12 Days of Christmas 2014 - Day Two

Day Two of this year's list is an easy one! I've been seeing button garlands all over the internet and decided I needed to try one. But those I've seen were all white, and I wanted mine to have lots of color!

I started with some red crochet thread that I had on hand ( you could use button and carpet thread, too), and then I went through all my buttons and pulled out all the red and green ones. I didn't have enough to make a very long garland, so I made a trip to Wal*Mart and found a bag of red and green buttons! Both colors in one bag!  It was about $5 and had plenty of buttons for the garland and all my other Christmas projects, too.

I started by trying to string them on the crochet thread, but it didn't work very well, so I wrapped a pieced of scotch tape around the end and cut it at an angle so it was skinny at the end like a needle and would go through the button easier. Then I noticed that the buttons didn't stay put when I moved the string around, so I started putting the thread through both sets of holes on the 4-hole buttons and tying knots on some of the other buttons. Not all of them, but enough to keep them in place. I also noticed as I was stringing them, that they got tangled up really easily. This was a big problem! Not only did I have to keep untangling them, but how would I store the garland so that it wouldn't be a tangled-up mess next year?

After I got the garland the length I wanted it, which was about 9 or 10 feet long, I hung it over my coat rack to keep it straight until I could figure out how to store it. After seeing it hanging there for about 2 weeks, I had a mind meld........wrap it in wax paper!

I tore off a piece of wax paper about 12" lon and laid it out flat on the counter. Then I laid one end of the garland across it and rolled the wax paper over it. Then I folded the garland over the wax paper again and rolled it again. I kept this up until I had all the garland rolled in wax paper.

With a layer of wax paper in between each length of garland, it keeps it from getting tangled. Then, I folded the roll in thirds and tied it with a piece of the crochet thread and now it's all ready to pack away! After I use it this year, that is.

When we put up our tree and put the garland on it, I will post a photo of how cute it looks. This is an easy project for kids to do, after you put the tape on the crochet thread, that is!  lol   I probably have enough buttons to make another garland if I wasn't using them for other projects, so that's two garlands for the cost of a package of buttons and some crochet thread or button and carpet thread. That's not bad! So make a few of these with your family, or FOR your family, and have a great time while you're at it. (I would not make them as long if the kids are making them. It will be easier to keep them untangled if they're not so long.)

Now, here's a bit of Christmas trivia. The Christmas colors weren't just chosen because they look good together or because they're opposite on the color wheel. There are a lot of different stories about the Christmas colors and how they came to be known as such, but I like the one that dates back to the 1300's, when Christian churches would traditionally present a Paradise Play in the winter, which told the story of Adam and Eve, to people who could neither read nor write. Since apple trees are not loaded with apples in the winter, a pine tree was used and apples were tied to it to represent the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The trees were so popular that people, especially in Germany,  started to bring them into their homes, and  Christmas trees and the colors red and green soon came to represent Christmas! Christians have since given special meanings to the colors. The red represents love and the blood shed by Christ on the cross. Green is the color of hope and eternal life, and those plants that are green even in winter, such as holly, ivy and mistletoe, are widely used during this season. White is the color of purity and peace, and is represented by the white lights on the tree.

No matter which story you believe, it is a fact that red, green and white DO look good together, and they make Christmas a really beautiful holiday, so get yourself lots of red and green and celebrate your holiday in style!

Love to you and yours.....