Shop Hop Gives Christmas Ornaments

We all know that we need a little Christmas when the days reach their shortest. Even back to the Egyptians, homes were decorated with evergreen boughs. We also know that the Druids, Vikings, etc. had winter solstice rituals.

In Germany, they had already begun decorating trees that had lost their leaves with nuts and fruits to symbolize the coming of spring. The idea of bringing an evergreen inside popped up in 1605 and paper roses and candles were added to the fruits and nuts. In the US, popcorn and cranberries were added to paper streamers and metal foil.

Manufactured ornaments also started in Germany. In the 1890's, Woolworth's Dept store, in the United States, sold 25 million dollars' worth of hand-blown glass ornaments imported from Germany. I'm sure right now you are thinking of your favorite childhood ornament. Mine was a red plastic horn that belonged to my father.

Returning from the Shop Hop, I opened my little sandwich bags and found two ornaments were already made and 2 kits for making them. I took out the directions and looked them over. The directions said they didn't require a sewing machine, but hand stitching on buttons was par for the course.

There also seemed to be quite a bit of folding, which is a challenge to my arthritic hands.

Don't get me wrong! I totally loved the idea that they gave out ornaments, especially because there were some I'd never seen before. So here goes!

The one I chose to make had a curtain grommet for the center. Each of the folded leaves was arranged around the grommet and sewed on with a button. The jingle bell went in the center. Packages of curtain grommets are not expensive or hard to find and they come in gold, silver, and pewter. You can snap a photo into the grommet, and/or decorate with lace, paper, buttons, and more.

This pattern says it was designed by Betty Gormick and is dated 2020. Here is my finished ornament!

Of course, you will want to look online for Christmas ornament patterns that have meaning for you. To give you a hint, here are some that caught my eye:

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• Cover any form with fabric from the shirt of a favorite person that you would like to remember.
• Make a lollipop ornament for a child.
• Tie fabric around a cinnamon stick to look like a tree. Smells good too!
• Any pin cushion with the right shape and fabric will make an ornament. Or, why not decorate a 3-foot tree with sewing notions?

Oh look! I found a panel with a Christmas train! I only own 19 Christmas trains – what's one more?