I was thinking recently that my holiday tree was very lacking in elements that indicate my own heritage or the part of the world I come from. So, I proposed to my sister, who usually spends the holidays with me, that the ornaments we make this time be Arab-inspired, and she readily agreed.
I decided on a date palm tree, and she on a camel.
My sister is well-experienced in beading work and she is generally more ambitious than I am, creatively speaking (actually, everything speaking), so she chose to also make her camel double-sided, one to reflect daytime/light, and the other nighttime/dark.
My palm tree started out one way and ended up another. I wanted the trunk to be more slender, and the leaves more fine and spindly, but I couldn’t achieve those features without having a very floppy ornament…so I ended up having to improvise my way through.
I sandwiched some thin crafting wire in the centre between the felt layers to support the trunk, added a circle behind the leaves to give visual weight, and eventually, seeing how sparkly and fun the beads were that my sister was using, and how dull my fully felt ornament was looking, I gave the adding of beads a try…some hanging dates and a little oasis at the foot of the tree helped complete the “scene” and I was thrilled with the outcome!
This ornament-making activity was also done the previous year. I had said to my sister, “Wouldn’t it be fun to do something together? Maybe some little ornaments to add to the tree?”
I chose to make a sloth, she chose mushrooms.
We didn’t discuss a plan…I didn’t think we needed to. I thought it would be a nice afternoon project, and completed the sloth I made in a couple of hours. My sister took a week or two to work on her mushrooms (she had to take the ornament with her to complete at home), and to my mind at the time, went way beyond the project’s objective of having a bit of fun over a shared simple activity that would keep us busy for a few hours. I learned that my sister doesn’t do “simple”. She goes all in.
So this year, I was prepared. I anticipated that the project might take several days, and came to look forward to having a relaxing activity that would keep us engaged and away from the TV for a few hours each afternoon of our week together. In fact, this year, the making of my ornament took me even longer than my sister did hers. Funny how things go sometimes.
I’m convinced now that this activity should be an annual practice…and as my holiday tree has enough ornaments of the “traditional” kind, whatever we make going forward ought to be related to our own personal interests and cultural history!
