Bear Ornaments

We always had kid friendly or what my Mom optimistically called unbreakable ornaments for our Christmas tree. These were ornaments my siblings and I were less likely to break in our excitement to "help" with decorating the tree. To honor that tradition over the years I've tried to make ornaments for people with young kids so they too have their own "unbreakable" ornaments to put on the tree.

This year I stumbled on a free ornament bear pattern you can find here. As you might notice from my first attempt my bear was rather large for an ornament. I had used worsted weight yarn and a g hook not the 6mm hook suggested but my first bear became an office decoration for DH's home office. Always glad to provide him with some holiday cheer but that wasn't really the goal of the project and as always with the holidays if I don't make the ornaments in the summer I'm pushing a deadline for Christmas.

I headed to my stash and pulled out some Hobby Lobby sport weight yarn with colors I could alternate for the sweater and shifted to a D hook to get the size I wanted for an ornament. To avoid getting the ornament tangled in the tree I also decided to not add legs. I thought they made cute ball ornaments.

I also changed the pattern by using both saftey eyes and noses. I hoped they'd wear better over time.

The house boxes make for a fun holiday village for kids. Not unbreakable as cardboard is easily destroyed. However far less dangerous when destroyed than the ceramic houses so popular this time of year. I find my gift boxes at Dollar Tree. They make great play villages after the gifts are opened.