possible methods of introducing the good old saint. One year, we had him pop up suddenly through a trap door on the stage; once, he came tumbling down a great chimney-piece; and, once again, he arrived just in the nick of time, and stood waving us a welcome high above our heads, from whence he climbed down nimbly on a rope, hand under hand, to the screaming delight of the children, but to the serious derangement of his pack and his stomach. But, now, we were at an end with our devices.
"I have it!" said Fred Gummer. "Let's stick to the old tradition, and have him dragged into the hall in a sleigh drawn by deer."
"But you forget," rejoined our wise-headed and devoted superintendent, Horace Davis, smiling behind his glasses, - "you forget that Santa always leaves his turn-out behind him, and trudges to San Francisco on foot."
"Very true," answered Fred; "but I know a mountaineer who has just brought to town two live deer. They are quite tame, and we can obtain their use for the evening. A neat sleigh, with little rollers hidden under the runners, can be built, and fitted up with buffalo robes, bells, etc.; thus equipped, Kriss Kringle can for once enter the hall in a state becoming his dignity."
All declared this to be a capital suggestion, and it was at once adopted.
"Now, if we could only arrange as easily for a snow-storm that evening," said Elizabeth Easton, one of our most loyal teachers, "the thing would be complete."
"And why not?" cried Charlie W.
"Leave that to me. I have a notion on the subject, and can promise you a genuine snowfall."
And to this also all agreed.
The next day, two or three of us, who had been let into the secret, went to a book-binder, and arranged for a large supply of the long and narrow clippings of paper which are shaved off in the process of making up a book. Then, at a Chinese employment office, we hired two stout gentlemen, who were set to work in an upper loft of a friend's store. Each person was furnished with a large pair of shears, glittering and sharp. As neither of them could understand a word of our language, with many gestures and grimaces they were instructed to sit by a huge heap of the paper clippings, and cut them into little pieces, or flakes, letting these fall into a packing-box before them. Both Hop Lee and Wo Fun stolidly set to work. They patiently snipped away all that day and the next, until their hands were too weary to hold the shears. It was not an inspiring task, but they performed it with religious exaltation and awe. For it is their custom to prepare such small bits of paper inscribed with sacred Chinese characters by their priests, and to throw them by handfuls into the air or burn them, in order to ward off the evil spirits which they believe are ever hovering about to do them harm. So our temporary employees felt they were assisting at a religious ceremony of sorts; and who, re-recalling what our Christmas celebration is, shall say that they were not?
The afternoon of Christmas day came at last; and Piatt's Hall was filled with a large and noisy company of little ones, romping, dancing, shouting, and trooping down to the cavernous-looking supper room below. On the stage, behind a huge screen, stood the Christmas tree, a tremendous specimen of its kind. As the day wore on the older folk arrived, and presently the exercises began. The children lustily sang their Christmas carols, the young men and women surpassed themselves in tableaux and shadow pantomimes, and between the acts the children danced to merry music. In the meantime, a half dozen of us, each with a bag full of paper snow-flakes on his shoulders, found our way up over the ceiling of the hall, and crept, candle in hand, across the slender rafters. The space was so low we could not stand upright. A single misstep, and our foot would go crashing through the lath and mortar ceiling, and hang like a signal of distress over the heads of the audience below. "How hot it is up here!" grumbled Charlie Murdock. "My snow will melt before I get to my position." "Be careful that you don't set fire to your snow with that candle," cried another. So, with laughter and retort, we each crawled to one of the great ventilators through which the heated air escaped from the hall below; and, dumping our pile of flakes conveniently near it, we stretched out on the rafters, peered down at the spectacle beneath us, and awaited the signal at which we were to begin snowing.
It was a pretty sight we gazed down upon, the great hall glittering with lights and filled with a brilliant and ever-shifting company, the children circling in the merry dance or standing in eager groups awaiting the arrival of Santa Claus. Surrounded by a company of friends and parishioners, stood the minister of the church, stalwart Horatio Stebbins, then not long arrived in California, but already a conspicuous figure.
On the fringe of the crowd, a slender, dark-haired man with laughing eyes stood nervously twitching his glossy mustache, or bent to listen to his children's prattle. Who among all that great company would have dreamed that this shy and as yet little known man, Frank Bret Harte, was in coming years to confer such luster on his adopted State, Immortalizing in tale and poem the beauty and romance of California, even as Starr King embodied for us in his brilliant oratory and martyr life the patriotism and loyalty of that land of sunshine and gold. And there, too, the central figure who brought order and purpose Into all the confusion and noise, was our genial superintendent, even more at home among the children than on the floor of Congress where, in after years, he made for himself an honorable record.
