Decorating for Christmas

Although it was published in 1996 so the decorations are a bit dated, I think the ideas in this book are just adorable. You get your choice of 6 different themes for completely decorating your home for Christmas in a well-coordinated, matched way. That's a lot better than other books which just have a smattering of mismatched craft projects so your house ends up looking like a hodgepodge of different types of decorating. Now, if you're wanting an absolutely complete set of home decorations (tree ornaments, tree skirt, stockings, fireplace garland, wreath, table settings, and package wraps); you're not going to get it in all of these themes. None of them have package wrapping ideas. Most of them have the tree ornaments plus two or three other things. If you want more, you might be able to improvise: for instance, you could take the design from the table napkins in the "colors" theme and trace it onto some Christmas stockings, because "colors" doesn't include a stocking design. But, it's going to get a bit repetitive if you have to retrace the same design on a lot of things. Here's what you get: "Colors" (red & gold or white & gold) theme: Tree ornaments, table setting, wreath. "Tartan" theme: Tree ornaments, fireplace garland, 2 stockings designs, wreath, table setting. "Toyland" theme: tree ornaments, wreath, 2 stockings, table setting, fireplace garland (photo only for the fireplace garland, no instructions). "Scandinavian" theme: tree ornaments, table setting "Victorian" theme: tree skirt, tree ornaments, table setting, fireplace garland "Country" theme: tree decorations, fireplace garland, wreath, table setting If you look at the cover of the book, you can see three of the themes pictured. In the upper left corner and lower right corner is the "Toyland" theme. In the upper right corner is the "Scandinavian" theme, and in the lower left corner is the "Colors" theme. There's also a few more pictures on the back cover. It depends on which theme you choose how much it's going to cost and how difficult it's going to be to make the decorations. I think all the themes are beautiful. "Tartan" is probably the least expensive. "Victorian" and "Colors" are going to get pretty darned expensive, because there's no way to make them without buying a bunch of expensive craft supplies. I chose "Toyland", which is fairly low-cost (and it's also my favorite). I'm making the tree ornaments, 5 stockings and a tree skirt. It's going to cost me a total of about $60. It's made mostly out of inexpensive fabric, which I can buy for $1 a yard at Wal-Mart, and small toys, which I can get for about .25-.50 each at Goodwill. My 8-year-old is having an easy time making the decorations for the tree. I'm hoping I can count on her to make all the tree decorations so all I have to do is sew the stockings & tree skirt. She makes about 5 or 6 decorations and has a good time doing it, but then she gets bored. It's a good thing I started in Ma