It’s Christmas time already! We have the tree up and decorations started, even have a couple of presents wrapped. To help you stay organized this year I created a 23-page Farmhouse Christmas Planner to keep everything straight.
I can remember when I was small, we would get our Christmas tree from a farm down the road from where we lived. We would walk all over the place to find the perfect tree. After we got home mom made us hot chocolate, the old recipe kind of with real cocoa powder. Picking out our tree was one of my best memories growing up.
You can plan your Christmas decorations inside and out with these planner pages. If you find things on sale after the holidays jot those down for next year.
Christmas Gifts Tracker Pages
If you’re like me you like to buy some of your gifts early. Just don’t forget where you stashed them. With these Christmas gift tracker pages, your gift-giving will be a snap!
Christmas Wall Art
With countdown, Christmas Paper Chain, and Gift Tags round off this planner with some fun craft projects you can do with the kids. When my kids were little we made these paper chains because my son’s birthday was on the 22nd. Each of us would make paper chains with red and green construction paper. I would cut out the paper strips and let the boys decorate each day. My son would make a special one for his birthday. Every morning they would run to their chain and take one ring off. It was super fun to watch our chains get smaller and smaller. What a fun memory!
I hope you enjoy this Farmhouse Christmas Planner, I really loved creating it, with the calico fabric theme going with it. Totally reminds me of my childhood Christmas!
I think the best part of making Christmas decorations with the kids was the memories we made, and each year when we unpack the ornaments, we remember those times together with each treasured creation. Below are 4 fun and easy old fashioned Christmas decorations to make with your family.
One of our traditions during Christmas was to make old fashion handmade ornaments for the tree. We would be so excited to decide on what to make. I found simple projects to make with the kids while listening to Christmas music. We made paper ornaments, clothespin airplanes, and paper chains to name a few.
Popcorn Stringing
If you like strung popcorn, it’s really simple to make. Start with a big bowl of popcorn (unbuttered, of course) and string it piece by piece using a standard sewing needle and thread. Make sure there’s plenty of popcorn for your tree and make one for outside for the birds to eat.
Cranberry Stringing
Much like the popcorn stringing method, many people used to string cranberries using a standard needle and thread. Again, make sure there’s plenty to go around if you’re going to use it as garland. Most importantly, and I know it’s tempting, don’t eat all the decorations. Save some for the Christmas tree.
Paper Chains
One of the greatest memories of decorating for Christmas, as a child, has to be the old fashioned paper chains decorations. I carried on that tradition with my own kids. My son’s birthday was the 22nd. I wanted his birthday to be special. Not just Christmas and Birthday all in one. So we created 25 chains, and he made his own ring, decorating it with crayons for his special day. Then each day he would take off one ring for a countdown to his birthday and Christmas. We all loved that tradition. Now that he’s gone, that memory is a cherished one to me.
Using green and red construction paper, cut horizontal strips of each color. Fold them into a circle and seal with tape. Scotch tape is recommended and, if you use this when your child is young, the smell will always remind them of Christmas. It will likely become “Christmas tape” to them. Once you have a complete circle, take another strip in alternating color and run it through the first circle. Next, fold it around and seal with tape. Complete this step until you have a big strand of paper garland in red and green. You and your child will enjoy doing this together and it will create wonderful memories for you both.
If you love the look of a lighted wreath, but don’t quite have a budget for one of the more expensive ones, consider another option. You can purchase a plain green wreath very inexpensively. A small strand of lights can cost anywhere from $1.00 to $3.00. But, put them together and you have the look of a professionally lighted Christmas wreath. For this project, you could use either clear or multi-colored Christmas lights. Simply take the plain green wreath and wrap the lights around in a design similar to the stripes on a candy cane. Once you’ve gone all the way around, tuck the last light into the green of the wreath. Make sure that you place it near an electric outlet because there won’t be a lot of extra cords. Now that you’re ready, plug it in and see your very own design. A red bow is a nice touch, but not necessary. As people drive by, they will see a beautifully lit wreath in your window and they will have no idea that you saved a few bucks by wrapping the lights yourself.
I hope you’ve enjoyed my post on some easy Old fashioned Christmas Decorations To Make. Why not start your own family tradition by creating a paper chain countdown this year.
Coloring is a perfect way to relax this holiday, in between shopping and decorating the house find some quiet time alone to reflect on the holiday with these beautiful Christmas tree printable coloring pages.
But first here’s a look at some Traditional Christmas Tree History!
The Art Of Decorating Christmas Tree’s
Evergreens were used to decorate homes during winter long before Christmas became a holiday. Evergreens were believed to keep witches, ghosts, evil spirits, and illnesses away from homes where they were displayed.
Germany is credited with the traditional Christmas Tree celebration of decorating trees and bringing them into their homes. It was so popular in fact that due to so many people cutting down tree’s they opted for Feather Tree’s made out of duck feathers instead of cutting down the trees. I have a few feather tree’s in my house year-round.
By 1890, Christmas ornaments were arriving in America from Germany and the Christmas tree became popular in the U.S. In the early 20th century most Americans were using homemade ornaments on their trees. While Europeans liked their trees to be small, Americans liked their trees to reach from floor to ceiling. Popular homemade ornaments included popcorn strings decorated by being dyed bright colors and laced with berries and nuts. Electricity changed the tree to include electric lights and trees began to glow in town squares and in homes all across America, making the Christmas Tree, an American tradition.
