Stuff
My whole perception of stuff changed a lot when I moved to Italy. We don’t have a basement, a huge garage, an extra room or closets in our apartment. So when I buy something, or even when I decide not to throw away/giveaway something, I have to really think about why I want to keep it and where I’m going to put it.
In Canada I had several boxes of Christmas decorations. I even had Christmas towels, a few Christmas dishes, and I was into things like staging Christmas mantle tops and centerpieces.
When I moved to Italy I brought with me one huge suitcase and I shipped 8 boxes.
When you are forced to condense your entire existence into 8 boxes you really reflect on what you want to own and what you just happen to have. My photos, childhood story books, music, clothes and university essays all took precedence over Christmas decorations.
The only Christmas decorations I really wanted to keep were my grandmother’s glass ornaments from the 50s. They are beautiful, and because I loved them so much I gave them away to my older sister. I knew she would treasure them as much as me and keep them safe. This way I didn’t risk breaking them in the shipping process. I valued them so much I didn’t even need to keep them.
A Christmas Tree
I remember when I tried to convince my husband that we needed a real Christmas tree. He said absolutely no. The idea of cutting down a tree to use as decoration for a few weeks was absurd to him. I tried to combat with the argument that the creation of plastic trees causes pollution and also uses resources. And his response was “then we shouldn’t have a tree”.
I quickly agreed to a fake Christmas Tree! It’s white and has LED lights in the tips for a Christmasy fiber-optic feel, isn’t it so great (please be kind!) All of our Christmas decorations and tree fit into one small box.
Decorations
With this little amount of space I don’t hunt for glass ornaments at Christmas markets, I have no moving santas, we don’t have an elf on the shelf, we only have one string of lights, and my decorations are mostly simple plastic Christmas balls that we bought at IKEA a few years ago.
And you know what? I’m ok with this!
Christmas has always been my favorite time of year and no amount of stuff or lack of stuff will change that. I don’t feel like I’m missing out on anything, actually, I give so much more value to the few things I have. I take care of my fake fiber-optic tree, I carefully put away my IKEA decorations, and this year I had an idea….
This year, I wanted to make decorations that I knew I would valued more than ANYTHING I could ever buy in a store. So my son and I made them!
A Note on Hoarding
I heart recycling and I heart hoarding! And by hoarding I mean, I have a VERY hard time throwing something out that I’ve been given or have bought. And now that I have very little space it means that I think twice before buying anything.
Not only that, but if in someway I can recycle something into something else then I will keep it.
All of a sudden, when my son was born, I viewed every object in the universe as a potential craft. You name it and I save it.
One day he will be three and socks will need to be turned into puppets, the little plastic handle of umbrella shaped Lindt chocolates will also be turned into puppets, the calendar from the chinese take out is a great back drop for a painting and bottles, lids, shoeboxes and any type of paper may all come in handy.
The Queen of TP
And then there are toilette paper rolls. I’ve been saving toilette paper and paper towel rolls for about a year. My husband couldn’t open a cupboard without finding a small mountain of toilette paper rolls.
So finally I decided that Christmas was the time to let those rolls shine and make the most valuable decorations I’ve ever owned.
DIY+Toddler UpCycled Christmas Decorations
What I Used
- toilette paper rolls (lots)
- paper towel rolls (about 6 or 7)
- the little paper trays that homemade tortellini pasta come on when you buy them from the local market
- water based paint
- spray on glitter spray (I don’t even know why I have this!)
- a sponge (actually it was a body sponge that I didn’t want to use anymore)
- a bowl (preferably not one you eat out of)
- crayons (I happen to have a silver and gold oil based sticks, but crayons are fine)
- a willing 20 month old
-Silver curling ribbon
-a few extra IKEA decorations and white thread
Crafts we Made
1) A painted chain link garland
2) Some swirly decorations to hang from the light in the livingroom
3) Some Shooting Stars for the Window
Painted Toilette Paper and Paper Towel Rolls Chain Link Garland – How To
- Take your crayons, draw some swirls, hope your toddler does the same and doesn’t just eat the crayons
- Get a big bowl put in some water and drop in a few blobs of white and blue paint without mixing
- Give your toddler a paintbrush
- Let him go crazy! Dip, paint, use his hands …whatever
- The crayon design will come through because it is oil based and won’t mix with the water based paint
- Put them in a garbage bag and give a light coat of spray glitter
- Let them dry
- Cut them into rings
- Link together with silver curling ribbon
- Let your toddler help you put them around the tree, while you listen to Christmas music and eat tangerines
Swirly Hanging Decorations
Basically I had too many rolls and not enough tree so I used a few paper towel rolls to make these hanging swirly things….they’re fun!
- Take the painted paper towel rolls that were left over
- Use scissors to cut along the natural swirl marks on the roll
- Punch holes in both ends
- Attach IKEA decorations on one end
- Tie them to the lamp cord with some curling ribbon
Window Pane Shooting Stars from UpCycled Paper Trays
I hate washing unused paint down the drain!
Since I had all of these paper trays that the handmade tortellinis come on, I thought…”let’s sponge paint!”
- Give your toddler a sponge
- Let him go crazy dipping the sponge in your big bowl of paint and water and stamping away on some cardboard trays
- Let them dry
- Cut them into stars
- With the leftovers make triangles of all sizes
- Attach to the window in a shooting star formation with packaging tape
I doubt that many people will be pinning these! They certainly are not the most breathtaking decorations I’ve ever seen. But out of all of the Christmas decorations I have ever owned these are by far the most valuable.
Next year I was thinking of painting over all of our Christmas balls and having him paint those too!
Merry Christmas!