As a mom of all girls, I love to make Christmas special for my little ones. This year with my youngest being 5 years old I really wanted to go all out and create a memory that she would remember for years to come. She is obsessed with cheerleading so we decided to go with a cheerleader costume.

We started by choosing the colors for her costume. She wanted something that would sparkle and shine like stars in the sky on Christmas Eve. We choose red, white, silver and blue which would be the perfect color combination for a little star spangled girl. Next up was finding the perfect fabric for her skirt and top. We went with a silver sequined fabric for her skirt and red glittery fabric for her top. She chose white pom poms to match her shoes and add some bounce to her step while she was dancing away.

Lastly we needed some pizazz so I added some rhinestones in the shape of a star on her top as an extra embellishment because every cheerleader needs their own star! We were both very happy with how it turned out and she loved wearing it while helping me bake cookies and decorate our house for the holidays!

My little girl is turning four in December and, as a big Christmas fan, I’ve been looking forward to her first real Christmas. Last year she was only three months old and didn’t really understand what was going on. This year, however, we’re going all out.

One thing I’ve noticed is how hard it can be to find girls’ Christmas clothes – there’s so much choice for boys with the cute little elves and reindeer outfits but girls’ clothes are often more sedate. So when I came across this cute little cheerleader costume on eBay, I just had to buy it. I’m sure my little girl will love it and look absolutely adorable in it!

Hi! My name is Susan, and I enjoy Christmas so much that I make my own snow globes with my little girl, Claire. This year, we decided to make our own costumes too. We wanted to be Santa’s elves.

But we couldn’t find any patterns for elf costumes in any of the craft books at our local library or bookstore. So we had to make up our own.

I’ll show you how we did it.

First we bought some gold felt for $2 a yard and made some red felt for $1 a yard. We cut out 12 green triangles and glued them on top of the red with a glue gun (be careful!). Next, we took those wooden skewers from the BBQ place down the street and glued them onto each side of the hat so that they looked like elf ears.

The holidays are a great time to enjoy with family and friends, but they can also be a stressful time. It is so easy to get overwhelmed by the demands of the season that you lose sight of what it is all about. One way to make sure you have fun and make memories is to plan ahead. My little girl loves Christmas so much that she asked if I could make her a Christmas dress. Of course I wanted to help her make memories too, so we went shopping for fabric together and I started sewing!

While we were shopping for fabric she was amazed by how many types of fabric there were. We had such fun looking at all the different fabrics, textures and colors. She loved the sparkly fabrics best, and after looking through everything she decided that you can never have enough glitter at Christmas!

We found some red velvet and added some gold sparkle trim to it. We made a skirt, a top and a pair of panties so that she could wear it as an outfit or under other clothes. She was so excited to help me sew on the trim! The next day when she came home from school she couldn’t wait to try it on. I must say, it looks very festive!

We have been collecting Christmas movies for several years and love having them playing in the background throughout the season. Our list is not exhaustive, but here are some of our favorites:

* The Snowman

* The Polar Express

* It’s a Wonderful Life

* Home Alone

* Miracle on 34th Street (the original)

* Elf

* How the Grinch Stole Christmas (the cartoon version)

* Charlie Brown Christmas (and other Peanuts specials)

* National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation

We play music throughout the day and especially during dinner. This year we will be adding these songs to our list:

“Let it Snow”, “I’m Dreaming of a White Christmas”, “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas”, “I’ll Be Home for Christmas”, “It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas”, “Winter Wonderland”, “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”, “Santa Claus is Coming to Town”.

Skating/ballet dress and leotards, I was super into dance when I was a kid. Unfortunately, we didn’t have any money to take me to dance lessons so I just made up my own dances. I would get dressed up and put on my favorite albums and perform in front of the mirror while my mom watched from the couch. It would’ve been easier with a leotard, but I wanted to be flashy, so I went for the full on skating dress with the matching tights, sequins and all.

My mom’s friend, who was a dancer with the San Francisco Ballet had given me a pair of ballet slippers that her daughter had outgrown so now I needed something to wear them with. My mom came across this pattern for a very 80s leotard that she thought would work nicely with some stretchy fabric from Jo-Anns (I think it was lycra). The pattern also called for a matching skirt that wrapped around the waistline of the leotard, but since it was summer we left that part off.

Now if you’re not familiar with sewing patterns they come in what’s called an “envelope” which is usually some sort of paper or plastic bag with the pattern pieces

This past Saturday, I made my first ever trip to the sewing machine. That’s right! I sat down, took a deep breath, and tried to make a cheerleader costume for my daughter. Let’s just say it didn’t go so well.

I am not sure what I was thinking when I decided that this would be a great idea. Maybe because it wasn’t technically sewing (or at least how I thought of sewing), but more like glueing fabric together?

I don’t know why, but I thought that making a skirt would be easy. All you had to do was measure the waist and cut the fabric in a circle and then sew it up. It sounded so simple.

Ha! Not so much!

I decided to use stretchy knit fabric to make it easier because there wouldn’t be any seams and it would just stretch over her waist. And my plan worked…mostly…

When I measured the fabric around her waist, it seemed like it was enough fabric, but when I sewed the ends together to make the circle, there seemed to be a huge gap in-between where the ends met. So then what did I do? You guessed it….I just added more fabric until it seemed okay. And that is why she