SILVER LININGS

10 reasons why the holidays
are made for Crafting

By Mighty.Beautiful Art Studio

Time to hunker down for crafting season.

Ask me what my favorite part of the holiday season is and I’ll tell you it’s something crafty — whether it’s carving pumpkins, making costumes, making ornaments for the tree, filling a room with paper snowflakes, fussing over a gingerbread house, or making gifts for the people I love, the holiday season is crafting season in my book.

And the thing about crafting and crafting season is that crafting can be done universally. I hear a lot of people say they aren’t creative, or artsy, but crafting in general doesn’t require any long-term honed skillset; most “crafts” can be learned to a certain extent in a short amount of time while watching a simple YouTube video or just playing around with kits, tools and materials. And crafts don’t require a lot of creative inspiration or motivation; there doesn’t need to be a larger story that’s being told, or an idea that’s being shared or an extraordinary feeling being conveyed. Crafting is truly about the act of making in general and not the unique quality of the outcoming creation specifically; it allows you to put your own unique touch and to personalize all the seasonal necessities, from decorations to gifts to holiday cards.

For a lot of people, 2020 has been pretty terrible or miserable for a lot of reasons but — here’s the silver lining— the 2020 holiday season is perfect for crafting. We’re all missing friends and family a little more than normal. We’re all looking for a way to share that sentimentality with the people we haven’t been able to see as much as we like. We’re looking for something new to do. And we’re all needing a creative outlet that keeps the mind focused on the present moment and on the things we care about but doesn’t require any kind of deeper thinking or message to pass onto the world during these days that leave us all speechless and unable to communicate something positive.

Still not convinced it’s time to start crafting? Here are 10 reasons you should make a list and check it twice — not to find out who is naughty or nice, but to figure out what you’re going to make, for who and when, right now, before this holiday season (and crafting season) comes and goes.

1. Items made by friends and family are the only thing a person can’t buy off of Amazon — which makes handmade items the perfect gifts for the sentimental loved ones in your life. A lot of crafts are relatively easy to make both in mass quantities and as unique creations, such as hand-painted coasters, screen-printed or stenciled tote bags, acrylic pouring paintings and personalized picture frames.

2. Crafting is a mindfulness activity, perfect whether you’re alone or with a small group of people like family. It forces you to be present and offers up an automatic topic of conversation for people who have already talked about everything. Topics of conversation: What are you making? Why are you making that? What do you think is the best way to make this? What color should this be?

3. Mourning the loss of the normal rush of new Christmas movies? Bored with the lack of fall television shows? There are thousands of crafting videos on YouTube waiting to be discovered for anyone who has run out of shows to watch on Hulu and Netflix.

4. You can’t be bad at crafting when there are an almost limitless number of different potential crafts of all skillsets to choose from. Hate painting? Try basket weaving, candle making, needle felting, repurposing or collage. Man, woman, child, grandparent, single, married, busy or bored: Whether you want to spend 5 minutes on something or 5 days on something, whether you like intricate, replicated procedures or throwing paint wildly across a room, there is a craft for you.

5. Crafting offers up plenty of opportunities for sharing and communicating messages to loved ones. We’re all looking for unique ways to cheer each other up and show love to one another, and crafting offers a great opportunity to show other people you’re thinking about them — not just in passing but in actual chunks of time. Recording the crafting process or creating a video message while crafting is the perfect way to gift a high-tech personalized “letter” to loved ones when it’s finally gift-giving time.

6. Crafting helps people connect and allows people to share experiences together from home. You can craft and catch up over Zoom at the same time. Buy a matching crafting kit with a friend or family member, set aside an hour each week to talk, make and share and keep each other entertained with new creations, how-to epiphanies and feats of skill, or create a “community” craft/gift project everyone can contribute to in some way on their own time — a memory scrapbook page from the year, a painted rock garden, a faux aquarium.

7. Handmade holiday decorations are the best for passing on down through the years because they come with real, personalized memories. Make a hand-print table cloth, glue (or sew!) together some special Christmas stockings, throw some alcohol paint or glitter on some clear tree ornaments — the time spent using your own hands will make the items more meaningful (and probably a lot more pleasant) than the time spent shopping for them in the store or online.

8. Crafting helps people focus on the positive, true meaning and spirit of the holidays (thinking of and connecting with family and friends) instead of the consumerism, stress and negativity that can be associated with expensive gift-giving, politics and a contested election, or ongoing feuds between family members.

9. Crafting is a great cure for “pandemic fatigue” — it gives those suffering from the endless days and weeks of pandemic fears and constraints a new reason to stay home, learn and do something new and exercise their creative muscles. And crafting (unlike art) doesn’t require an extraordinary amount of inspiration, motivation or vision. Crafting can be done successfully keeping ideas and goals as simple, easy and formulaic as a person desires — or not!

10. Normal holiday events have been canceled — or probably should be. The infamous holiday office parties, fpub crawls and ugly sweater contents might not be happening this year, and they all need to be replaced with something to get the holiday spirit going. Thanks to the lack of out-of-house socializing, you’ve got more time on your hands than ever before, and probably more people at home to keep entertained and in good spirits than any other year. And the events that are happening this year are probably more special and more important than ever — why not spend more time preparing for them, putting your own unique touches on the celebrations, and making some sentimental souvenirs for people to cherish and remember you by in the months and years to come?