Pine Cones for Christmas

One year a friend of mine had no money to spend on decorations for Christmas. She needed help coming up with something creative so she could help her children enjoy the holidays. We wanted to spend quality time together as friends. So, we came up with the idea to make her some decorations from pine cones. We went on our pine cone hunt in my yard in Northeast Texas to gather our jewels.

Why people buy pine cones here is a mystery to me. We have an abundance of these natural gifts in most any yard or park in Northeast Texas. They're free for the taking to anyone who will put forth even the tiniest amount of effort to go on a nature trip and gather them. This makes a great outing for young children as well as creating family time and educational benefits.

But, I digress, back to my story about pine cones for Christmas...I am a garage sale junkie. I gather some great collections of craft materials from sales at some unbelievable bargains. So, I dug through my bargains and spread them out on my kitchen table. My friend and I used the hot glue gun and made little trees with decorations to hang on her tree and place around her home. It's amazing what a little imagination can do to adorn a home for Christmas.

That year, these simple little pine cones provided some great benefits for us in several ways. They gave us our quality time, some cheap decorations for her, uplifting of the spirit for us and the children, and a festive home. They also helped us exercise our creative sides to kick our brains into gear. Pine cones for Christmas was the theme of the season for us.

There are other ways to use pine cones, of course, besides using the glue gun to add tiny decorations on them. You can cover them with Elmer's glue and sprinkle glitter on them. You can use cheap paint to cover them, wrap ribbons around them, stack them together to make a table centerpiece, wrap them in lights, and even put them in the dog's stocking for a great nibble toy. My puppy loves to gather pine cones to chew, and it only costs a trip to the front yard and some patience. You can also take the pine cones apart and use the little pieces to cover a cardboard roof and sides for a little Christmas house and use this house separately or make a miniature village. Tear up some white paper, which is a good way to recycle that old newspaper or bill envelopes you would have thrown away, and use the paper to make snow for the village. You can use the pine cones to add little trees in your village.

Nature has given us those pretty red berries to use as decorations on our pine cones, pine straw, sticks, rocks, and so much more if we only use our imaginations and some time. Make your Christmas a pine cone Christmas and teach your child to appreciate the little things in life as well as give that child your quality time and attention.