food, crochet, merriment
It comes every year and will go on forever. And along with Christmas belong the keepsakes and the customs. Those humble, everyday things a mother clings to, and ponders, like Mary in the secret spaces of her heart.”
~ Marjorie Holmes, American writer.
At our house, one of the family favorite movies in all creation is the Muppet Christmas Carol.
We love the frogs and the mice and the singing vegetables…and that kid Scrooge hits with a holly wreath. I laugh my head off and then feel guilty for laughing.
Plus, you’d be surprised at how moving a sobbing rat can be.
And there’s just something about Michael Caine crying in his nightgown over that one girl.
I bawl like a baby. Of course the wonderful Dickens-y goodness of the story comes through as well or it wouldn’t count.
Now, this is not to say that I don’t enjoy the other versions. I do. Honestly,
George C. Scott is a mighty scary piece of Scroogy meaness. Maybe it’s his gravely voice…I don’t know.
It helps too that Jacob Marley does a pretty darn convincing guy with his jaw falling off. Ewww.
And in the even more ancient Alastair Sim version, old Marley gets sucked right out the window with the other spooks. Scares the heck out of me.
When I was a kid we also had a record–yes, I’m that old–of Lionel Barrymore in the role of Scrooge. Laurie and I had the silly thing memorized..still do, I’m afraid. I think we could have worked parties. We were weird kids…needed more sunlight…or something.
Our family book club is now reading “A Christmas Carol” the real version. No singing pigs or crippled frogs–but the original, as Dickens meant it to be. It’s only about 80 pages but the language is so classic, 1840’s English that it takes a bit longer to suck it all in. So it’s a slower read for some of us. We chose it because it’s President Monson’s favorite book and because it felt important to be able to say, “Of course I’ve read A Christmas Carol. Duh…” in that snobby voice that’s meant to impress people–but rarely does.
I realize that the Muppet story and the vintage book are worlds apart in presentation, but I think it’s ok. I think Mr. Dickens would be very pleased with how many ways his little short story has been presented. Likely, he would be more pleased with the impact that his words–classic or muppetized–still have on people.
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep it all the year.”And I personally believe he’d even get a kick out of the screaming lettuce.
I first saw these little dollies on a site called Sooz. They are tiny and simple to stitch together from felt scraps, T-shirt fabric and some cotton thread. They just looked sweet to me and it was easy to imagine them sneaking into a six-year-old’s pocket as she’s on her way to church. I’ll show you my adventure with this fun thing.
I folded a piece of paper and sketched a basic pattern. It wasn’t anything complicated. I’ll post a pattern here by day’s end–but really it’s quite simple. Cut two from felt–wool felt is wonderful, but I had a piece of earthy brown regular felt and I couldn’t resist using it.
This will give you a good idea of the size. Just right for your Goldilocks. Use a blanket stitch to sew the front and back together.
I didn’t have a flesh colored piece of interlock for the head and none of my kids had a T-shirt the right color either or it would have been in great danger. I finally bought a 4″ strip at the fabric store. Fold a 4″x 4″ piece and sew a 2″ wide casing. Gather the top into a bunch. Turn it right side out.
Stuff the head and body with cotton or wool batting.
Sew it onto the body.
I made a brown braid from cotton thread, and cut out a bandana from red sparkle felt.
After tacking on the bandana, sew two simple stitch sleepy eyes.
The End
of Orem, Utah
Tracy is the winner of our Crafty Copies Family Night Four Pack and the sheep!
Wahooo Tracy!
If there are babies or young girls on your gift list this year, these go together quick and easy–and are cute and trendy to boot!
Here’s what you need to get going:
Here’s how to do it:
You’re done with the flowers, now on to the headbands. I use crocheted baby headbands that I bought online. I’ve also seen them in boutiques and even a grocery store or two. They are cute, and stretchy and feminine, and the alligator clips can clip right into the fabric.
Alternately, you can make headbands out of knee-high nylons. Just take the nylon, cut off the toe and the ribbing at the top. Now, take the long middle part of the nylon and glue the two cut ends together, making a loop out of the remaining sock. Then, you can make a loop (with the ribbing) to wrap around the area you just glued together. Leave part of it not glued down so that you can slip the alligator clip in, and voila! A cute, interchangeable headband!
P.S. If you’d like to scrap the headband idea and just make some cute flowers to clip in hair (these work better for older girls, not babies), you can always assemble the flowers as above, but instead of using alligator clips, use the spring loaded clips. Again, purchaseable at a well stocked craft store.
Happy headbanding!
~April~