30 November 1956 “Home-Made not Ready-Made Christmas”

I thought I would keep interjecting the next week or so with  some of the home-made decorating, gift making, table setting ideas from my vintage magazines.
To get us started I thought this home movie of a family enjoying their town’s Christmas decorations would give us a good spirit. As you can see, many of these wonderful outdoor decorations are obviously hand-made. And, I must say, say much more about the industrious spirit and innate artistic talents we, as a people, once displayed. No going to the big store and buying the giant ‘fan filled plastic blow up’ Christmas decorations. These were cut by hand from wood, or fastened with other materials, painted and constructed with our thoughts and hopes. Anyone can go and buy something and, as our towns now show, the homogeneousness of towns with all the same stores seems to be true to our Christmas. Any town in any state in the USA may have the same things in their yard all bought at the big box store. Why even bother? Why not make something original that will have meaning to those who have them in the future.
“Remember when Father cut and made this Santa out of wood?” is much nicer than, “Remember how we bought these for a few bucks and everyone had one?” Not that they will last long enough to be handed down.
Any way, enjoy this:

This darling little tree decorated with ballerina’s would delight any little girl’s room. The little figures could also become anything: Little toy soldiers, Christmas Carolers you name it!
This tree could be made with all sorts of fun ribbon as well as the paper they used. A great way to use ribbon from previous Christmas. Try and save and reuse old paper, ribbon and cards. Why fill the landfill when you can fill your brain with ideas and your wallet with more money you DON’T spend on new paper and ribbons and decorations?!
This wonderful little tree could do well in a modern or antique setting depending on the colors and striped patterns used by you. It is made with yarn and left over or extra yarn is easy to come by. Why not even take an old moth eaten sweater that can’t be used for patching sweater elbows, making pot holders, or dolls, and unwind it and make a darling little tree. Father’s old sweater, rich with pipe smoke, that you recalled him wearing and reading the times is now a Christmas tree! That is what good memories, with no expense, are built upon. I think old ribbon and even garden twine would lend itself to this design, don’t you?
Here are the easy to follow instructions. Let me know if you make these and what other ideas with these plans you can think of. Home-made Christmas, here we come!
Happy Homemaking.