Making Christmas Ornaments
Some years ago, I met up with some former school-fellows, and we decided to meet for lunch to catch up properly. We hadn’t seen some of them for decades. Since then our little group (all women — we didn’t invite the boys) have met four times a year on predetermined dates.
(Sorry about the giant photos, I can’t seem to shrink them to the size I want.)
Sometimes we eat out, sometimes we order in pizza and sometimes we visit galleries or gardens or do some other activity. Most of the time it’s “bring a plate” so nobody has a big cooking session to worry about. (“Bring a plate” is an Australian term, meaning bring something to share — I imagine like a US “potluck’. I’m explaining because when an American friend of mine first got an invitation with “bring a plate” she thought it meant the hosts didn’t have enough plates, so she just brought a plate — empty. Luckily there’s always too much food anyway.)
This time we had decided to do a craft activity, and I had suggested making Christmas ornaments from paper. Some people were a little dubious at first, thinking it would be something like the simple paper chains and hanging lanterns of the sort we all made back in primary school, and others were worried it would be too hard. But once I showed them the kind of thing I meant, they all agreed.
I’ve been making paper ornaments for years, and used to make them with high school kids at the end of the year, when the curriculum is done, and the over 15 year olds are allowed to leave but the under 15’s have to stay at school until the official last day. (Our school year ends just before Christmas and then the long summer holidays start.)
So we used to combine the “leftovers” into one class and we’d do different fun and educational activities with them, and making ornaments out of paper was one of my offerings. I enjoy making things, but I don’t have the patience for really fiddly origami, so the ornaments we made are all quite easy to make, and the results, I think, are very pretty. They’re also so light they catch the slightest breeze.
We started the day making ornaments, then broke for lunch, then back to ornaments and then broke again for dessert. Then we finished with tea/coffee and chocolates. So we got to catch up as usual, and talked all afternoon, and also felt a tiny bit challenged and also productive. And everyone went home very happy with their ornaments, and are planning to make more at home, which pleased me greatly.
On the right are some teardrop ornaments that I made from scrap paper to demonstrate how to make them. Very simple to make, but so graceful when hanging up.
Do you make ornaments for Christmas? If you do, I’d love to know what ones you make.
And if you’re interested in how to make these simple but elegant paper ornaments, let me know.
