Christmas Ideas How-Tos
How To: Don't Like Traditional Christmas Trees? Try Out One of These 7 Festive DIY Alternatives
The concept and structure of Christmas hasn't changed much since its inception. In its infancy, Christians recruited Roman pagans by associating Christmas with the Saturnalia, an ancient Roman festival in honor of the deity Saturn (also held in December). The pagans had long worshiped trees (as did other historical cultures) and would bring them into their homes and decorate them, something that influenced our modern holiday decorations. While certain things such as gifts and ornaments have b...
How To: Make a cute and cheeky "ugly" Christmas sweater
Well this certainly isn't your grandma's woolen reindeer sweater. While all of us dread getting the handmade clothing item during the holidays, you certainly won't dread wearing this cheeky and ugly - though ugly in a good, cute way - Christmas sweater.
How To: Decorate your own clear glass ornaments
Make every Christmas a personalized one. This tutorial shows you how to start with some basic clear glass ball ornaments, and then add a few different modifications, decorations and crafts to turn them into your own personal Christmas tree ornaments.
How To: Craft a die cut gift card holder for Christmas
We thank and bow down to whoever invented gift cards. A great way to give your recipient what he/she wants without having to slave over whether the turquoise cashmere sweater or the navy blue cashmere sweater looks best, gift cards are the way to go for procrastinators.
How To: Wrap gifts the eco-friendly way with recycled materials
We realize Christmas is over, but there's no reason you shouldn't surprise a friend with a pretty gift for New Year's Eve! In many other cultures friends and family give each other presents to celebrate their new year, including during Chinese New Year.
How To: Create a handmade Christmas wreath for the holidays
Make a fun and inviting Christmas wreath this holiday season and impress your friends and family with your creative skills! For this project, you will need a pre-made wreath, wire edged ribbon, glue gun, scissors, and additional accoutrements like decorative berries and cinammon sticks.Keltie Colleen from Mahalo gets in touch with her resourceful side and shows you how.
How To: Create a handmade Christmas tree ornament
Make some fun Christmas tree ornaments for this holiday season and impress your friends and family with your creative skills! FOr this project, you will need styrofoam balls, pipe cleaners, scissors, glue gun and snowflake stickers. Keltie Colleen from Mahalo gets in touch with her resourceful side and shows you how.
How To: Make candy cane reindeer for Christmas
Make Christmas candy cane reindeer for this holiday season and impress your friends and family with your creative skills! For this project, you will need candy canes, rhinestones, googly eyes, pipe cleaners and a glue gun. Keltie Colleen from Mahalo gets in touch with her resourceful side and shows you how.
How To: 60+ Free Paper Snowflake Templates—Star Wars Style!
Everyone knows how to make paper snowflakes, but the kind you learned to cut in kindergarten can get a little boring. However, they are free DIY holiday decorations, and they don't have to be a generic snowflake design. They can be anything you want, from nerdy math kirigami to all the Star Wars characters you can think of!
How To: Make Your Own Photo Snow Globe
As the holidays draw closer and closer, stores are getting more and more crowded, and of course, many have put off their Christmas shopping until the very last minute. Why not avoid the mall rush this holiday season and make a personalized do-it-yourself snow globe to gift to those closest to you? This is also a perfect opportunity to put of those cell phone photos that you've been snapping to use! What You'll Need
How To: Make a candy-melted Christmas tree snack
Love candy? Want to make it? Then candy melts, or candy wafers that you can pour into a mold and melt into any shape you desire, are your best and easiest bet for making beautiful confectionary creations.
How To: Regift Unwanted Christmas Presents: The 10 Rules to Regifting
It's been done for ages, but for most of us, "regift" entered our vocabulary after the 98th episode of Seinfeld—"The Label Maker." In this episode, Elaine calls Dr. Whatley (played by Bryan Cranston) a "regifter" after he gives Jerry a label maker—the same label maker that Elaine gave Whatley.
