As part of the festive preparations this week I’ve been rummaging in the loft for this Christmas sack I made last year for Harry, which makes an appearance in the hearth miraculously on Christmas morning, dusted with snow straight from the Big Man’s sleigh. I wanted to make him something very personal, and something that also looked realistic enough to help to sustain belief in Father Christmas for as long as possible, as well (of course) as being a handy receptacle for the presents themselves.
I ran up the sack itself from lengths of hessian and fleece (for more details see the downloads below), and added authentic-looking labels which I’d designed and then printed onto fabric transfer paper before ironing onto scraps of linen from an old tablecloth which had become stained beyond rescue. Some of the labels I then glued onto leather, before stitching them all in place.
The marvellous thing about a sack full of presents of course is that it’s supposed to look a bit rough around the edges; after all, it bumps across the skies at incredible speeds and freezing temperatures, before being dropped down a chimney – so the more frayed and lopsided this looks, the better it is. Or so I tell myself… I used faded, well-worn materials like sacking and linen, and muted colours for the fonts. My stitching is straggly and irregular, though I can’t claim this is by design *ahem*
I added a length of fat, soft woollen rope to draw the sack closed, and threaded on sleigh bells which seem to jingle loudly if you so much as think about trying to move or adjust the sack into place; I’m hoping that this gently penetrates Harry’s dreams as a vaguely recalled memory the next day, and doesn’t jolt him into excited wakefulness at midnight, just as we’re wearily biting carrots, crumbling mince pies and draining the whisky we’ve laid out for Santa only hours before…
On Christmas Day night this will quietly disappear – everyone knows that the sacks are magically transported back to the North Pole in readiness for next year – and only the contents will be left; though these are by far the most important things of course. Hints of this year’s treasures poke tantalisingly out of the top; the rest will require some serious delving and unwrapping.
If you find yourself with time on your hands this week (I know, crazy notion..) and want to run one of these up, here are some of my graphics and labels to download and use with your sack (or other Christmas crafts). Once you’ve corralled the bits and pieces together, it really is a 2hr job. Promise.
One word of warning; think about how big you actually want your sack to be before you begin; I took the lazy approach of just going with the existing width of the fabric, and hence have a monster-sized sack; each year I will have to resort to buying at least one inflatable gift which I can blow up before wrapping in order to fill the vast depths of the sack… there’s a lesson in there somewhere for me, I’m sure.
Harry is one very lucky boy!
wow such a good idea, how cool a mum are you! xxxxx
wow! you outdid yourself – that is just too cute!
This is just beautiful!
Fabulous idea! You are great Mum!!!:)
Wowzers,what an excitingly genuine looking sack! Lavish and rustic all at the same time. If I was a guest at your home at Christmas,I would forget my mummy knowledge,shoulder Harry out the way and get stuck in there myself. Blummin awesome as always Kate,blummin awesome
Kate, you are wonderful! And Harry is so lucky to have a mum who understand the magic of childhood (and life, for that matter!). This is just beautiful.
Love this sack and those tiny Father and Mother Christmas clothes strung up on a bunting! Gah so adorable! xx
I’m SPEECHLESS with delight at this. This is beyond wonderful!
Gorgeous! Harry is very lucky – hope in years to come he appreciates all your work (or, ahem, Santa’s) and maybe passes on some of these traditions. If he ever gets too “old” for these things – I’ll happily take them off his hands!
Beautiful
Luck Harry I love the elf part too …
Seems if we talk about Elves watching there good too
Oh my, you are a very creative and imaginative woman, maybe a little bit of super woman? Awe…this is just really too wonderful, Harry really is a lucky boy !!
Ha! Great idea, I love the ‘Good List Approved’!
OMG! You are divine!! What a FABULOUS imagination and childhood Harry has!! Merry Christmas to you and your family. x
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xx
What an amazing and incredibly sweet idea for those family Christmas mornings
That is the best Christmas project I have ever seen! You have to be the coolest mom ever!
It is truly beautiful! I think it will help keep the Santa tradition going for a very very long time!
I love your blog. I have a little girl and wish I was half as creative with her as you are with your little boy.
Kate, this is truly amazing. What an incredible momma Harry has!
You must be the bestest mom, ever . . . love the sack, especially since 713 is MY lucky number.
I dont know how you do it all – you are very talented. I especially liked seeing the reclaimed barn star which we used to sell. Sadly all sold out now. Merry Christmas!
What a brilliant idea, and perfectly done. You regularly refer to Martha Stewart, but she can’t hold a candle to you. If my kids were younger, I would definitely have copied your idea. I always wanted to keep the magic going. In fact, my kids do, too. They are 13 and almost 16, but so far neither of them has come out and said that Santa doesn’t exist.
Oh, by the way, you are my featured blogger right now.
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Fantastic. Any chance you are interested in adopting a 40-year-old woman?
This is so fantastic; thank you for sharing!
How lovely
thanks so much for sharing
these are on my must make for next christmas my boys will be very pleased especially with the extra details like elf approval