Epic Holigay Grab Bag: 100+ DIY Projects, Recipes, and Inspiration for the Season

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‘Twas the holigay season, and ‘straddlers all ‘cross the land
knew winter was coming when our holigay content went up as planned.
They organized cute parties for ten, hundreds, or more,
And found present ideas from gift guides galore.

Then somewhere in Slack, there arose such a clatter,
As I got excited for the holidays to matter.
I’ve been ready for this since October started,
And it only got worse as Thanksgiving departed.
In fact, I was so excited for the season to come,
That I went looking for seasonal projects for everyone,
And as visions of Pinterest swirled in my head,
I set out to share them, and wrote this for you in bed.

Now queermos! Now ‘straddlers! Now commenters and lurkers!
On crafters and bakers from all faiths and backgrounds!
To the kitchen to cook! To the living room to sew!
Now get on my level! Get festive, you all!

AUTHOR’S NOTE: Despite my predilection for Santa, there’s stuff in here for Christmas, Hanukkah, and just-plain-winter festivities. Have no fear: your experiences are here.

Crafts & DIY

Because We Love You

+ Faux Leather Christmas Collar

do i look excited yet?

+ Striped Stockings

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+ Lizz once gave you a guide to making different fun kinds of menorahs! Memembah?

EIGHT DOMESTIC NIGHTS

+ Make a sock dog and these other cute gifts this year and everyone will fall head-over-heels for you. Promise.

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Gender-Neutral Probably Queer Snow People and Their Flakes

+ Coffee Filter Snowflakes

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+ Sock Snow People

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+ Stenciled Snowflake Mug

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+ Snow Person Jar

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Put a Wreath On It

+ Simple Wreath

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+ Rudolph Wreath

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+ Felt Ball Wreath

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+ Pine Cone Wreath

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+ Santa Tulle Wreath

+ Ribbon Wreath

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+ Christmas Card Holder Wreath

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+ Ornament Wreath w/ Optional Santa Belt

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+ White Burlap Wreath

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+ Curly Paper Wreath

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+ Wood Slice Wreath

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Will You Light My Candle

+ Hanukkah Tin Can Luminaries

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+ Blue Ice Crystal Candle Holder

+ Snow Person Luminary

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+ White Christmas Luminary

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Klub (Rein)Deer

No, but like, seriously. All reindeer imagery makes me wish I was at Klub Deer. It makes Christmas a whole lot more queer for me, so I advise this path for you as well.

+ Printed Napkins

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+ Sharpie Pillows

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+ Framed Reindeer Silhouette

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+ Glitter Deer Head

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+ (Or This Glitter Reindeer Art.)

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+ Reindeer Pillow

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#XXXMAS

+ Giant DIY Christmas Tree

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+ Pine Cone Christmas Tree

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+ Christmas Mugs

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+ Colorful Wood Forest

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+ Christmas Light-Up Marquee

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+ Merry and Bright Wall Art

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+ CHRISTMAS LIGHT BALLS.

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+ Wire Trees

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+ Christmas Tree Shelf

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The Festival of Crafts

+ Hanukkah Matchboxes

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+ Handmade Celebration Crackers

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+ Paper Stars

folds done

+ Stick Stars

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Snow Globes

+ Snow Globe Necklace

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+ Dreidel Snowglobe

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+ Mason Jar Snowglobe

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Things With Strings

+ Ornament Garland

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+ Paper Dreidel Garland

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+ Paper Scroll Garland

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+ String Lights Dreidel Garland

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+ Glitter Bow Garland

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+ Mini Mittens Garland

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+ Marshmallow Snow

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Getting Hung

+ Glitter Galaxy Ornaments

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+ Gold Straw Ornament

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+ Neon Pink Accent Ornaments

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+ Acorn-Topped Ornaments

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+ Skate Ornaments From Twigs

Twiggy Pairs of Skates completed

+ Yarn Ball Ornaments

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+ Etched Wood Ornaments

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+ Glitter Ornaments

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+ If you wanna make dip mix, milk flavor, or hot cocoa ornaments, you need to head on over here and get cookin’.