All this and more we gazed down upon from our high perch. But, now, the music came to a sudden stop. The children eagerly crowded up to the front of the stage, the screen was drawn aside, and there stood the giant Christmas tree, glittering with lights, strung with goodies, shining with its mimic silver and gold, and loaded with gifts for all. The general "Ah!" that greeted its glories soon swelled to shrill cries of delight as with cheery shout and jingling bells old Santa Claus came driving into the hall in his well-stocked sleigh, drawn by two pretty, bounding deer. The children gathered around their old friend as he nimbly descended and gave them a hearty greeting. But wonders were never to cease that happy night. As the orchestra struck up the Sleigh-bell Polka, the very heavens above seemed to open, and for once at least in the annals of a San Francisco Christmas it snowed. Oh, how it did snow! At first, a few flakes fluttered down furtively, then more and faster, and faster and more furiously still, till the whole room seemed full of the tiny messengers of purity. They settled down on the tree with its glittering lights, on the beard of the good old saint, on the merry children who jumped up to catch them as they fell and sought to press them together into snowballs, while the old folk declared: "Yes, this reminds us of the scenes of our youth. This is something like what Christmas used to be." Meanwhile, we, having finished our task, brushed the dust and cobwebs from each other and descended, well pleased at having increased the festival joy of the children, and given San Francisco her first Christmas snow-storm.
Painting by Sigismud De Ivanowski and decorative border by Edward Edwards.
The whole life of Christ overflowed with love, and yet there never was a time in His thirty-three years on earth when He did not see the Cross. In His baby eyes was the shadow of Golgotha: His curls were tangled in a ghostly crown of thorns. The "way of the cross" certainly seemed to lead from the stable-door in Bethlehem. But the Divinity within Christ magnified and glorified Him, and fortified Him to bear up under the tortures that were meted out to Him. This Christ-child of the manger is the image of thousands of children of today born to suffering and poverty as was He. With this difference: they are human and have not the Divine fortitude to carry the burdens on their little shoulders as did He. And today while we are celebrating the birth of the Babe thousands upon thousands of His little blood-brethren are suffering because of cold and hunger. And other thousands of little ones will survive the rigors of the winter only to wither under the fearful assault of the seething summer. In every community today-close to our homes wherein we have warmth and light and plenty-these little brethren of Christ wear their thorns and the shadows of dark on their little hearts. What, then, can we all do that is more in the truest spirit of Christmas than to reach out our hands to these little brethren of Christ: to let a little warmth into their cold bodies: a little light into their dark souls: to bring light of happiness into their sad eyes: the smile, and the laugh, into their stern little faces? What greater honor can we pay to Christ than to see to it that every little soul is given a decent environment into which to be born and in which to life his little life? Is this to give too much? To begin to do this on Christmas Day and then to continue doing it all through the year: that is indeed Christlike, for as we do it unto the least of His little ones, so surely we do it unto Him.
There are many fine streets In this good town of mine. There's Walnut and Willow, Persimmon and Pine; And Broad Road, and Broad Way And High Street and Main- But none I love better Than Christmas-tree Lane.
You'll seek it in vain In all seasons but one. When snow-clouds are hiding The pale winter sun, And winds of December Blow cold at the pane- 'T is then you'll be finding This Christmas-tree Lane.
They come with their branches Of holly so gay, With garlands of ivy And mistletoe spray; And dozens of pine-trees They bring in their train To make the old market A Christmas-tree Lane.
The sight and the scent Of the sweet-smelling pine, They set me to dreaming An old dream of mine: I'd buy all the pine-trees, The high and the low, And trim them with presents For children I know.
Yes, deck all the branches With candy and toys, And send out a message For good girls and boys. I fancy I hear their Glad carol's refrain As slowly I wander Down Christmas-tree Lane.
I crafted this little lion for a child's tree using left-over notched popsicle sticks and just a few other supplies...
Supply List:
notched craft sticks
pair of googly eyes
scrap wooden round and heart
acrylic paints: yellow, white, brown, burnt sienna, pink and black
wood glue
Mod Podge
scrap cardboard
Step-by-Step Instructions:
Cut a circular shape to glue the pieces of wooden scraps and tips of notched popsicle sticks too.
Glue a circular wooden shape in the center to begin with.
Glue the first layer of notched sticks around the outside of this center piece.
Glue a second layer of faux 'wooden' mane using the notched pieces on top of the first layer to make the hair look full.
Glue on the heart shaped wooden piece upside down between two medium sized googly eyes to create a mussel.
Cut a small end from a popsicle stick for the lion's tongue. You will need to shape the end of it in an inverted V shape to fit it snuggly between the heart humps.
Using acrylics paint the lions head with similar colors and shades shown in the photo above.
After the paint drys cover the ornament with a layer of Mod Podge.
Glue a twine hanger to the back of the lion's head.
