Christmas Quote Quiz

Congratulations to Sprite from Sprite Writes -

who successfully named 23 of the 24 Christmas movies/shows in the Dec. 1 puzzle. (She overlooked that little shot of White Christmas at the bottom).  Sprite wins her choice of the Christmas ornaments I've been making.  

And to continue the Christmas Puzzling - below are lines from 14 of the 24 shows represented in the original puzzle.  Can you match the quote with the movie?  Here's a little help - none of the lines are from regular television shows (that knocks out Brady Bunch, West Wing, etc.)  They are all from feature-length films or TV specials. There's no prize this time except the personal satisfaction of a job well done - so shout 'em out, even if you only know one or two.  

Answers will be posted on Thursday.

1.  Faith is believing when common sense tells you not to.

2.  Isn't there anyone who knows what Christmas is all about?

3.  In putting on the suit and entering the sleigh, the wearer waives any and all right to any previous identity, real or implied, and fully accepts the duties and responsibilities of Santa Claus, in perpetuity, to which time the wearer becomes unable to do so, by either accident or design. 

4.  Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more. 

5.  This is Christmas. The season of perpetual hope. And I don't care if I have to get out on your runway and hitchhike. If it costs me everything I own, if I have to sell my soul to the devil himself, I am going to get home to my son. 

6.  What's Christmas to you but a time for paying bills without money; a time for finding yourself a year older, but not an hour richer; a time for balancing your books and having every item in them through a round dozen of months presented dead against you? 

7.  Only one thing in the world could've dragged me away from the soft glow of electric sex gleaming in the window. 

8.  Seeing is believing, but sometimes the most real things in the world are the things we can't see.

9.  But I think what I've got is something slightly resembling - gumption. 

10.  You're skipping Christmas?  Isn't that illegal?

11.  My father didn't think so. People were human beings to him. But to you, a warped, frustrated old man, they're cattle. Well in my book, my father died a much richer man than you'll ever be! 

12.  You're a disgrace to the outfit. You're soft! You're sloppy! You're unruly! You're undisciplined!  And I never saw anything look so wonderful in my whole life! 

13. We get one day a year to prove we're not screw-ups and what do we do? We screw it up.

14.This is a full-blown, four-alarm holiday emergency here. We're gonna press on, and we're gonna have the hap, hap, happiest Christmas since Bing Crosby tap-danced with Danny f***ing Kaye. And when Santa squeezes his fat, white ass down that chimney tonight, he's gonna find the jolliest bunch of assholes this side of the nuthouse.

Bonus - This line (and this movie) aren't as well known as many of the others, but I loved this quote too much to not include it.  So give yourself a bonus point if you can identify this one:

   All the stockings are filled... all that is, except one. And we have even forgotten to hang it up. The stocking for the child born in a manger. It's his birthday we are celebrating. Don't ever let us forget that. 

Christmas Movie Puzzle: The Answers

Answers to puzzle posted Dec. 1 as part of the Virtual Advent Tour:

Top row: 
Miracle on 34th Street
The Santa Clause
How the Grinch Stole Christmas
Home Alone
Green Acres
Oprah's Favorite Things 

2nd row:
A Charlie Brown Christmas
The Andy Griffith Show
A Christmas Story
The Brady Bunch
The Bishop's Wife
Mrs. Miracle 

3rd row: 
A Christmas Carol
The Polar Express
The Holiday
Christmas with the Kranks
Santa Claus Is Coming to Town

4th row: 
The Dick Van Dyke Show
It's a Wonderful Life
White Christmas
West Wing
Rudolf the Red-Nosed Reindeer
Jingle All the Way
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation

Holiday Pin It/Do It: Pins 6-8

Three more easy pins bring my total to eight for this challenge.  Pin #6 was a memory from childhood, reignited by this pin:  

 Pinned from Cocoa Daisy

My sisters and I used to make these from Reader's' Digest magazines and then spray paint them green or gold.  I hadn't thought about them for years, until I saw this version.  I couldn't find a Reader's Digest on the magazine stand at the grocery store, so I dove into the box of books I bought at an estate sale.  Step one was to remove the cover and spine without breaking the glue or stitching holding the pages together.  The first book turned out to have HUGE staples reinforcing the glue and keeping it from forming the necessary circle - so try, try again.  