How To: Track Santa Right Now with the NORAD Santa Tracker & Google Maps / Earth
Tonight is the night. Christmas Eve. The night where Santa Claus and his trusty reindeer soar across the skies to deliver presents to all the good little boys and girls around the world. But tell me— do you know where Santa Claus is right now?
How To: Craft an intricate lacy paper snowflake decoration for Christmas
Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree...how beautiful would a Christmas tree be, though, without any ornaments? If you've finally hit the tree lot and picked out the perfect grand fir, make sure it shines bright by decorating it with several of these intricate lacy snowflake decorations.
How To: Make No-Bake Marshmallow & Cereal Christmas Wreath Treats
Need a quick and festive snack to feed your kids during the holiday break? These marshmallow and cereal wreaths will make the perfect Christmas treat, and it helps that they're no-bake treats, which means more time for you to do other Christmas-related activities! Ingredients:
How To: Craft a 3D Finnish star Christmas paper ornament
Finally purchased a tree from the tree lot but in serious lack of pretty ornaments? Not a problem. You can make a bundle of these Finish 8-pointed star ornaments quickly, and they look quite impressive.
How To: Decorate gingerbread houses with royal icing for Christmas
Assembling a gingerbread house is the bread and butter of a lot of Christmas Eve and Christmas Day celebrations, but anyone who has tried to do so on limited time knows it's harder than it looks.
How To: Draw and color a beautiful Christmas tree
Here's a neat little demonstration video on how to draw a Christmas tree using a pencil, an eraser and pen. This tree will be drawn with a more realistic looking drawing style, compared to the simplified abstract stack of triangles that people normally draw Christmas trees with. British children's author Shoo Rayner, writer and illustrator of over 200 books, shows you how.
How To: Make no-bake chocolate covered Rice Krispies Christmas trees
Want a simple and undemanding dessert recipe for Christmas? Why not try these no-bake chocolate-covered Rice Krispies Christmas trees? They're delicious and guaranteed to be a hit with all your friends and family. They're the perfect snack to make with your kids.
How To: Make and decorate a miniature boxwood Christmas tree
In this video, you'll learn how to create and decorate a miniature boxwood Christmas tree. It's a fun and easy project you can do with your kids for the holidays. All you need are a few branches from a boxwood bush and some decorative materials to get started!
How To: Wrap your Christmas gifts with real money
Need some wrapping paper? Want to go beyond the basic and bland Christmas wrapping paper in stores? There's one solution that's in everyone's pockets— money— cold hard cash— paper bills— money. We're talking George Washington (because Franklin might be a little extreme).
How To: Sew a sexy Santa's helper Christmas dress with Gianny L
You know those cute and flirty Santa's helper women's costumes you can find during the holiday season? Well, you can make them easily at home for a fraction of the cost.
How To: Craft a simple folded paper flower ornament for Christmas
Have your Christmas tree up finally but have very little time to adorn it? Not a problem. Instead of resorting to those cheap shatterproof ornaments you can get at any drugstore, put a more homespun - and beautiful - touch on your tree this year by crafting your own ornaments. Check out this video to learn how to make paper flower ornaments.
How To: Bake and decorate gingerbread cupcakes for Christmas
There are more uses for gingerbread than just piecing two rectangular slabs of it together to form a gingerbread house roof. In fact, you can make gingerbread cupcakes with the same sugary sweet, cinnamon-y aroma!
How To: Craft a no-sew "Deck the Halls" Christmas holly ornament
What reminds you of Christmas the most? For us, it's the sweet scent and beautiful clustered shape of holly berries. These bright red berries also look great as part of Christmas decor.
How To: Craft a no-sew red velvet sequined Christmas ornament
Got an hour or two free this winter holiday? Then that's all the time you need to craft several of these pretty no-sew red velvet Christmas ornaments. Made of silver and white fabric scraps and silver sequins, it''ll shine bright on your Christmas tree and is super easy and quick to make.
