When you teach in Primary school, there comes a certain time in the winter term when you realise it's time to break out the glitter. Christmas crafts beckon and compete for time with Nativity play rehearsals so you take a deep breath, sweet talk the cleaner and resign yourself to a good few weeks of having everything ever so slightly sparkling, from the carpet to your face to your lunchtime sandwiches. As I'm on a break from teaching just now I don't actually have to do the glitter thing but it must be something inherent in a teacher's nature that come the end of November, it's glitter time. It began with the crafts for the winter season table and continued with the Christmas cards I've made for this year.
I considered the idea of making decorations to send people instead of Christmas cards this year. I'm torn between dislike of the waste of binned Christmas cards at the end of the season and the fact that most of our family and good friends live far enough away that sending Christmas cards is important. I'm just not sold on the idea of e-cards and thought that making something that might be kept and used another year would be nice. Well, it would be if it didn't mean making dozens of whatever we send. In the end, for reasons of economy and to satisfy my taste, I made something- and for reasons of time and to retain my sanity, it was cards not decorations. Cards whose construction mainly involved glue and...glitter. I now understand why there are lots more people who do craft for fun than make money from craft. Doing something once is fun, doing it fifty times is less fun. I had to do what I labelled my 'Christmas Card Sweatshop' sessions in batches, making 10 or so each evening until we had enough. Which meant that each day meant a fresh dusting of the sparkly stuff over everything. Oh well, it's only once a year...
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