#HandmadeChristmas - what's it all about?

Now we have Halloween out of the way and we are properly into November I guess I can start talking about Christmas without getting too many dirty looks and dark mutterings in my general direction...

If, like me, you are getting fed up with the whole crazy commercialism that surrounds the festive season you may want to join the ever growing trend that recognises the unique value of handmade gifts, decorations and food.

These days it is possible to do your entire Christmas shop from ONE supermarket - from the food to the drink; presents for everyone from baby to Granny. Cards, trees, decorations and even the outfit you are going to wear for the Christmas party.

But why would you want to do that? Really?

Now I'm not suggesting for one second you fore go the supermarket completely (although I would say that doing your food shop online two weeks before and booking a home delivery to arrive couple of days before Christmas is definitely preferable to fighting over the last frozen turkey with 15 other desperate shoppers...)* but certainly consider creating a few homemade touches to your celebrations to create a really memorable Christmas.

From gorgeous paper star and bauble decorations to homemade mince pies made with your own mincemeat, to highlighting some great British designer/makers for fabulous gifts you can pretty much guarantee you won't find on the supermarket shelves.

In my first post, tomorrow, I will be showing you how to make some gorgeous star decorations just by folding strips of paper.

Later on I will be trying some homemade sweeties, which make a really good present, and the above mentioned mince pies. I hope to show you some gift ideas to make yourself  and highlight some great tutorials across the web, plus some picks from the many talented online sellers from sites like Folksy, Etsy, Gift Wrapped and Gorgeous, Not on the High Street and the newly set up SHHIMUK promoting independent sellers who, like me, are going-it-alone and running their own online emporium!

Last year I set up the successful Handmade Christmas page on Facebook and encouraged designer/makers to use the #handmadechristmas hashtag on Twitter when advertising their wares. All the relevant blog post will be posted on both Facebook and Twitter.

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*thats a whole other blog post.... I might write it one day!