The holidays are coming up, and for many people, young and old(er!), this may be a time that you are out of work or unsure of how to spend it. Over Lockdown 1.0, lifestyle blogs were obsessed with promoting generic, boring activities like ‘having a spa day’ or ‘reading a book’, when they were often too short or easy to fill your time. So, I have compiled some creative ideas that you can try this Christmas break. As someone with 5 weeks off in the near future, these activities are definitely on my list!
The first project I would recommend is painting by numbers – you can buy a good quality one online for around £10- £15. You may know from previous articles that I completed my first one in the summer, which was an absolute life saver! My mum suggested we do one, and I’m so glad that she did, because it gave me purpose, and gave me a lot of time to spend with myself and be creative, which was something I definitely missed out on for years! After I did my first one of an African sunset, I bought two more of London and San Francisco. They are therapeutic, relatively easy, and time consuming (my first one took roughly 50 hours)!
My second crafting suggestion is tie-dying, a personal favourite of mine! Renowned amongst my friends as the ‘Tie-Dye Queen’, I have dyed almost every type of clothing – many, many t-shirts, a hoody, a pair of joggers, even socks! They’ll always turn out great, seeing as there’s no real way to do it ‘properly’. You just need bands, a pair of gloves, an item of clothing, some sheets, and the die. There are so many styles, colours and patterns that you can play around with, and once you’ve done, you just wrap it in cling film, wait 4-6 hours and wash it out! Although I hate washing them out, I love wearing my unique tie dye clothes, and I’ve often had people ask me where they are from. It’s a great way to upcycle plain pieces of clothing or ones you were planning on throwing away. My next mission is to attempt a duvet cover and pillow!
Another idea is to make a photo album or scrapbook! You can choose to do this electronically, or if you have lots of leftover crafting materials, you can do it in a proper book. A website that I’d recommend that is perfect for these sorts of projects is Snapfish. You can get cheap prints or make the actual scrapbook – they often have great deals on and I cannot recommend it enough. I plan to make one in a real big book about my school years, but you can do it on a past summer, your friends, lockdown, or your pets – there are so many ideas out there and plenty of places to get creative inspiration!
My final suggestion, and, arguably the best, is to make Christmas crafts! Personally, I would call my mum the absolute queen of Christmas crafting – she loves finding different ideas on Pinterest or in magazine articles. There are plenty of cheap materials on eBay, and you can make angels, pom poms, wreaths or shapes outlined in fairy lights to decorate your room. I often find that making small changes in my room, such as putting up my mini tree, playing Christmas music or putting up red, gold, or green things in my room can really make a difference, and make me more excited for Christmas
These crafts hold even more importance this year, as I’ve found that getting in the Christmas spirit can really help boost your morale and happiness, at a time when it’s perpetually being challenged. Whatever you’re doing this Christmastime, make sure you fit in some time to be creative. It’s great to get a break, forget the world’s problems, and make the most of whatever your situation!
