I went to Catholic elementary school. Much time was spent in class between Thanksgiving and Christmas making a highly involved craft gift for our parents, nearly always of a religious nature, of course, except for the one year when we glued individual red pistachio shells all over a pointsettia cut out and then shellac-ed it. There was the profile of a wise man, covered with macaroni and spray painted gold. There were 3D Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus dioramas... there was an advent wreath. That was my favorite, because I liked pink and purple.
I still get sort of crafty around the holidays, often this craftiness takes the form of a handmade or self-designed Christmas/holiday/winter solstice/Japanese New Year card. Last year DD and I worked on them together. The theme was gingerbread men.
The resulting cards kind of looked like something a ten year old would make, but they were cute. We recently discussed different themes and ideas this year, coming close to agreeing on one, and then throwing in the towel and deciding to just BUY preprinted, boxed holiday cards. We're totally giving up, I know.
Choosing them is not as easy as it would seem. Everything feels falsely cheerful and ironic to me. You know, penguins doing cute things, ditto polar bears--I mean, let's face global warming. The wintry scenes have always felt weird to me... I grew up in Southern California, where the closest thing to a white Christmas was my mom saying, "Should we get a flocked tree this year? Should we? They're pretty, huh? Should we? Nah." I try to go for general holiday messages out of the desire to respect everyone's spiritual beliefs. Also important to me is paper quality. I love nice paper!
These are two pretty appealing designs, although neither quite nail it for me. Almost. "Hope Peace Cookies" is a Kate Spade design, and the bright stars are available at the Museum of Modern Art store.
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