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Next: Recipes & Food, plus Inspiration, Links & Lists!

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Carmen

Carmen spent six years at Autostraddle, ultimately serving as Straddleverse Director, Feminism Editor and Social Media Co-Director. She is now the Consulting Digital Editor at Ms. and writes regularly for DAME, the Women’s Media Center, the National Women’s History Museum and other prominent feminist platforms; her work has also been published in print and online by outlets like BuzzFeed, Bitch, Bust, CityLab, ElixHER, Feministing, Feminist Formations, GirlBoss, GrokNation, MEL, Mic and SIGNS, and she is a co-founder of Argot Magazine. You can find Carmen on Twitter, Instagram and Tumblr or in the drive-thru line at the nearest In-N-Out.

Carmen has written 919 articles for us.

23 Comments

  1. That poem adaptation is amazing! Also I think you may have inadvertently cloned one of my pinterest boards.

  2. WOW thank you for putting this massive list of wonderful holigay things together. Now excuse me while I proceed to decorate my house with ALL THE GARLANDS.

  3. I need finals to be over so I can spend weeks baking and decorating my apartment!!!! Oh and crafting gifts for people

    • Gahhhh!I’m so excited! I’ve been looking for easy ways to bring the Christmas spirit into mine and my girlfriend’s place! We have a tree! And wrapped gifts! And we decorated stockings! And I painted a clear ornament I got and set it out! Now we just need more! And this list has it!!

    • Gahhhh!I’m so excited! I’ve been looking for easy ways to bring the Christmas spirit into mine and my girlfriend’s place! We have a tree! And wrapped gifts! And we decorated stockings! And I painted a clear ornament I got and set it out! Now we just need more! And this list has it!!

  4. I wish I were an adequate baker so I could bake and eat all of the things. Especially the gingerbread, which seems sadly absent from this part of the world… Maybe I’ll cheer myself up by making stuff out of paper :)

  5. Those Christmas light balls, though. If I were paying the electric bill by myself, all the illumination would be christmas lights. I’d happily burn to death in the inevitable electrical fire.

  6. This is a great list! I wish I had more time to make gifts for people. I especially like the drink/cocoa/dip mixes in ornaments!

  7. YES this is wonderful. Just what I needed to get into the holiday spirit. Nutter Butters decorated like snowpeople, combined with the holiday drinks article, might be the only thing that can make me feel okay about wintertime.

    Also the pinecone Christmas tree is the cutest thing ever. That’s gonna be my project this weekend. I feel really behind on the holigays because my roommate has already done all her Christmas shopping and cards…I’m still working on Thanksgiving leftovers.

  8. Autostraddle…this is exactly what I needed. I love you…thank you!!! Seriously, thank you for taking your time to compile this amazing list. I am so excited for the holigays, y’all.

  9. If there were a single craft to summarize my childhood, it would be the paper snowflake. I made so many of them as a kid and stuck them all over windows everywhere (though sometimes they were rectangular, depending on the paper I used). They were the best! All you did was cut triangles and voila! A masterpiece unfolded, unique each time! I was an artist making replicas of nature’s crystals that I caught on my gloves and looked at under my little 20x microscope. As a kid, I was naive to the perils of driving and commuting to work in the elements, and so snow was nothing more than beautiful awesomeness.

  10. A. I appreciate all the Chanukah stuff. I’m not one of the Chosen, but I love a Heb, so this was really exciting. I anticipate our apt being a blue and white, candle-lit dreamland.

    B. I too miss Vanessa.

    C. My office staff is going to get hella awesome and cute homemade gifts this year. Thanks for making me a better boss Carmen.

  11. this is excellent timing for someone (like me) who is suddenly in charge of coming up with awesome ideas for a holiday party. LOVE the DIY photobooth! and a lot of the crafty ideas that will definitely be used in the next few weeks!

Comments are closed.