Christmas in July- Planning for a handmade Holiday.

About 5 months after I had frugal kid number 1 I realized something. It is not possible to work full time and be the kind of Mom who goes all out at EVERY holiday, and birthday and “event”. It seems like with 3 kids there is ALWAYS something going on that can be celebrated and while I’m a big fan of celebrating life in general, I’m not going to be up into the wee hours of the night making sure that my kids have 4th of July themed outfits to match their flag shaped whoozy whats its.

BUT I can be the type of Mom who does that some of the time. For me that’s birthdays, Christmas and Valentine’s Day (because it’s my favorite holiday) and I go ALL out, like embarrassing levels of ALL out (we have a christmas shower curtain). That does not however equal spending lots of money, a lot of our decorations I have purchased after Christmas on super sale, and I also have a lot of handmade decorations.

In addition to handmade decorations, I am a big fan of handmade gifts, but handmade gifts  take time and every year I end up staying awake until the wee hours of the morning sewing, glueing, crocheting etc. etc. But not this year! This post is my promise that I’m going to start planning now! Here are my plans for 5 things I’m making in advance and 5 tips for planning your own homemade Christmas!

5 things I’d like to make:

1. Pillowcases with crocheted edges. I have found some awesome vintage looking fabric on fabric.com
2. Crocheted hats. I do this every year and the kids are always a big fan.
3. Frugal baby needs to have a blanket like the ones I have made for Frugal Kids #1 and #2. I plan on making a flannel rag quilt.
4. I’d like to crochet a certain grown up in my life (name withheld in case they’re reading) a set of placemats.
5. Lastly I have had felt ornaments on my list each year for the past 3 years and always run out of time. I’d like to make a few for each of the Frugal Kids and some for the nieces and nephews (we have 17!!).

5 tips for planning your homemade Christmas

1. Pinterest is my go to source for finding tutorials, but I’ve also found pictures of items that I’ve been able to make just from the picture.
2. Start early! This post is your kick in the buns to get moving. Handmade gifts take time but are so worth it!
3. If you want to learn a new skill and get some more detail, youtube is fabulous! You can pause, and rewind as much as you want (I taught myself to crochet this way).
4. I have a nice clean plastic bin with a lid that I store my creations in. The last thing you want is to have something happen to your hard work!
5. Checkout etsy- there are lots of shops on etsy that do some of the prep work for you (cut fabric squares for a quilt etc), or use it for inspiration to make your own!

What items do you plan on making for the holidays? I’d love to hear from you in the comments.