Many cities claim to be the first city to have a Christmas tree in America including Windsor Locks, a city in Connecticut. They claim that a Hessian soldier put up a Christmas tree in 1777 while he was imprisoned at the Noden-Reed House, making it the first Christmas tree in New England.
Easton, Pennsylvania also claims that German settlers put up a Christmas tree in 1816. There is a diary entry made by Matthew Zahm, of Lancaster Pennsylvania, which says a Christmas tree was put up in 1832.
A German immigrant living in Boston, Charles Follen, claimed the custom itself of decorating the Christmas tree. Another German immigrant from Wooster, Ohio is said to have made popular the practice of decorating the Christmas tree by cutting down spruce trees from a wooded area by his town, and having a tinsmith construct a star, he placed the tree in his house, decorating it with paper ornaments and candy canes. He was recognized by the National Confectioners’ Association as being the first to put candy canes on a Christmas tree. Those first candy canes were all white though and had no red stripes.
The Christmas tree today is a very important part of the celebration of Christmas. The tree symbolizes life.
I love pumpkins this time of year. We like to buy them to decorate the farm, after Halloween and Thanksgiving are over we cut them up and give them to the chickens. I thought it would be fun to add some pumpkin printable coloring pages on my site for everyone to enjoy!
I think a perfect way to wind down the day is to break out the colored pencils and color. It helps me relax and get my mind off the stresses going on around me. I found a few cute pumpkin coloring pages perfect for the holidays for you to download.
Pumpkin Printable Coloring Pages For Adults
I love carved pumpkins, this one has just enough scare for me, but not too scary. You can download this carved pumpkin coloring page here.
I like all the different pictures on this coloring page, so much going to see and color. I love it! You can download this Halloween pumpkin coloring page here.
Download these as much as you like, they are for personal use only and can’t be sold. If you like this and would like to get more free printables each month and also get the keys to unlock my Super Secret Printables Library, then click the link below to find out more.
How about some fun Printable Halloween Party Games to download? These would be fun to do with your friends or even a fun way to spend the afternoon.
I used to have a Halloween party each year, we would invite all our friends over and everyone would dress up. We played games, had our tractor hooked up the wagon that was full of hay bales. What fun we had?
The kids would run around all night with flashlights playing in the cornfield maze we made for them. It was a blast.
Now that they are grown, our parties are more relaxed. I was looking for some Halloween party games printables we could play with a couple of our friends. I ended up creating my own.
Halloween Word Games
In this pack of Halloween games, you’ll find a mixture of word games. These are always fun. Just print them out, so you have enough for everyone. Here’s what you get in this pack.
8 pages of Halloween Games and Cover
•Villain Match Game
•Halloween Scattergories
•Halloween Word List
•Witch Matching Game
•Halloween Word Search
•Halloween Crossword
•Halloween Word Scramble
•Cover Page
Halloween Scavenger Hunt Printable Game
In the second pack of Halloween printables, I added 10 different games. One of them is a scavenger hunt. I love those! Pick a couple of games from this pack for your next party. Here’s what you get.
10 pages of Halloween Games and Cover
~Cover
~Halloween Word Race
~Halloween Movie Trivia
~Halloween Family Feud 2 pages
~Halloween Scavenger Hunt
~Creepy Connected Words
~Game Winners List
~Shopping List
~Notes
Halloween Notebook Printables Lined Paper
You might also like my lined Halloween notepaper that you can print out and use in your planner or send a note to someone special. I have fun making these too. Here’s what you’ll get:
12 pages of Halloween Lined Notebook Pages and Cover
~Cute Cover
~2-Ghost Pages, Colored, and BW
~2-Notes Pages, Colored, and BW
~2- Cat Broom Pages, Colored, and BW
~2- Skull Pages, Colored, and BW
~2- Witch on Broom Pages, Colored, and BW
~Witch Saying Page Insert
Get your party started with these Halloween Party Games Printables, enjoy laughter, and some friendly competition with your friends and family. You might even want to buy a few cheap prizes to give away to the winners.
Wouldn’t it be great if everyone started sending letters again in the mail? I started doing just that with my friend’s daughter a couple of years ago. She loves to tell stories and I thought it would be fun to write letters back and forth. Why not start a new tradition today with your family grab the free Printable Easter Stationery and get to writing that letter!
It’s been so much fun writing back and forth with my Pen Pal!
I look forward to receiving her letters in the mail. Because I never know what story she will be spinning for me. Will it be a story of space, because she just watched all the old Star Wars movies? Or will it be a story from way back in 1940 after she received an American Girl doll for her birthday?
I never know, and that makes it so entertaining for us both.
Let’s slow down and write letters again. Start something new with your family, get them to turn off those devices, and practice handwriting. Have them write to their grandparents. My boys received gum in the mail from their Nana. It was always fun to check the mailbox and see if a letter had arrived.
I’ve created this really cute Free Printable Easter Stationery and giving you instant access to them. Get started this Easter with this new tradition. Send some letters to your friends and family. Print off as many as you want. Gather some addresses from people at church that can’t make it to service. Write letters to your friends you’ve lost touch with, but always send a Christmas card too.
Get the kids involved and have them start writing to their cousins that live far away. Create a new tradition of writing letters again. Most of all have fun the old fashion way.
