Can I put the Christmas decorations away yet?

I did have one more craft that I have been working on lately. We have an Advent Calendar that I bought a couple of years ago. When I got it, I really liked it. It had a tree background and the pockets contained ornaments that we put on the tree to decorate it. I've never liked the ones with boxes to open that have candy or treats inside, because #1 you have to replace them every year and that just costs more money, and #2 my kids would probably just end up fighting over it.

Mine was not perfect however, hence the need for craftiness. Problem #1 was the ornaments starting falling apart right away. VERY cheaply made. Which surprised me, because the rest of it was well put together. Problem #2 was how the ornaments were hung. The original calendar had gold pony beads sewn onto the tree background that the ornaments would hang from. But every time someone walked past (or breathed very close!) half the ornaments would fall off. I was constantly picking them up off the floor. And the cat would bat them off.

So because the ornaments were disintegrating rapidly, I knew something had to be done this year. But what? I didn't want to make another set of multiple shaped ornaments, (like candy canes, reindeer, wreaths, etc) because it would take too much time, I would lose interest and it would never get done. So I settled on snowflakes. I found some online and attached string to the back so they would hang and that was that. To solve the problem of them falling off all the time, I ended up taking all the pony beads off and replacing them with green and red buttons. Now the ornaments are much more stable when they are hung. It looks like a tree with green and red balls, outside in the falling snow.

I think it looks cute and folksy. I'm pleased with the way it turned out, which is not always something I can say about my crafts. Especially the ones where I have to come up with the idea myself. Yea me! The snowflakes themselves are really cute.

I just have to say that I am proud of myself.