Scrapbooking Your Pre-Christmas Activities

How are you getting ready for Christmas? Card writing, tree selecting, tree trimming, and attending concerts and events are a few of the things you might put on a page from the days leading up to Christmas.

Leah Farquharson says, “One of my all time favorite Christmas activities is choosing our Christmas card for the year! I almost always choose something premade, but add a little touch of the handmade. In the photo pictured, I added rhinestones to the snowflakes.”

Terry Billman says, “This page is about our family tradition of writing Christmas cards to our four grown children. I wanted to focus on Craig writing the cards to the children and chose a close up shot of him writing a card. The photo itself does not tell the story but it piques your interest and invites you to read the journaling. The title and journaling tell the story of who is writing, what is being written, and to whom.”

Brenda Becknell says, “Even though it was just a little plastic Christmas tree, my kids were sooo excited to have a tree of their own in their room!”

‘I chose these photos because they showed each child in profile and then together with their finished tree.  The photos are about 25 years old (Christmas 1986) and had faded a bit, so I did some color correcting, cropping and resizing to bring them back to life.”

“I think the title tells the whole story, especially the part about “their own tree”, along with the “Traditions” journaling tab at the top of page, because this year started a tradition that was important to my kids when they were little.  I didn’t include journaling on the front of the page, because the design is a little busy, but I attached typewritten journaling to the back of the page.”

Tara McKernin says, “This layout is about our day out picking our Christmas Tree. It was a long day but so worth it in the end because we were in the Christmas spirit.”

“We had tons of photos to chose from so I paired it down to about 10 total.  I worked with a few in the layout before I settled on the final three.  I wanted our tree, the boys together, and I loved the shot of our horses from our wagon ride.”

“I have a lot of this captured in our project life but I love having full page layouts that highlight our day.  My journaling here I kept short and to the point but it covers our whole day’s adventure.”

Kiki Kougioumtzi says, “This layout is about the yearly routine of checking the Christmas decorations before the celebrations and then going shopping for replacements. For this page, the journaling came first and then the photos. Each sentence of the main journaling is attached to a specific photo, which represents it. That’s how I decided on the photos. The title sets the tone of the page and the journaling follows.”

Amanda Jones says, “Following the Christmas event pictured on my page, my son came to the conclusion that Santa wasn’t real. I used a single photo of the event so that I had plenty of room in my design to tell the story.  The journaling is very important on my page as the photo does not tell the whole story of what I wanted to document.”

Amy Kingsford says, “I’m not sure which I enjoy more–the spirit of the holidays or crossing things off my holiday to-do list!  This page fulfilled two purposes for me: 1) it acted as a well-deserved pat on the back for what had accomplished so far and 2) it served as encouragement for what I have left to check off my holiday to-do list!  While the title provides some much needed context, I decided journaling wasn’t necessary as I tried to capture the bulk of my list in my photo.”

Adriana Puckett says, “One of our favorite pre-Christmas activities that we experienced in the last few years is going on the Santa Train, a very popular 1-hour train ride where Santa and Mrs. Claus come around and visit with the children. My focal photos are of our family picture with Santa and capturing the kids’ excitement of riding on the train, which are the main highlights of this event. The title, All Aboard the Santa Train, quickly sums up the activity, and I went light on the journaling here, preferring to keep the focus on the photos.”

Vicki Walters says “I chose photos that represent the different activities leading up to Chrismas like “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” How long has that special been on? I never miss it! Next there’s decorating the tree and the house with all those things that inspire cheer!  Of course we can’t leave out the baking, and of course Christmas music playing all the while, and wrapping all the presents–then we wait!

Chris Asbury scrapbooked a shop front she frequently passes. The wreath on the door is a signal that the holiday season is here.