Merry Christmas - Seasons Greetings

To those of you who have already celebrated it - belated Yule blessings.

To those of you who are celebrating Christmas tonight and tomorrow, may it be filled with joy.

And to anyone else out there reading this - I hope the last week in December is cheerful, and I look forward to seeing you in the New Year. 

Love and light,

Hearthwitch. xx

Hearth and Home // Yuletide Movies

After autumn's seasonal movie marathon, I am now working my way through my traditional Yuletide movie list.

These are my favourites...

That last one we always watch on Christmas Eve...I love family holiday traditions. 

What are your favourite Christmas, winter or Yuletide movies?

Hearth and Home // Crafting a Robin Branch

As promised last week, this post will hopefully show you how to craft a beautiful Yuletide branch of robins as a seasonal decoration. It is so simple, it barely needs any explanation!

You will need: 

* Feather robin ornaments (as many as you wish). Ours came from a garden centre, but you should be able to find them at craft shops or on ebay too.

* A log or branch which is big enough to sit your robins on.

* A drill with a small drill bit.

As the robin ornaments are intended to adorn a Christmas tree, they come with wire already attached. If you have robins which don't, simply use a large embroidery needle to make a hole in the robin and push some craft wire into the underside, looped in half and twisted to secure in place - or twist the wire around their little feet.

Once your robins are ready, you will need to drill small holes in your log - one for each robin. Twist the wire attached to the robin until it is thick enough to push into the hole and stay in place.

All done!

You could spray the log with fake snow, or glitter - or for a natural look adorn with some pieces of real holly, glued in place. 

Yuletide blessings and happy crafting!

Operation Christmas Child

In the run up to Christmas - or Yule - most of us will be frantically preparing: organising feasts for our families, buying gifts and even going away on a winter holiday. 

Image from www.germany-tourism.de

Mum and I are making a trip to the Christmas Markets in Hamburg this year in the few days before the holiday and I am sure we will spend our time there buying presents to bring home, enjoying steaming mugs of hot-chocolate and 'gluhwein' and sampling local delicacies. I am so excited - I absolutely cannot wait!

For me, Christmas is a time of year to celebrate with family and loved ones. Whatever your religious beliefs or faith, I think that is important. It is so dark outside that we need to symbolically let the light back in - be that through a warm Yule fire, or candlelight; through the glittering baubles and tinsel on a Christmas tree; or, most importantly, through the love and laughter we share together.  

As we lead up to this special time of year, I am also mindful of those less fortunate who may not be able to spend it with family; may not be given any gifts and may be struggling through the most trying of circumstances. At school we are currently encouraging our kids to take part in the 'Operation Christmas Child' campaign, run by the Samaritan's Purse international relief charity. They make up a shoe-box of little gifts to be sent to a child somewhere in the world who would, otherwise, have nothing to open on Christmas Day.

 

Images from www.operationchristmaschild.org.uk

There are 'drop-off' points all over the UK, as you can see here and they are open until Thursday 18th November. A fantastic way to encourage little ones to think of others less fortunate than themselves and have fun creating a gift for someone else.