Our first homemade Christmas began last year. I started the season with expensive grand plans, but ended the season with homemade treasures and memories I will never forget.
We were about to celebrate our first Christmas in the first home we owned, so I was going big! Well, that first home had quickly eaten up our Christmas budget. It may sound strange, but it was the best thing that happened to us. It was time to get creative which is what I do best.
We really wanted our boys to be involved with 
decorating the tree, but I didn’t want to spend all of December guarding it. I decided that a smaller artificial tree with handmade ornaments would work.
- How would we make the ornaments? I wanted to use items I already had and involve the boys in making the ornaments.
- I ended up having them finger paint on poster board, and after it dried, I used cookie cutters to trace Christmas shapes. We cut out all of the different shapes, punched a hole in them, and added some ribbon.
- We had ornaments left over after decorating our tree, so I had back-ups for when the boys ripped them; which happened.
- Our boys decorated our tree with their homemade ornaments and Dollar Store holiday scarves. The tree became a toy that they decorated and redecorated daily.
Next came presents. For our boys, we had been shopping ahead of time all year–so they were pretty much set. I have to give my mom credit for this idea. She does her holiday shopping all year long which helps with the purse strings in December.
I can’t lie to you, I was a bit panicky about what presents to buy for everyone else for this homemade holiday. Once again, it was time to get creative.
The idea came from my best friend. We made mistle-“toes.” Super easy! Super cute! Dip your little ones’ feet into green paint and have them stamp them on a canvas or paper. Next, add in some berries and ribbon using paint or a marker–and you have a personal, cute gift. I used card stock, paint, and markers and framed them using Dollar Store frames. Everyone loved them!
We made cookies for our neighbors, the mailman, and our friends. My boys joined in on the cookie making too. We packaged the cookies in baby formula and Puffs containers I had saved, washed really well, and covered in winter-themed duct tape (again from the Dollar Store). 
- To produce useable wrapping paper, I collected brown paper bags, let the boys paint on them, and we had wrapping paper.
- For gift tags, I used the extra ornaments we didn’t use on the tree or that the boys didn’t rip.
- I can’t forget our first attempt at salt dough ornaments; we made some cute hand print ornaments. We have perfected our salt dough and have some new ornaments coming this year.
Our homemade Christmas was far from lacking Christmas spirit and started a tradition. We had so much fun creating last year that we are having another homemade Christmas this year. The boys and I began planning in August for this year. Hopefully with each year we will get more creative, have more fun, and create even more special memories.
