{A Gingerbread Christmas}

'Tis the season for holiday decorating...and my house is finally--after several days of boxes and messes and chaos--looking like it's Christmas Season. I love it!

 I have an obsession with gingerbread. Real, fake, anything gingerbread. I love the taste and the playfulness of the candy decor. I love the colors of the candy and white icing against the dark brown of the gingerbread.

I have dreams of living in the witch's house from Hansel and Gretel.

Wouldn't that be awesome?!

But if I lived there I wouldn't trick children into thinking I was a sweet little old lady and then try to fatten them up to eat them.

Here is a glimpse of my gingerbread collection:

I'm not usually one who likes "cutesy" decor, but when it comes to gingerbread decor, the cuter the better!

I've also collected gingerbread ornaments for years...and I have enough that I think I can title my 9-foot tree a "Gingerbread Tree."

Well, I figured it was high-time that my gingerbread tree had a tree topper that matched it's decor...so I made my own gingerbread star topper!

I bought some brown felt and white rick-rack and whipped this up in about 20 minutes.

I printed out a large star (using the basic shapes in MSword) for a pattern, cut out two layers of felt, sewed them right-sides-together, leaving a couple inches at the bottom open, turned it right-sides-out, stuffed it with batting and a wire coil (stolen from my old tree topper), and then whip-stitched the opening by hand, reinforcing the area around the wire coil to hold it in place.

I think my gingerbread tree is now, officially, properly topped.

Happy Holidays!

--Tammy