by Noella Noelophile®
(Royalty-free image by NoName13 from Pixabay.)
“It’ll be July soon enough, and everyone will start getting ready for next Christmas!”
When my husband said that, he was only half-joking!
It always does seem like Christmas goes by too fast. For one of the longer months of the year, December similarly seems to melt away. Even if we did start seeing some suspiciously tinsel-like creations in midsummer!
Today, Twelfth Night. seems like a good time to wrap up Christmas season 2023 with a few of my favorite ways people are carrying the magic forward.
Let’s start with the Seal Beach Lions Club.
Photo courtesy of Scott Newton and Marcella McSorley.)
December 1, 2023, marked the 45th anniversary of their annual Seal Beach Christmas Parade.
And since parade preparations happen pretty much year-round, a safe bet is that they’re already preparing to wow everyone with their 46th annual parade, next December! To say nothing of their annual Arts & Crafts Faire, happening in September, or their “Community Fish Fry”, which happens every summer.
If you’d like to get involved with them, on these and other community-supporting events, the Seal Beach Lions Club invites you to learn more about becoming a member. Here’s the link for information.
Craftcation co-founder Nicole Stevenson.
Next? Well, how about artist/podcaster/general creative Nicole Stevenson, CEO/Creative Director of Dear Handmade Life?
I had the pleasure of meeting her when she was the proprietor of Random Nicole, and her creative businesses have flourished since then.
This upcoming April, Nicole and her creative community are, once again, hosting their five-day Craftcation Conference, in Ventura.
This is a very engaging-sounding series of crafts workshops, business workshops for creatives and social gatherings. Wish they had a virtual component!
However, if you’d like to attend in-person, tickets are still available but selling rapidly, according to the Dear Handmade Life website.
An alternate option: if you can volunteer to be part of the “Craftcation Crew” and help with the conference, you can earn a free ticket! Here’s the link for details.
However, I know Nicole and her crew best from this….
The Patchwork Show Makers Market and Community Festival started as the “Patchwork Indie Arts and Crafts Festival” in Santa Ana, in 2007.
Since then, the show has grown to twice-yearly tours, in spring and autumn. Events happen up and down the state, with juried vendors showcasing their all-handmade work.
Dates for 2024 have not yet appeared on Dear Handmade Life’s website (which is understandable; c’mon, we’re all just putting the Christmas decorations away!). However, here is the link to join their mailing list if you’d love to be a Patchwork vendor in the future.
There are dozens of other great creatives I could cite here. But that would be a longer post than anyone would have time to read!
How about I wrap it up with a talented artist/author who just published ANOTHER book?
Talented Ellie Lieberman personifies imagination and creative stardust.
Ellie, proprietor of fairy-inspired handmade business Acorn Tops, is both an artist and a highly gifted author.
If you didn’t hear our earlier interview for Christmas season 2023, on her latest children’s book, The Way The Cookie Crumbles, in her “Basil Basset” series, here’s your chance.
Meanwhile, her new book for us “taller kids” is An Impossible Dream, which Ellie describes as a retelling of the Cinderella story.
I also especially love her first book, Society’s Foundlings, which is equal parts darkness and magic (kind of like seeing fireflies appear!), and her Christmas short story The Memory Tree.
Here’s a link to see some of Ellie’s written work.
Fair warning: like her mom, artist/author Barbara Lieberman, Ellie knows how to “hook” a reader. I’ve found myself sitting up late (“OK, just one more chapter!”) to finish books by both of them.
And==that wraps this up, for now! Keep carrying the magic of Christmas forward with you in 2024.