Christmas in the Woods Ornament

Growing up, my mom and a dear family friend would plan Christmas Eve together. These two friends started planning months ahead of December 24th. Christmas Eve was always an exciting evening! Our two families would get together in Sunday best and enjoyed not only a delicious holiday meal, but also participated in a well-planned out holiday program. Each year we had a theme and the theme would be reflected in that evening's activities, games, and service project. We also always re-enacted Luke 2. Some years the theme was a Christmas symbol and other years the theme was a country. I remember years dedicated to the Christmas star or the Christmas bell or the Christmas tree. I also remember one year when we dedicated our Christmas Eve to Christmas in Sweden. Heidi dressed up as St. Lucia and walked into the room with a wreath on her head with lit candles. Can you believe it?! I cherish these memories.

Today, my siblings and I continue this Christmas Eve program tradition in one form or another. This year many of us are working together (be it long distance) to plan the theme, Christmas in the Woods. Think Little House on the Prairie. Using email, phone calls, and texting, we've been exchanging ideas to bring this theme to life. I'm so excited!

My mom has been in town and helped me make this year's ornament to decorate the dinner place settings Christmas Eve night. Here's what we did.

First, buy some cinnamon sticks and break them in half. We found ours at Michael's.

Then, you'll need some greenery. Again, at Michael's we found this bunch of green leaf with red berries. I also liked the sparkle on this greenery. It makes the greenery look frosted.

You don't need to buy a lot of greenery because you'll be cutting it down.

Now the ornament's ribbon. When selecting your ribbon, channel your inner Laura Ingalls.

To make these ornaments look even more "woodsie," we found a bag of mini pine cones.

With your cinnamon sticks broken in half and your greenery snipped into smaller pieces, glue one piece of greenery per cinnamon stick using a glue gun. You only need a small dot of glue on the middle of your cinnamon stick for the greenery. The glue is to help hold your greenery in place before you secure it down with the ribbon.

Then, tie your ribbon around your cinnamon stick and greenery with a double knot. You want to make sure the knot is tight so it holds everything together. Then, with your two ends of ribbon, tie a knot at the top to create a loop so you can hang your ornament.

Finally, with your glue gun, glue a mini pine cone onto your ornament. The pine cone adds some extra "country."

I'm really excited about these ornaments! They are simple, sweet, and "woodsie" - perfect for this year's theme. Next week, I'll be posting more on this year's theme!