My version

You can find the folding instructions at the link under the original pin. Since the tree was made from a book, rather than a magazine, I didn't want to cover the pages, so I sprayed it with Krylon Glitter Blast to give it a bit of sparkle and some stiffness.  I chose to limit the embellishments to just the star on top to match the larger ornaments I've been making.  Never again!  Made from 1/8" x 2" strips of paper, it was a nightmare of sticky fingers and crossed eyes.  Although it's not perfect, a little more glitter paint covered the flaws.  It's attached to the tree with a toothpick and craft glue.

Pinned from Flickr

Number 7 was more an inspiration than an exact copy of a Christmas decoration for the front porch.  Last summer I found an old crate in the shed and painted it up to match the patriotic theme on my front porch.  It held pots of geraniums during warm weather, but was just sitting empty, so I adapted this idea, using the crate in place of the wagon.

My version

Dave cut the branches from trees near the house.  The sled belonged to his mom. The star and greenery on the sled came preassembled ($12) so I can't take credit for that - Dave just wired it to the sled.  Throw in a few empty boxes wrapped in coordinating paper and some artificial apples and berries I found at a second-hand store ($2), and you have an inexpensive Red, White and Blue Christmas.

Pin #8 is embarrassingly simple.  Scraps of felt, a few dabs of glue, four snips of the scissors . . . add a candy cane and you have . . . a Christmas mouse????  I have no clue what mice have to do with Christmas or what to do with the finished canes - but they're a Martha Stewart project - so they're adorable!

Martha's mice                       My version

When I signed up for Trish's Holiday Pin It/Do It Challenge, I chose the "pin obsessed" level, which was to complete 8 or more pins before December 31.  I've made it by Dec. 3rd!  But that won't stop me.  I have five recipes to try while the kids are home, a Christmas quilt that is cut out but probably won't be complete by the end of the year, and my most anticipated pin - RACK (Random Acts of Christmas Kindness).  Pin on, elves!

Virtual Advent Tour

Welcome to Day 1 of the Virtual Advent Tour, sponsored by Kailana @ The Reading World and Marg @ Adventures of an Intrepid Reader.  I've planned a few minutes of fun to kick things off. 

Two of my favorite things are Christmas and puzzles - so I've combined the two and created a collage of scenes from twenty-four of my favorite Christmas movies, TV specials and Christmas TV episodes.  How many can you identify?

Just leave a comment listing the names of the movies and TV shows (no need to identify the specific episode name.)  Comment moderation will be turned on temporarily so you can't peek at anyone's answers.  The winner will be selected by random drawing of all entries that get all twenty-four correct - or come the closest.  The winner will receive a hand-made Christmas ornament.

Entries will remain open till midnight, Monday, December 3rd.  Come back on Tuesday, December 4th to find out who won - and to play along on a second puzzle matching quotes from the Christmas movies with the proper title.

Have fun - and have a Merry Christmas!

Click to enlarge

Holiday Pin It/Do It: Pins 4 & 5

These pins are so easy that I almost feel bad about counting them for the challenge - especially since Dave actually did one of them - but "almost" doesn't count.

Pin #4 was Tomato Cage Christmas Trees.  Simply turn the cage upside down and wrap with Christmas lights - instant tree. To make them with varying heights, Dave stacked 2 cages together for the tree on the right.  If you want them to look more "tree-ish" during the day you could wrap with artificial greenery along with the lights and add bows or ornaments.

Original Pin from nedesignbuild.com               My version            

Our trees and Santa ($8 at Dollar General) will be moved to the yard in front of the porch as soon as Dave makes stakes to anchor them to the ground. I would hate for Santa to go flying before Christmas Eve.

