One of my most gratifying Christmases was the year that I committed to MAKE everyone’s gifts. It was a tall order – my parents still had the huge family dinner, and that included the neighbours as well as my sister’s better half, and my grandmother who had recently moved here after my grandfather died.
So because I am crazy, I decided to make everyone stained glass angel candle holders. I was very into making stained glass windows at the time – reproductions of Victorian patterns complete with beveled glass and lead came.
I needed to make 16 angels – and I wanted to make them all individuals, so I created separate cutting patterns for all of them and bought different colours of glass for each angel. I started in October.
By December 16th I still had about 6 to complete and I wished I had started in January!! But anyway, I soldered (!) on and completed the last one on the 14th just in time to wrap it and take it to the celebration.
I put a tea candle in each box along with the carefully wrapped and package glass ornament I had made, and hoped each recipient would love it as much as I (really) enjoyed making them.
And of course they did – the angels did turn out quite well, and everyone thought they were great. I wasn’t going to let on that I had made them, but someone asked where they came from and I had to ‘fess up. Well, that brought on some serious tears and I too was overwhelmed by the response from my family and friends.
I always enjoyed giving – but making and giving is 1000% better. That was a very memorable Christmas.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.