These are the Christmas craft books I’ve referred to the most this year!
I have a lasting love of craft books. Sure, the digital world is great for finding the newest techniques and most on-trend projects, but online, crafts disappear just as quickly as they appear. Felted wool sweater trees give way to hot cocoa bombs give way to book page wreaths, and when that trend is gone, good luck finding once more the tutorial for last year’s holiday obsession.
But craft books immortalize their tutorials so you’ve always got them accessible. And even better, they immortalize unique tutorials that you’re not going to see in every other Tiktok you scroll past, or retro tutorials that showcase, say, what was a cool Christmas craft back in 1980. Those salt dough bear sculptures are back, by the way!
Below, then, check out the Christmas craft books that I’ve found myself going back to the most this year… AND what I’ve been making from them!
Mandy’s Magical Christmas, by Mandy Shaw
This is the shortest book on my list, with just ten projects inside, but they all have a big impact. Redwork embroidery unites most of the projects, so it’s possible to create several complementary items, and little details like special buttons, rickrack embellishment, and blanket stitching make everything look thoughtful and crafted with extra love.
I’ve gotten really into hand-stitching this year, so I’ve been especially inspired by the embroidered felt star ornaments and the embroidered felt gift tags. With just a couple of small modifications, I used the gift tag tutorial to make luggage tags for a Christmas-time trip to New York City!
Fa la la la Felt, by Amanda Carestio
Felt crafting has been very on-trend so far this winter, and for good reason: felt (especially wool felt, my personal fave) is so warm and cozy and cheerful, feels good to the touch, and is super easy to sew. This book includes 45 tutorials for ornaments and other felt decorations.
I have been VERY into crafting felt ornaments for my tree, and I’ve been trying my hand at several of the ornaments that require layering different colors of felt and adding hand-embroidered embellishments. I also happen to have the perfect color of pink in my wool felt stash, and a few seed beads leftover from kid projects from long ago, so the iced animal cookie ornaments are obviously a must!
The Eco-Christmas Craft Book, by Marrianne Miall
This beautifully designed Christmas craft book is perfect in every way. It’s oversized to give plenty of room to the tutorials with step-by-step instructions and their accompanying photos, and the layout allows ton of room for extra information and tips while still managing to look clean and professional. And best of all: all the crafts are eco-friendly!
I love garlands of all kinds, and I’ve been having a lot of fun playing with the garlands and buntings and baubles in this book. You can turn anything into a garland if you put your mind to it! There’s also a really fun Cardboard Star Garland tutorial that is kind of similar to my 3D paper star tutorial of last week, in that it’s another craft that displays big but packs down flat.
How to Make Your Own Ugly Christmas Sweaters, by Nicolette Lafonseca
The ugly Christmas sweater is a trend from several years ago, but people still love themselves an ugly Christmas sweater, even if it’s not the focal point of anyone’s holiday anymore. This book is particularly eco-friendly because the techniques for “uglifying” a sweater work are perfect for thrifted sweaters, and many of them can actually be completely removed from the sweater afterwards so you can wear the non-ugly version year-round!
My favorite tutorial in the book involves creating ornaments from acetate or clear plastic. This technique works great with clear plastic take-out containers, and you can also string the ornaments into a garland that looks especially pretty when hung in a sunny window.
Pat Sloan’s Holiday Celebrations, by Pat Sloan
This book covers several major holidays via quilt patterns and projects, and I love that none of them are too heavy-handed on the theming. In particular, I love the “Merry Little Houses” Christmas quilt, where the Christmas theme is confined to fussy cut window scenes in each little house.
I’ve been using the full-sized stocking pattern in this book to sew stockings for a local charity for a few years, but I’ve also got my eye on the couple of heart quilt patterns for Valentine’s Day. My family room always feels so cold and bare after I pack away the Christmas lap quilts and holiday pillow covers!
Quick and Easy Christmas Crafts, by Search Press Studio
There are so many craft projects in this book that whenever you’re feeling crafty, all you have to do is flip through it and something is guaranteed to inspire you! I practice a lot of different skills, so I really like that there’s a little of almost everything in this book–hand- and machine-sewing, cross-stitch and embroidery, pom poms, knitting and crochet, and jewelry and clay.
The particular style of cross stitch is one that I’ve never seen outside of this book: the backstitched outlines don’t quite match the cross stitching, and the result is exactly like watercolor. I ADORE it, and I’ve been trying to figure out how to translate the work to original cross stitch pieces.
P.S. Do YOU have a favorite book of holiday crafts? Tell us about it in the Comments!
