HPS Lydia
Moderator
It’s that time of year for beautiful decorations and the festive atmosphere! (Ignoring the repetitive xmas music blasting everywhere, of course.)
One of my favorite childhood memories is when my grandparents came to visit, and my grandmother taught me how to make ornaments for the tree.
There are easy ornaments that anyone can make very affordably, and you can shape them to your own preference. When cooled and dry, you can spray paint them, or use acrylic paint, for a beautiful finish in whatever color you enjoy.
Ingredients: flour, salt, water. Here’s a website that writes very detailed instructions, scroll down a long way to get the basic instructions plus video: https://wholefully.com/make-salt-dough-ornaments/
Mix by hand, add more flour or water as needed. You don’t want them too dry or too wet. You can cut the shapes with cookie cutters, or shape them by hand. Make a small hole near the top, you can use a chopstick or straw, for example. This will be to thread yarn, string, or wire through to hang them.
For a standard 7-foot tree you’ll need to make about 100 small ornaments (make less if you already have a lot of ornaments from previous years).
If you can have multiple cookie sheets in the oven at the same time, this would be ideal. If you don’t have an oven you can still make these, but they will need to air-dry for a few days.
This is time consuming, but think of it as time well spent. Once they are done, your tree will be beautiful, and the ornaments will possibly last decades.
A basic shape that doesn’t require creative ability is to make flat balls. Flatten them to ¼ inch, and use something to make a small hole near the top. When spray painted and hung, they will look simple yet elegant.
Spirals are traditional in Pagan cultures, but they might loosen up while hanging and break. Candy-cane shapes are also traditional and easy to make.
Another custom is to make an ornament in the shape of the first letter in the name for each person (and pet) living in the home. For example, if your name happens to be Santa Claus, then make an ornament shaped like an S. And if you happen to have a pet reindeer named Rudolph, shape an R.
You can also make stars (turn them slightly for pentacles), or whatever shape you want. From personal experience, making Demon sigils by hand is difficult. It might cause problems if you have guests over anyway. As a safer (and easier) alternative, you can shape one in the first letter of the name of your GD. (Make sure to have an explanation if anyone sees it and asks, or just say it was misshapen as it was handmade.)
For colors to paint them, this is individual. Some prefer the color theme of blue, white, and silver. Some prefer red and gold; or red, gold, and silver. Some enjoy as many colors as possible, to represent the chakras. You can paint some (or all) in the candle color of your Guardian Demon.
The order in which to decorate your tree for best results and no tangles:
Step 1: string the lights
Step 2: hang the large ornaments
Step 3: hang the small ornaments
This will ensure balance and harmony, as your large ornaments will be evenly spaced out, and the smaller ornaments distributed evenly throughout.
If you have multiple colors of ornaments, then hang each color at a time. For example, if you have 20 blue and 20 silver balls, hang all the blue ones first for even distribution of that color. And then hang the silver ones so those are also evenly distributed.
Those of you with young children might have to just let your kids do their own thing, lol.
(When you take down your tree, reverse the order: remove all small ornaments first, then the large ones, and then lastly the lights.)
For those of you who live alone and don’t see the point in putting up a tree, I suggest getting even just a small one to put on a table. Seeing it really will brighten up your home and your mood
One of my favorite childhood memories is when my grandparents came to visit, and my grandmother taught me how to make ornaments for the tree.
There are easy ornaments that anyone can make very affordably, and you can shape them to your own preference. When cooled and dry, you can spray paint them, or use acrylic paint, for a beautiful finish in whatever color you enjoy.
Ingredients: flour, salt, water. Here’s a website that writes very detailed instructions, scroll down a long way to get the basic instructions plus video: https://wholefully.com/make-salt-dough-ornaments/
Mix by hand, add more flour or water as needed. You don’t want them too dry or too wet. You can cut the shapes with cookie cutters, or shape them by hand. Make a small hole near the top, you can use a chopstick or straw, for example. This will be to thread yarn, string, or wire through to hang them.
For a standard 7-foot tree you’ll need to make about 100 small ornaments (make less if you already have a lot of ornaments from previous years).
If you can have multiple cookie sheets in the oven at the same time, this would be ideal. If you don’t have an oven you can still make these, but they will need to air-dry for a few days.
This is time consuming, but think of it as time well spent. Once they are done, your tree will be beautiful, and the ornaments will possibly last decades.
A basic shape that doesn’t require creative ability is to make flat balls. Flatten them to ¼ inch, and use something to make a small hole near the top. When spray painted and hung, they will look simple yet elegant.
Spirals are traditional in Pagan cultures, but they might loosen up while hanging and break. Candy-cane shapes are also traditional and easy to make.
Another custom is to make an ornament in the shape of the first letter in the name for each person (and pet) living in the home. For example, if your name happens to be Santa Claus, then make an ornament shaped like an S. And if you happen to have a pet reindeer named Rudolph, shape an R.
You can also make stars (turn them slightly for pentacles), or whatever shape you want. From personal experience, making Demon sigils by hand is difficult. It might cause problems if you have guests over anyway. As a safer (and easier) alternative, you can shape one in the first letter of the name of your GD. (Make sure to have an explanation if anyone sees it and asks, or just say it was misshapen as it was handmade.)
For colors to paint them, this is individual. Some prefer the color theme of blue, white, and silver. Some prefer red and gold; or red, gold, and silver. Some enjoy as many colors as possible, to represent the chakras. You can paint some (or all) in the candle color of your Guardian Demon.
The order in which to decorate your tree for best results and no tangles:
Step 1: string the lights
Step 2: hang the large ornaments
Step 3: hang the small ornaments
This will ensure balance and harmony, as your large ornaments will be evenly spaced out, and the smaller ornaments distributed evenly throughout.
If you have multiple colors of ornaments, then hang each color at a time. For example, if you have 20 blue and 20 silver balls, hang all the blue ones first for even distribution of that color. And then hang the silver ones so those are also evenly distributed.
Those of you with young children might have to just let your kids do their own thing, lol.
(When you take down your tree, reverse the order: remove all small ornaments first, then the large ones, and then lastly the lights.)
For those of you who live alone and don’t see the point in putting up a tree, I suggest getting even just a small one to put on a table. Seeing it really will brighten up your home and your mood
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I'm very excited to decorate a tree for the first time this year, I'm sure it will be a lot of fun.
