My husband grew up having a real Christmas tree. I did not. And for 16 years of marriage, I told him we could not EVER have a real tree, mostly because of my crippling fear of fire. You’ve seen that video circulating on Facebook, right? An innocent Christmas tree catches fire and within seconds the living room looks like Doomsday and Armageddon got together to make s’mores. I. Can’t. Even.
This year, after making him promise we wouldn’t all die in a holiday inferno, I relented and we now have two trees – the artificial in the living room under which we’ll pile presents and a beautiful, Balsam Fir in our school room. To homeschool-it-up, I decided that the real tree would be decorated entirely of ornaments we make! (Except for the lights. Homemade wiring seemed like it would stretch the reasonable plausibility of my husband’s aforementioned promise.)
So, this month, I’ll be launching a series of posts where I will share all of our Christmas tree creations!
For our first craft, we started simple with:
HOMEMADE POPCORN STRINGS
I have been wanting to buy an air popper for awhile and finally nabbed a cute one on sale at Target. (Side note: I love this Dash brand! Their items are vintage cute; I love the colors; and they are a great value! The popper I bought is no longer listed on the Target website, so here is the adorable aqua one on Amazon. Mine is white. Boo.)
Popping corn is very cheap and can be purchased at any grocery store. Once you have your popper and corn, it’s pretty much just plug and play.
WHAT YOU’LL NEED:
- Several cups of popped corn (We popped a whole bowl, about 16 cups, but there was quite a bit left over and some too small, or shaped poorly for stringing.)
- Thread
- Sewing needle
STEPS:
- Pop corn in air popper (no butter or salt), allow to cool
- Thread sewing needle with desired length of thread, tie knot on end
- Carefully push needle point into center of piece of popcorn. You may need to rotate or twist the needle back and forth a bit. You’ll want to apply gentle pressure in order to poke through the popcorn without breaking it. But, fair warning, there will be some casualties!
- Once string is full, cut thread to remove needle and knot ends.
- Place strings on tree!
** 6. After Christmas, drape your strings over branches outside or place in your bird feeder for your feathered friends.
Do you have any fun Christmas craft ideas? Share in the comments below or on my Facebook page.
