Deck the halls Angel’s way
● Make Christmas decorations by adding family images to wooden discs. Choose pictures you love from past Christmases and print them on to waxed paper. Cut out small wooden discs, stick on the photos, then finish with a thin coat of varnish, a hanging loop, beads and glitter glue for sparkle. You could also use them as gift tags, personalise them further with names to create place markers for the table, or cut a large branch from the garden and hang the pictures from it to make a genuine family tree!
● For an alternative Advent calender, hang numbered, decorated mini buckets from a chain or ribbon. Alternatives can be tiny plant pots, little glass jars or small gift boxes. First, decorate the buckets with Christmas wrapping paper, feathers, winter foliage such as holly and berries, dried flowers or festive family pictures. Number the buckets and fill with treats. They don’t have to be for children and they don’t have to be filled with sweets – you could use small toys, or puzzle pieces that build through the month.
● To make personalised Santa sacks, use Christmas fabric or velvet, or you could cut up an old dress. Make sure it’s big enough for all those lovely gifts, though! The easiest method is to sew it into a big rectangle. You don’t need to make a channel for the cord – just hem neatly or use pinking shears to give a fancy edge, then fill with gifts and tie it closed with a cord or ribbon. Decorate with sparkles, ribbons, bows and gems, names or initials; you could even print pictures on to T-shirt printing paper and iron those on.