Pin #5 was another felt ornament - this time a snowman.  As usual, I did things my own way: I glued the nose on rather than stitching; and, rather than assembling the hat separately and sewing it on as instructed, I glued the stripe pieces to the hat front then glued it to the front of the snowman.  I left the hat back plain and glued it to the snowman back - making sure it lined up with the hat front - and stitched around the entire thing - snowman and hat. I would like to say that stitching in black rather than blue was an aesthetic choice, but honestly, I just didn't pay attention to the instructions and had it half done in black before I realized it was supposed to be blue (to look like snow - duh!)  I also added some beads as buttons, just for kicks, and glued a ribbon loop to the top of the hat for hanging.

Original from Better Homes & Gardens           My version

My blanket stitching could use some practice, but a few more of these and some felt cardinal ornaments (see yesterday's post) and I'll be a blanket stitch expert.  These are simple enough for beginning crafters and could even be adapted for kids by drawing on the face and gluing edges rather than stitching - or making the front only.  

One final note: The pattern, when printed from the BHG website says "enlarge to 133%", which I did on the copier at work (why they didn't just make the original that size is beyond me - it easily fits on one sheet of paper).  The finished snowman is about 6" tall.  For use as tree ornaments, I think I would like them slightly smaller, so will try the next one without enlarging the pattern.

Have fun - and please come back and leave a link to your versions if you give them a try.

Holiday Pin It/Do It: Pin #3

I have some sort of weird infatuation with cardinals, especially in Christmas decorating.  They're so bright and cheery, I guess.  Whatever the reason, as soon as I saw this pin for felt cardinal ornaments, I knew I had to make some.

http://www.downeastthunderfarm.com

These ornaments are really very simple to make - just felt, glue, black thread and a small bit of polyfill.  The trickiest part was transferring the stitching lines to the felt.  I printed the pattern on standard printer paper, cut it out and used a marker to draw around it on the felt.  However, the felt is too thick to allow tracing the interior lines on the wing (maybe with a light box?) so I just free-handed the stitching on the wings.  The beak can be cut from felt or stitched with embroidery floss.  I chose the felt option and I glued the black and gold pieces on with craft glue rather than stitching.  I'm pleased with the outcome and hope to find time to make a few more.

Holiday Pin It/Do It - Pin #2

Pin #2 for the Holiday Pin It/Do It Challenge is a Rustic Stocking Holder.  We've lived in 16 houses in our marriage, but not one has had a mantel.  I've hung our Christmas stockings in every conceivable place - door frames, windows, tv stands ...  So, when I ran across some pins for stocking holders, I re-pinned a couple, then combined them to make my own creation.  Here are my inspirations:

http://cowiescraftandcookingcorner.blogspot.com/2011/11/curtain-rod-as-stocking-holder.html

I loved this idea of using a curtain rod to hold all the stockings rather than having individual hooks.  Still lacking a mantel, I began scheming alternate locations to use this idea.  Then I saw this pin:

http://www.etsy.com/listing/84215607/rustic-stocking-holder-hanger-christmas?utm_campaign=Share&utm_medium=PageTools&utm_source=Pinterest

I liked two things about this holder:  1. it hangs on the wall - no need for a mantle or other shelf and 2. the primitive theme, which goes along with some other decorating I'm planning (see future Pin It/Do It entries).  So, I combined the two ideas - a primitive style, free hanging stocking holder with a single rod to hold all stockings.

Dave found some extremely weathered barn board that had once been painted red - perfect.  Then all we needed was a rod.  A shiny, new curtain rod didn't seem to fit the primitive theme, so we scoured the shelter belt and found a branch that was the right length and relatively straight.  A little bailing wire to attach the branch and voila!  

But it was a little plain, so I decided to add some greenery and pinecones (some from Wal-Mart, some from the yard).  As it turned out, it didn't really matter what I used for the hanging rod, because it barely shows in the finished product, but I love the look.  So here's my new Christmas stocking holder:

Since I know someone is going to ask.  I made the three cross-stitch stockings for Dave and the kids.  My stocking is the one my mother made for me when I was in grade school - or even earlier.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.

More Christmas crafts and decorations to come.  Holiday Pin It/Do It is sponsored by Trish @ Love, Laughter and a Touch of Insanity.