It’s a bit hard to believe that Christmas is just around the corner. But when you look around in shop windows and sales fliers, there is no denying that the advent season is upon us.
Two weekends ago, we heard about a small local hobby market that was offering wreaths and other decorations. Christmas is by far our favorite time of year and we sort of feel that it’s never too early to bring out the decorations. But we do at least try to wait until Thanksgiving has passed most of the time. We got a bit of a head start this year because of this market and because it’s supposed to start snowing this week (not that there is likely to be much) but it’s also going to get God-awful cold next week (highs of 20°F and lows of 10) and I don’t know anyone who wants to be out in that kind of cold hanging Christmas decorations and lights.
The hobby market was the kind of thing that we usually hear about and then end up skipping. We bumped into some of our neighbors while out walking Ayla and they told us they were planning to head over there. At that moment, it was in the 70’s here and warm enough to go without a jacket. Not very Christmas-like I have to admit. And maybe that’s what encouraged us to hop in the Defender right after we got home and head over there.
Now I’m not certain what we were expecting to find when we got there, but we were both quite impressed. There were probably 30 different crafters with everything from soaps to ceramics to advent wreaths to random other deco. Most of the items were Christmas decoration but some of it was also great for gifts…and we did manage to cross one person off our shopping list (at least partially).
I’m a big fan of having things we can use year after year…and since we’ve only had our home for 4 years (and therefore really only let our love of Christmas begin to run free for four years), we still have tons of room for stuff in our home. Plus now that the dog and Mackenezie are both a bit older, we don’t have to worry quite as much about things being totally destroyed.
True to form (for us anyway), we cased the joint by doing a quick spin through all the booths. We quickly spotted the things we liked and kept moving, making sure that it was indeed the best option for what we wanted. A lot of the stuff just wasn’t our style at all…but we found a couple of booths that just had the cutest stuff. And I know that I could make most of this stuff myself…but honestly, for these prices, I don’t have the time or the resources to track down the materials and put it all together. I also just generally lack the inspiration to assemble the pieces without some sort of guidance. Maybe one year that will change…but for now I don’t mind putting a little cash into someone’s pocket for their handy-work.
The first things we picked out were a couple of advent wreaths and a door hanger, all from one stand that seemed to be a mother-daughter operation. I loved that these two were really thinking outside the box when it comes to the advent “wreath” idea. Yes, there were still four candles to light on their designs, but they were using things like wine glasses at different heights and these little luminary bags instead of the usual stuff.
I think what really got us on this design was the adorable little ornaments they used between the bags.
We also picked up truly wreath version, I think because of the Santa on it. It’s a bit kitschy but it just screamed Christmas at us.
This is the door hanger we picked out for Mack’s room. I just adore the felt accents on it!
As we were on our way out, I noticed some door hangers at another stand and stopped to have a look. They had a lot of really cute ones and I really wanted something with a bell (my mom has this awesome sleigh bell that we always put on our front door) but the ones with bells were not quite as cute as the ones with out. And we really liked the Santa and rocking horse on this one so it won. Maybe I’ll find a place to put some bells on it myself.
So you don’t lose all hope in my decorating ability, I did “Christmas up” a cool star candle I bought about a week ago. I was actually thinking it would make a really cool advent candle until I unwrapped it and Stefan pointed out that it had 5 wicks. Not so easy to notice when it was wrapped but kind of not practical for a 4 week event. Oh well. I think it still looks nice beside our TV for the moment.
Those are our new additions so far this year. We also started decorating outside already, but only turn on the porch lights for ourselves at night. They’re so pretty and Mackenzie loves “discovering” all the balls and bows and such we’ve put up so far. Stefan has Friday off, so while I’m inside baking up a pumpkin pie storm, he’ll be working on some more decorating stuff…and putting more soil in our flower beds. That’s all assuming that the “light snow” they’re predicting stays light! It might be a white Thanksgiving for us this year!
I see no Moose Stuff… What the heck?!? You live in Moose world!! BTW.. I put up the advent stocking calendar you sent last year.. Allie is SUPER SUPER stoked and can’t wait to start the count down and see what’s inside each of them! 🙂 I think.. essentially, the world is going to start ignoring Thanksgiving, which is really sad.. and it will probably be treated like Veteran’s Day or Memorial Day.. and without a lot of Hooplah like they deserve.
I do have one really awesome moose thing that I bought a couple years ago…but apparently this year reindeer are all the rage 😉
I use hope that Thanksgiving doesn’t start just getting skimmed over and become one of those holidays that ppl used to celebrate together and now just look at as a “holiday” — but I guess with people forgetting how to cook and time constraints and what not, it just might happen if we don’t make sure to keep it up.
This post makes me wish i was living in Germany:). I adore Christmas, but i kinda avoid it (shopping, in America, at this time) like the plague b/c the Christmas stuff is so….awful:)…I remember going shopping for ornaments in San Francisco (yes, the late 70’s and early 80’s:) to a fabulous ornament store (prob still have some of those ornaments), alot of which were made in Germany. There are small craft markets and ways to find decorations, etc. here that are more natural, but it’s fewer and far between:) Love that door hanger for Mack’s room:)
In the small towns you get a lot of small markets and handmade things still, but most of the Christmas markets, large and small, are dominated by traveling sales people who set up all over the place. I understand that the market itself still has to make money renting the stands and without those vendors with their handbags and scarves and whatevers, the markets would probably cease to exist, but you definitely see a lot less of the truly special, handmade stuff. Thankfully you can usually still count on some of the local clubs to still make some crafty things – but it’s getting less every year it seems.