Winter Sew-or-Buy & The Colonial Spirit of a Single Gift

Winter Sew-or-Buy

The temperature has dropped straight through the ground. To a lot of people up north, 48 degrees isn't that bad, but I'm frozen to the bone. And I have no winter clothes.

I don't know how I made it through past winters. Leggings and thermals under my skirts, calf socks and boots, lots of layers, gloves and scarves. That's not going to suffice this year. My intolerance to cold is worse than it's ever been. A quick trip to the grocery store near about did me in.

Eve has outgrown all of her winter clothes from last year. Even Love has outgrown Eve's clothes from last year. Alice and Claire are getting the older girls' hand-me-downs, but all are still in need of boots and thermals, because they've all outgrown or worn out what we had before.

To Sew or Buy:

• quality thermals
• wool socks
• heavy skirts of wool blends, corduroy
• solid cotton underskirts
• pantaloons
  
• knit wool hats
• thick gloves
• fleece pajamas
• a wool-lined coat (for me)
  

I could feasibly knit socks and hats. I could make the skirts, underskirts, and pajamas if I can acquire the fabric.

However I go about it, I need to go about it soon. I think we're done with warm weather for the year.

---

The Colonial Spirit of a Single Gift
(Photobucket image: "Handmade doll" by claudiakuba)

Learned an interesting fact today about Christmas in Colonial times: Children often received only one gift for Christmas.

We are in a national recession; I wondered aloud to Mr. Plainview tonight how feasible it might in the future to somehow go to only one gift for each child.

After all, we do spend the rest of December celebrating in special ways. The Advent calendar allows for a fun family activity each and every evening. Add to that the delicious holiday treats and meals, the Christmas performances, the arts & crafts.... Why shouldn't gifts play only a small part (literally) in the holiday?

I believe, in order to make that transition, we'd have to do it gradually, over the span of several holidays throughout the year (birthdays included), and we'd need to emphasize the grand pleasure of all the other Christmas aspects. We're lucky in that we homeschool and don't watch a lot of TV. The kids are not overexposed to the gross bombardment of commercials, and we never, ever, ever go into toy stores, and rarely into the toy section of the supermarket. There's no need for them to feel any grief over all the toys that are out there that they cannot have.

Listening to the Christmas passages of Little House in the Big Woods, I think we were all lulled by the description of Laura's Christmas gift rag doll, "Charlotte." I can see how grateful the girls would be if they received a special, beautiful doll for Christmas instead of something plastic and superficial, like an Easy Bake Oven or a new video game.

At least that's what I think. I wonder if, in reality, they would appreciate such a simple gift. I suppose there's only one way to find out.