Why Now is the Time to Start Crafting for Christmas
Posted by Jen Lopez on Oct 30th 2019
If October sounds too early to be crafting for Christmas, think again. Whether you plan to make gifts, decorations or both, putting off your holiday DIY until December means your Handmade Holiday plans are more likely to come up short. Here’s why you should hurry up with that Halloween costume and get started holiday crafting now!
You can spread out the cost. Unquestionably, holidays pack a big punch to the wallet. Buying your yarn, fabric and other craft supplies for your holidays now will help spread out the pain. The shops are definitely ready for you: just about all fabric and craft shops start putting out their holiday colors and designs as soon as the kiddos are shipped Back to School, so everything you need will be available already.
You can avoid running out. I once read a hilarious (and true!) post from blogger and knitter extraordinaire Stephanie Pearl-McPhee (a.k.a. The Yarn Harlot) detailing the horrors of running out of yarn for a gift then resorting to appealing to all her readers to “find one more ball” somewhere…. and express mail it to her. Ultimately her readers did not let her down and the yarn was acquired, but the rest of us non-famous bloggers will have no such recourse. If you run out of yarn for Aunt Betty’s beret two days before Christmas, you are just out of luck - she is going to end up with a Dunkin’ Donuts gift card.
Which brings me to my last motivation for starting as early as possible - You’ll avoid last-minute shopping. In my mind, nothing could be worse than a forced trek to the malls on Christmas Eve, or in the cyber age, hoping that Amazon’s next-day delivery really can deliver next day. If you run out of the most precious resource of all – time, those are pretty much your only options. Nothing has less holiday cheer than the painful admission “I made you something, but I didn’t finish it… you’ll get it by New Year’s”.
So, don’t delay. Get stitching today!
…
Please join us here every other Wednesday for another fun, fiber-filled installment of By the Yard. Be sure to check out the By the Yard™ 2020 Wall Calendar for Quilters – a great gift for the DIY enthusiast in your life! You can find it at http://shop.bytheyardcomics.com.
