Advent Blog Hop

 Jo from  Serendipitous Stitching hosts the Advent Blog Hop, which is one of the blog hops I most enjoy.  Pop over to Jo's blog to find the doors that lead to each day's Advent blog post.  This year we have been asked to show something with a Christmas or winter theme that we have crafted, and to answer the question that Jo has set for the hop participants.

I have decided to show my Dowelling  Christmas Tree. It is a tree of my own design, made by my partner many years ago. The trees consist of a central wood post through which holes have been bored to take pieces of dowelling that form the branches. It is 3 dimensional, in that there are three branches at each level - one each side of the central post, and one at a 90 degree angle to the central post. It hangs on a picture hook in the wall when in use, and after Christmas the branches come out for easy storage. My trees are painted gold at present, though for the first 10 years they were painted green. I have two of these trees, one a little larger than the other.  The smaller one is 150cm (5') tall.  On one I hang angels, on the other I hang Santas. I like these trees because I can hang hundreds of ornaments on each tree, many more than I could hang on a conventional tree.  The ornaments are clearly visible, and the trees do not take floor space, which is in high demand in my house at Christmas. They are not my only Christmas trees (I have five other large Christmas trees, and dozens of small ones) but they are the ones I most enjoy decorating. 

My Angel Tree

My Santa Tree

I'm now wondering if I can really claim the dowelling trees as something I have crafted. The concept was mine but I didn't actually make the trees.  So, here is something Christmassy that I did craft myself. It is L&L's Oh Christmas Tree, and it's one of my (many) favourite Christmas stitcheries. I remember that I had a moment of panic when I was stitching it: suddenly I couldn't find my place on the chart, and nothing looked familiar. It took me longer than it should have to realise that I had inadvertently turned the chart over - one side of the chart had a graph for the decorated tree (which I was stitching), and the other side had a graph for an undecorated tree. I hadn't noticed that before.

 Jo has asked us to nominate our favourite Christmas book.  Not a particularly easy task for me. I do like books  and I have quite a large number of Christmas books.  After lots of thought, I decided on Anne Geddes' 12 Days of Christmas book.  It is a most delightful book, containing (as one might expect of an Anne Geddes book) pictures of babies posed in 12 Days of Christmas scenes. Some do require a little imagination. I choose to believe that no babies were harmed in the production of the book. Certainly they all look quite relaxed and cooperative.  

Thank you for visiting. I hope your Christmas is a happy one, and that 2021 brings a healthier and more settled year.