DECK THE HOLIDAY'S

Handmade gifts can be some of the best – especially when they’re edible! However, there just seems to be something wrong with loads of gorgeous holiday cookies that represent hours and hours of baking… on a plain paper plate with green plastic wrap. These festive cookie envelopes are the perfect way to present just the right amount of sweet to your favorite recipients. These can be printed on any lighter color of card stock, and the liner can be made ideally from wax paper (more detailed instructions are on the printables themselves). The closure is where it can get really fun – buttons, ribbons, and washi tape are what I used but I would love to do some with yarn pom-poms, big stickers… it’s really endless. One tip – flat cookies that are less than three inches in diameter work best with these envelopes. If you try to put a very round cookie in there it might not close all the way. Four tiny cookies would also be a really cute option.

     In France, different regions of the nation celebrate Christmas differently, and even at different times. Most provinces recognized and celebrate Christmas on December 25th, but in northern and eastern regions of France, the Christmas season is officially begun on the 6th day of December.  La fete de Saint NIcolas ,  la fete des Rois , and  la Fete de lumieres , honor  Saint Nicholas , the  Epiphany , and the  Virgin Mary . These holidays are special parts of the French Christmas season.     Children in France don't hang stockings by the chimney, they place their shoes in front of the fireplace for  Pere Noel  to fill with gifts. Candy, fruits and nuts, and toys are also hung on the tree Christmas Eve night.  Pere Fouettard , who is basically Santa's Counterpart, gives out spankings to naughty boys and girls.     In 1962, France passed a law requiring all letters written to   Pere Noel,  to receive a response, so Santa sends each child a postcard ackn

DIY Flocked Christmas Tree     This diy was found at lovelyetc.com .  I hope you enjoy it. This post contains some affiliate links – when you buy stuff you like, you also support future projects on Lovely Etc. at no additional cost.  See my  full disclosure here . This year, I really, really wanted a flocked Christmas tree.  Flocked trees are those vintage-y white ones.  Not the ones with white plastic needles, the ones that are white with a snowy texture. Some are all white and some are a little white with plenty of green still showing. I even casually checked some out while I was shopping, thinking maybe I would find a killer sale. But I didn’t. Especially considering I already had a perfectly nice artificial tree at home. So, of course, the next logical step was to figure out how to turn the tree I already had into a snowy masterpiece. I turned to  Pinterest  and started searching for ways to flock your own tree.  I found lots of different ways invo