Wednesday 30 November 2016

Jingle Bell Ornaments

One day when I went through my stuff I came across a bag of tiny jingle bells that I got several years back when making a costume for a friend (Esmeralda in Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame), and thought that they’d make nice ornaments for our Christmas tree. They don’t jingle very well, but they look pretty, and I had lots of them.


As they are so small (each bell 11 millimetres in diameter), I stringed four of them on a piece of hemp twine, grouped them together tightly and made a knot to keep them in place. I tied the ends of the twine together, then bound a little satin ribbon bow around the top, secured with a few stitches to prevent little fingers from undoing it. In the end, I got eleven little ornaments.


They don’t make much of a statement, but not every ornament has to be big or flashy. We have rather a small tree anyway, so it doesn't look ridiculous. I really like how they came out, even if they are very small.


Do you use jingle bells to decorate for the holidays?

4 comments:

  1. Yes ! Very usefull on the low branches of the christmas tree if you have a cat and want to know when he's playing with the decorations...

    Also on the door wreath, so that it jingles every time someone is using it. The sound adds to the christmas spirit !

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    1. Very practical! Would have worked well to tell me if my kids are playing with the tree too, if my bells actually made a proper jingle :)

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  2. They look very fairy-like! Tiny bells have such an understated beauty.

    I love jingle bells, and tend to use them a lot at Christmas. A few years ago, I strung some larger bells on lengths of heavy wire, and twisted them together at the center of each wire to form a snowflake/star shape. Those have been very useful as wreath decorations, doorknob hangers, and general holiday sparkle.

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    1. Sounds very pretty! My parents have some old leather pieces meant to be attached to horses' harnesses, with the really big bells on them, inherited from mums family. They make a delightful, but very loud, jingle.

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