I really enjoy belonging to a community that holds various family events throughout the year, and one of the highlights of Christmas here in our village are the Christmas window displays that homes do and that are then included on a trail for all to enjoy. Each year various homes decorate their windows in all things festive and villagers young and old look forward to walking around in the evenings; spotting them as they switch on night after night leading up to Christmas.
It is a really lovely site and along with the Nativity that is a glow on the village pond, it is something we have grown to look forward to at Christmas time.
This year however there was no window trail scheduled and like other event’s in the Village calendar, Covid has unfortunately caused it’s cancellation. And so instead of offering a planned trail as per tradition, they instead invited us all (via the bulletin) to just do it as part of our individual streets to spread some cheer over the neighbourhood, and I have loved seeing people’s decorations as we arrive home – from illuminated windows and gardens to little displays and festivities – so joyful!
Our Christmas Window
I have never considered doing a Christmas Window before – it just isn’t something that I was aware of. But this year with the invitation for all to do something, it seemed like an exciting prospect, and so as a family we cracked on with it on the last Sunday of November so that it would be done for the month of December. And it was such a lovely way to spend a Sunday afternoon together – crafting something festive whilst listening to Christmas music.
We wanted our Christmas window to reflect what Christmas means to us and provide some hope this time of year so we made together a window silhouette of the nativity, and then using colourful tissue paper, made a stained glass look behind it. We debated on whether to put some words on it, but felt it needed it and went with the phrase “Joy To The World”; as this really is the message of Christmas to us! It has become a lovely reminder daily when we all return home that even on the hard days of life we can think of the Christmas story and find Joy and hope in this world.
We then finished it off by stringing some white fairy lights around the window to illuminate it so it could be seen by people walking by and look welcoming for all of us arriving home!
It was such a fun afternoon for us all making it, talking about the nativity story and listening to Christmas music. I love a colourful Christmas and am so glad to have begun the season centring our thoughts on the reason for the season!!!
The window has been loved by many already and it makes me happy that it brings both them and us joy to see it daily – some friends and family have even been inspired to make one too which I love. It was very inexpensive to do; we bought a pack of tissue paper from B&M for £1.99 and used cereal boxes for the stable silhouette covered with black tissue paper (only because we forgot to buy black card!). The wording was done with Sharpies and then used the remaining colour pieces of tissue paper chopped up for the stained glass. It is all taped onto the window and should be very easy to take down after Christmas.
As a family we still plan on walking around the village to spot people’s Christmas windows and generally enjoy the variety of lights, because it is such a lovely part of Christmas time that brings a lot of joy to look at. But we are also grateful for the opportunity to start a new tradition of doing a Christmas Window together – it has been a fun project to create together and one for us to play a part in this village tradition. Christmas windows are most definitely a tradition we want to incorporate into our Christmases going forward – working together to decorate and reflect what Christmas means to us and spreading joy to passers by!
