Christmas Tree Inspiration
Our tree is not up yet. Since we always get a real tree, we usually don’t put it up until a couple of days before Christmas. So, until we can show off pics of our tree this year, here is some inspirational eye candy from around the internets.
Cute red and white tree:
Felt tree:
Edible decorations:
Felt deer tree:
Starfish tree:
Cookie tree:
Ribbon tree:
Charlie Brown’s Christmas tree:
How are you decorating your tree this year?
Wrapping Christmas presents: 2008
I am seriously behind with my Christmas presents this year, which is very out of the ordinary for me. So, instead of sharing how I’m wrapping my presents this year, here’s what I did last year:
For the deocrations I used moss, fake mushrooms, some felt shapes, as well as a ceramic deer and some simple diy gift tags.
Perchtenlauf
We already told you about the Austrian Nikolaus and Krampus tradition here. There is another similar tradition for adults: the Perchtenlauf. A Perchtenlauf is a parade of people dressed up as Perchten, which look very similar to Krampuses. The masks people wear are usually carved from wood and are majorly impressive. Every bigger town hosts a Perchtenlauf, where the Perchten parade along the major street and try to scare people. The show usually also involves some pyrotechnics and can be quite entertaining. We went to our town’s Perchtenlauf this past weekend and managed to get some great shots for you.
Here they come:
Scary!
It was a fun night!
Wrapping Christmas Presents
I love wrapping presents, and I do appreciate the package that a gift comes in almost as much as the gift itself. So, naturally every year before Christmas, I turn to the internets in search of creative and pretty wrapping ideas. Here’s what I find inspiring this year:
Beautiful simplicity:
Pom poms:
Rustic brown paper:
Doilies:
Garlands:
Birch bark:
What is inspiring your gift wrapping this year?
St. Nikolaus
Every 6th of December Austrian children get equally nervous and excited. It is the day of Saint Nikolaus. According to tradition, Nikolaus was a beneficiary of children, and today adults dress up as Nikolaus in a red bishop’s coat and a white wig and beard with a mitra and a crook (Nikolaus looks a lot like Santa!).
They go from house to house to visit children. The dressed up Nikolauses carry with them a golden book. The golden book contains all the good and bad things the kid did over the past year (info provided by the parents of course) and accordingly the Nikolauses praise or tell off the kids. Nikolaus also brings a stocking with him, which is usually filled with nuts, oranges, apples, chocolate, candy and maybe some small presents. Thus, Nikolaus is a very welcome guest. However, in this neck of the woods, if a kid hadn’t been very good over the year, Nikolaus might bring some friends with him, the Krampusse. A Krampus is a very scary creature totally covered in fur, with big horns and an ugly face.
The Krampusse also carry birches with them. Today the Krampusse don’t really visit kids at home anymore, instead they have become the source of adult entertainment. Most towns have Krampus parades, and the people dressing up as Krampusse take pride in their marvellously detailed costumes. The masks covering their faces are mostly hand carved out of heavy wood, and are true pieces of art that can scare even the toughest guys. Fortunately, both the boy and I were good this year, and were only visited by Nikolaus, who brought this with him:
The loot:
Have a great Saint Nikolaus day!
Handmade Christmas Gifts
We are always trying to diy at least some of our Christmas gifts. We feel like homemade gifts are a great way to give something unique with a lot of meaning. Handmade gifts are also great for those people, who are notriously hard to shop for (I’m talking about you Dad!), and for those, who don’t like the consumerist aspects of the season. However, since neither Richard or I are particularly good at things like knitting or crochet, we tend to stick to easier crafts. This year’s inspiration for homemade Christmas gifts includes the following:
Silhouette pictures:
Wooden votive holders:
Painted china:
Christmas tree hairclips:
Homemade bath bombs:
Fridge magnets:
DIY felt stockings:
Fake pottery:
Glamorous diy earrings:
Dyed wooden bead necklace:
Map trays:
Embellished dog leash:
Are you gonna diy any gifts this year?
DIY moss wreath
We’ve never diyed a wreath before, so decided to keep it simple.
We got a cheap styrofoam base at a local craft supplies store,
and collected some moss in the woods. You could buy some fake moss if you want to make a reusable wreath. When you collect your own moss, make sure to remove as much of the dirt as possible before moving on to the next step.
Once your moss is relatively clean, go get your trusted glue gun and start applying glue to a small part of your styrofoam base just like this:
Don’t skimp on the glue and add one patch of moss quickly before the glue dries.
Repeat until your wreath is mostly covered. Then proceed to fill in any areas that aren’t fully covered with smaller patches of moss.
Oh, and don’t make a huge mess on your floor like we did. You should always, always work on a big piece of cardboard when moss is involved. Trust me, I’ve learned the hard way:
Now, you could leave the wreath as it is. You can achieve quite dramatic effects due to its simplicity and great colour.
However, we decided to add some decorations to our wreath. We added some ribbon and a felt deer using pins to secure everything.
To hang the wreath, we wrapped the same ribbon around the top of our wreath, again using pins to keep it in place.
And finally, the wreath is ready to be hung!
Clever Holiday Wreaths
I love love love Christmas. It’s by far my favourite holiday. But with the unusually warm weather in Austria, I haven’t really gotten into the holiday spirit yet. So, to make myself and everyone else feel all Christmasy, I have planned a Christmas extravaganza for the month of December with posts about decorations, gifts, trees and everything else I can think of. I’m gonna kick things off today with a roundup of inspirational and unusual Christmas wreath ideas. Enjoy!
Rustic cranberry string wreath:
Adorable gingerbread men wreath:
Cute popcorn wreath:
Stunning origami wreath:
Colourful fabric wreath:
Lovely yarn wreath:
Elegant button adorned wreath:
Clever paper wreath:
Do you use wreaths to decorate your home?
Winter blooms
Look what we found on our Sunday walk yesterday:
Gorgeous, no?
Beer advent calendar
Richard’s family gets the same advent calendar from us every year: a beer advent calendar. It is always appreciated, requires little work and can be done last minute. This year’s version looked like this:
Here’s what you need to do to make your own:
Get a crate of beer, some brown paper, white ribbon, alphabet stickers, felt or paper shapes (or other decorations that you have around), round stickers and a glue gun.
Glue the brown paper around the crate. We only covered the lower part of the crate with the paper. Then glue your ribbon onto the paper. We glued the ribbon onto the top edge of the paper to give everything a polished look. Use your paper shapes or other decorations like stickers to embellish the front side of the crate. We glued some felt leaves and circles on the upper left corner of the front of our crate. We also used black alphabet stickers to write “Enjoy” on the paper covered part of the crate.
Write the numbers 1 to 24 on the round stickers.
Put the numbered stickers on the caps of the beer bottles.
Done!