How To: Craft a beautiful no-sew fabric egg ornament for Christmas
A little behind on your Christmas decorating. No problem. Instead of heading out to the store to pick up whatever fugly ornaments you can find, why not make your own personalized ornaments instead?
How To: Craft a purple "sugar plum" sequined Christmas ornament
When you were a kid, did you have dreams of sugar plums dancing in your head while not even a mouse was stiring and all the stockings were hung up with care? Yup, thought so. Celebrate those times when Christmas morning was magical and Santa Claus always knew what you wanted by crafting this sugar plum inspired Christmas ornament.
How To: Craft a spectacular candy themed pink Christmas ornament
Christmas doesn't have to be all red and green. In fact, unless you want your Christmas tree to look like every other Christmas tree out there, you should probably avoid the color pair altogether.
How To: Craft a pretty gold lattice patterned Christmas ornament
You really don't need to have a bunch of cash to have a beautiful Christmas tree. In fact, all you need are a few pins, a few syrofoam balls, and some creativity to spice up your douglas fir.
How To: Fold a metallic gold and silver Christmas star gift box
When thinking about buying a gift for a friend, it's always the gift itself that's most important, right? But no matter how great your gift selection is (yay for Kindle readers), if it's wrapped sloppily your recipient will think you put little effort into your present.
How To: Bake traditional steamed Christmas pudding
What would Christmas be without some figgy pudding, or any pudding, for that matter? Among the sights and smells that are most memorable are sugar cookies, gingerbread houses, and a sweet brown Christmas pudding.
How To: Fluff fake Christmas garlands, wreaths, and sprays to make them look real
If you prefer plastic Christmas greenery over real, we totally understand. While PVC isn't exactly renewable, it is eco-friendly in the sense that you don't need to unnecessarily chop down young evergreen trees and sprigs each year, only to throw them away after a week of use.
How To: Bake delicious chocolate chip cookie dough Christmas truffles
Cupcakes are so overdone. Sure, they're cute and bite-sized, but why not start a new designer dessert trend? Check out this dessert video to learn how to bake and decorate delicious chocolate chip cookie dough Christmas truffles.
How To: Use unique berry stems and evergreen branches for Christmas decorating
If you've ever gone Christmas tree shopping before at a Christmas tree lot, then you're probably more than familiar with Noble Firs, Douglas Firs, Grand Firs, and maybe even Blue Spruce and boxwood (used for wreaths). But have you ever considered using other varieties of evergreens in your decorating?
How To: Craft a natural Christmas vase display with pine cones and berries
Trying to decorate for Christmas on a budget? Relax, you don't have to resort to hurts-the-eyes garlands from the 99 Cent Store (though no offense if you do go there) to create a festive mood in your home. In fact, all you need to do is head outdoors.
How To: Make lovely Christmas tree ornaments out of wire
Decorate your Christmas tree with wire this year! You don't need much - just some 16 gauge wire, a little 26 gauge wire, various pliers (like needle nose and round nose), colored beads and a good surface to hammer your wire on.
How To: Make a vintage inspired Christmas gift tag
This is a quick and easy project you can use to make a beautiful, vintage inspired gift tag that you can attach to all your Christmas gifts! All you need is some basic papercrafting supplies in muted tones and your favorite vintage stamps!
How To: Fold detailed origami snowflakes for creative Christmas decorations
Don't spend all your hard-earned money on store-bought Christmas decorations this year. Spend it on cheap paper and make your own Christmas decorations, like this origami snowflake.
How To: Replicate the Famous Hidden Orange Christmas Pudding by Heston
No, not Charlton Heston. The only pudding he ever made was steak and kidney. I'm talking about Heston Blumenthal, world famous chef and pudding lover, and the man behind the "Heston"— a plum pudding with an orange hidden within, brought to you by Waitrose (see video below).