Christmas has always been my most favorite holiday. So it was only natural to combine my love for crafting with Christmas and create ornaments for family and friends that they could collect. I was still in college when I started the tradition of finding a unique ornament that I could make each Christmas season. It became a quest to find a fun and creative treasure, and then watch as my friends opened it with wonder of what decoration would be next to hang from their tree.

Throughout the next 14 days, I’ll countdown to Christmas with the ornaments from the past, revealing a new one each day. On Christmas Day, I’ll show you this year’s ornament, which I must admit is pretty fun!

Day 1: 1998 Cinnamon Stick Tree

Materials:

• Cinnamon stick
• fabric scraps
• wooden star
• twine

This ornament was a simple creation made from leftover fabric scraps in my collection. Rip your fabric strips with the grain of the fabric, about ½- to ¾-inch wide. Starting with a cinnamon stick from a craft store, tie the fabric around the stick moving upward. You can either use varying lengths of fabric strips, or just trim them at the end to form the tree shape. The wooden stars at the top were purchased at a craft store and then painted yellow. Glue the star to the top with a hot glue gun. Cut a piece of twine to use as the ornament hanger and glue it to the back of the stick.

P.S. Don’t forget to put your name on the back of the ornament somewhere, along with the date, so people know who made it and when.