Handmade Christmas Ornament Exchange

Last holiday season, the girls at Hi Mamma participated in a handmade Christmas ornament exchange. It was a world of fun! One evening during dinner we talked about what we wanted to make for our ornament exchange, brainstormed on ideas, colors, craft items that we wanted to use and then the following day we started creating our handmade ornaments. It was fun because we sat down, crafted with each other, played holiday music, laughed and had a great time making something special for another family.

After making our ornaments, we packaged them and got them ready for the other families and made our voyage to the post office so the girls could see them being mailed. Shortly afterwards, we received ornaments and enjoyed seeing what other families made for us, and hung them on our Christmas tree. Believe it or not, the girls loved looking at the ornaments that the other families had made each time that they passed the Christmas tree. I must admit I did too, and I also wondered what the story was behind the ornament that they made…why they picked it…how did they felt the angel we received, all these “craft” thoughts where just buzzing through my mind.

The girls at Hi Mamma had an idea to have a 2010 Christmas Ornament Swap! Sound like fun? I know it seems kind of hard to think about the holidays now and autumn is just here by one month, but sometimes being creative needs a little bit of time and planning, so why not start early and then you have plenty of time.

The idea is that families make Christmas ornaments for other families and exchange them during the holiday season, with other families that they are “assigned” to via the Hi Mamma Christmas Ornament Swap. You would be signing up as a family unit and as a family you will receive the same number of ornaments that you send. So for example, if you have four people in your family, then you would make four ornaments total. These four ornaments though would be going to four different people, and in return, you will be receiving four ornaments back from four different people (receiving four packages total) with the idea that every ornament would be different. If you had one or even two people in your family unit, then you would receive one or two ornaments back.

With respect to everyone's practices and faith of the season we have chosen the theme of winter, snow, etc. Please refrain from any commercial look-a-likes.

Ornaments would need to be mailed on, or before, Monday, December 6, 2010.

If you are interested in participating, please RSVP by midnight on Saturday, November 20, 2010.

To sign up, please email michelle@himamma.com with following information:
1) Your first and last name.
2) Your shipping/mailing address.
3) The number of ornaments that you will be exchanging.
4) Please share with me if you would be interested shipping internationally.


You will receive Christmas ornament swap partner addresses by email between the dates of November 21-23.

**Please do not sign up if you won't be able to complete the swap. If unforeseeable circumstances keep you from participating please email Hi Mamma immediately so we can remedy the situation. Everyone is responsilbe for shipping their ornaments so that they arrive safely.

If you know of anyone that might be interesting in participating in the Christmas ornament exchange please share with them the details. AND If you have are not already following Hi Mamma, please do so, so that you will receive any additional updates about the exchange.

Happy Crafting!
The Girls @ Hi Mamma