GRANNY MUGWUMPS ODDS AND ENDS BOX

If you are planning to make our own Christmas cards,gift tags or decorations now is a good time to begin collecting the odds and ends or bits and bobs as Granny Mugwump use to say .

I made a start some time ago but there is still plenty of time to fill a bits box.

Lengths of ribbon and coloured string ,buttons foil sweetie wrappers , bits of wool and fabric,oddments of every kind were squirrelled away until a use could be found for them

Granny's bits box was a source of great delight to us as children and to be allowed to trawl through its contents was considered a great treat. Supervised by Mum we would carefully take everything out of the box and spread it on the big kitchen table, once an ancient Aunt had donated a cream feather boa, that year we had the best dressed fairy in the village and what looked like real snow flakes on the branches of our tree.

We made woollen pom-poms from bright coloured wool, the red ones, with a little artifice could be made to look like robins and since our tree was usually a twiggy branch rather than a fir tree they looked perfect. Thin card, a staple in the bits box and saved from cereal packets was cut in to stars,hearts or bird shapes and covered with fabric,or painted, or even more fun decorated with the scrunched up foil and cellophane wrappers from last years tin of sweets.

While shopping today I noticed how many of this years decorations look home made,I suppose in an attempt to invoke a homely,folksy Christmas at a time when money is not plentiful.

Plaques in thin wood or even thinner metal with the words,peace,joy, love home and so on cut out and strung at the back to hang on a door or window. All very fine at anything from three to ten pounds depending on the size.

If decorations are going to look home made, then let them be home made and have all the fun of making them with a gaggle of bright eyed children who will be over the moon at the prospect of doing something for Christmas. Why not make your own window signs using cut out card and white paint,after all shabby chic is in just now?

I have said the before I know but here it is again folks. Christmas cannot be bought,Christmas must be made. It must be made with love by all the family,in this way small children learn the joy of giving,sharing and above all how to make others happy without even realising that they are having a lesson. You may not have a Granny Mugwump, but you can still have a bits and odds box to delight your own children and to save lots of money,don't forget that this year home made is more fashionable than ever ,above all have fun.