Welcome back to our 12 Days of Crunchy Christmas Crafts for the whole family! So far, we’ve made: pinecone bird treats, gingerbread nativities, “snowed-in” candle crafts, fruity festoons, and today you’re invited to join us in the woods as we forage “silver and gold” for the Christmas tree!
How do you measure its’ worth?
Ornament. Bauble. Trinket. Decoration. Doo-dad. Festoon. They go by many different names, come in many shapes and sizes, and are made from a wide range of materials −glass, wood, fabric, porcelain, plastic, even popsicle sticks. They also range in the number of digits on their price tags, some costing mere pennies, others a fortune. But whatever you call them, whatever they are made out of, and whatever their cost, ornaments all serve the same basic function: to bring delight to the beholder. Yet even the delight they give varies greatly in size and brilliance from trinket to trinket.
The value of an ornament can only really be measured by the gasps and cries of joy it evokes each December when it emerges from a twist of tissue paper to say, “Hey, old friend. Remember me?”
People we love, places we’ve lived, and years gone by are hung on the tree one by one.
“Oh!!! THIS one. I remember when we got this back in Miami! Can I hang it?”
“Look, Mama! Look! The nutcracker Grandma gave me! It has my name in gold letters on the bottom.”
How do we measure their worth? Just like we do anything else: by how many layers of life adorn them.
Of course, this is true for most everything, not just Christmas ornaments. We tend to value most that which we have poured over and adored. One way to say it would be “blood, sweat, and tears.” Another would be “where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” But my favorite way to wrap my head around concepts like this is with the concrete, the tangible, the accessible. I’m a homesteader after all.
Let’s say it’s time to make dinner, so I head to the deep freezer to seek inspiration. The first things to catch my eye when I open the lid are two packages side by side; a package of grassfed beef from Costco, and a hand-wrapped package of deer backstraps from the buck my hubby shot this past fall. Yes, the giant buck. The one I thought was an elk when I first spotted it. The one that my hubby and kids went out to drag through the snow and gut together under the trees. The one that Papa and son loaded into the back of my truck (still dripping) and drove out to the butcher late at night. The one that brought a wonderment of crows, buzzards, and a pair of bald eagles to our woods. We watched as they perched in the trees, swooped down to the forest floor, and picked the gut pile clean before our eyes.
Or, if blood and guts don’t resonate with you, let’s instead suppose I head to my tea cupboard. Ok, I’ll just go now, twist my arm. I open it up, and there is a box of tea with a cute, cuddly bear in a nightcap holding a mug. Beside him is a glass jar with many kinds of dried herbs and flowers peeking at me from inside, a whole assortment of fair-weather friends. There’s the green mint I rescued from being splattered in primer overspray when we painted the house this summer. There’s the chamomile buds I harvested with Goldilocks as we chatted about what we have in common with bumblebees. There’s the calendula that the Captain and I gathered by the arm loads this summer like firewood. And the lavender I snipped from underneath the feet of butterflies as bright and varied as the wildflower meadows. For weeks these lay drying on tabletops making the house smell like an extension of the herb garden, mandating forever what our senses will recognize as summer.
The closer we are to something, the more involved we are in its’ conception, the further we engage with it, the longer we watch it unfold, and the people we share it all with . . . these are the patrons of worth. Being intimately involved with creation and all the good gifts which come from above −this is how we glimpse God’s goodness, grace, and glory. And that is what makes life worthwhile.
~Foraged Ornaments in Silver & Gold~
🎶Silver and gold
Silver and gold
Everyone wishes
For silver and gold
How do you measure it’s worth
Just by the pleasure
It gives here on Earth?🎵
DIFFICULTY (aka Happiness Meter): Moderately easy
MESS METER: moderate (some paint and a bit of nature debris)
SUPPLIES NEEDED:
- foraged treasures such as pinecones, acorns, seed pods, etc.
- acrylic gold and silver paints
- paint brushes
- hooks or twine
- pruning shears
- fabric scissors (if using twine)
TIME NEEDED: two hours for foraging and crafting!
KID RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5 stars; Super fun to hunt for treasures in the forest, and surprisingly fun to gild in silver and gold!)
PARENT RATING: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (5/5 stars; We love what this craft teaches our kids: that you don’t have to go to the store and spend a lot of money on boxed ornaments. God has supplied us with so much beauty in His creation!)
1.) Go foraging with the family for nature treasures.
2.) Trim your treasures.
3.) Guild in silver and gold.
We went for a bit less coverage by dabbing and smudging so that we can still appreciate the natural beauty of our forest treasures but enhance them and give them just a touch of silver and gold to glow in the lights of the Christmas tree.
4.) Allow to fully dry.
5.) Loop with twine. (Or simply nestle into the tree.)
I just stuck the twiggy items into our tree and nestled them into the branches. The pinecones were the only ones we hung.
6.) Adorn your tree with silver and gold!
🎶Silver and gold
Silver and gold
Mean so much more when I see
Silver and gold decorations
On every Christmas tree🎵
Thanks for crafting with us today! Hope to see you tomorrow!
Love, ~Candace Arden
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