Crafty Christmas Countdown: 16

 When I was a kid a major part of the Christmas season was my church's Sunday School program where each class would sing a song or do a little skit or something. At the end of the program everyone got a candy cane and each kid was given a paper lunch sack with some fruit (usually an apple or two and an orange) and a handful of peanuts in the shell. I looked forward to that treat for weeks, so for me fruit is an important aspect of holiday celebration. With that in mind, today I'm adding a fruit stand to the Christmas Market. For an extra, I made some fruit themed bookmarks that I will probably put into books that I gift.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 17

 Today's stall in the Christmas Market is an ornament stand. I decided to decorate this stand with some glass beads.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 18

 You'll notice all of our market stalls so far have been green or red. The Sunday and Christmas Eve stalls are gold. Not only are they a different color, these stalls are also not selling anything. These are activities, putting emphasis on experiences and doing positive things in the world instead of just consumption. So today's stall is a caroling booth. You'll see little music stands all ready for any singers to come along.

And to go along with it, I made a little music folio notebook from a scrap of cardboard and some notepaper.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 19

 Today we're adding a skate rental stand to our Christmas market. It seems like ice skating is something you might do on a weekend while doing some Christmas shopping. Making something skating themed seemed really complicated but I found this little Care Bear Cousin figurine that we've had for as long as I can remember. 

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 20

 Today's addition to the Christmas market is a jewelry stand, a mainstay of craft fairs and markets. I really struggled with an addition to this stand. I have plenty of ideas for jewelry but one of the goals with this year's countdown was to reduce clutter. I already have a fair amount of jewelry and a job where I can't wear it. It would be wasteful to make something I'm never going to wear. Instead, I went through my existing jewelry and found some earrings that I don't wear. I bent the posts into loops so they can be repurposed as pendants or maybe charms for a charm bracelet.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 21

 Today in the Christmas market we have a stand selling nuts. Whether it's roasted chestnuts (which I've never actually seen - are they good?) or candied cinnamon nuts there's something festive about them and they feel like they belong in our little market. I suppose I could have made a batch of candied nuts but we have a collection of walnut shells floating around so I thought I'd made a decoration out of one. I decided to use some little scraps of yarn to make this mini knitting basket.

Crafty Christmas Countdown: 22

 Today's addition to the Christmas market is a snow globe stand. Making a little snow globe to put inside the tube was an appealing but ultimately impractical idea. So I settled for adding a couple of glittery snow globe stickers that I found in my stash.