Saturday, December 24, 2011

The pillowcases were hung...

This year I had what I consider my best idea ever. Before I tell you, I'll explain the situation. We have beautiful, hand-knit Christmas stockings.



As you may imagine, I love these stockings beyond words ... except for one thing. They are rather small, especially at the openings. When the kids were little, Santa Claus brought little gifts so the stockings bulged on Christmas morning in a most satisfactory way. As the children grew older, however, the presents also grew - from matchbox cars and kaleidoscopes to books, and cds, and video tapes, and later dvds, none of which fit. So Santa struggled to find smaller, age-appropriate gifts to go inside the stockings, although there were always a fair amount of presents lined up beside them to be discovered on Christmas morning. It drove Mrs. Claus mad choosing presents and arranging them.

But this year, as I looked through the wonderful Garnet Hill catalogue, I saw exceptionally nice flannel pillowcases, and the lightbulb went on above my head. Pillowcases have great big openings plus lots of space for bigger gifts. I bought five sets, each one different. Just for this year everyone's new 'stocking' will contain the mate to their pillowcase. The fillable ones will live here, just as the stockings always have.

If the family grows, it will be easy to just buy another set of wintery/Christmasy pillowcases. Garnet Hill offers new designs each year so I won't have to worry about duplicates. I'm not putting names on them, but after this year everyone will know which one is theirs.

I am inordinately, incredibly, fantastically excited by this new scheme. And here they are, in alphabetical order.

Margaret


Matthew


Michael


Nan


Tom


Aren't they just beautiful?! And so, so soft.

29 comments:

  1. Perfect! Love the idea! :)

    warmly,
    Aisling

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  2. Nan, you're a genius! Pillowcases make a lot more sense that stockings. I sure hope the rest of your Christmas is happy and fun. Merry Christmas!

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  3. So loved your post and wished in England it had perhaps snowed a little so I could have posted a winter wonderland scene ! I wish you a very happy Christmas

    Heather

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  4. Great idea - we don't get seasonal bedlinen over here, at least I've never seen any. I really like the pillowcases with sheep and skiers on.
    Hope you have a good Christmas.

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  5. They are lovely and I would select the snowman one as well. I'm very partial to snowmen. Good idea, Nan. Have a Merry, Merry....I'm off to find more lemon herbal tea to soothe my throat. I'm done with cleaning and cooking for today, thank goodness! LOL

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  6. Adorable!! My kids would have love these when they were young LOL

    Once again, Happy Holidays to you and Yours.

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  7. Lovely stockings! But I bet no one is complaining to have a pillowcase-filled with presents either! :) Merry Christmas!

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  8. Dear Nan - Just stopping by on a drowsy Christmas Eve to wish you and yours a merry one. (My kids would love to have a pillow case to hang - better yet duffel bag). I don't know if you've been by my blog lately but I have posted a warning that I may be looking to some of my bloggy friends to read and critique a book, fiction for young people, that I have been working on for loooong time. I think you would be a great reader and I hope you will help me with it after the new year. (I'll understand if you'd rather not) More later. In the meantime I hope you all have a lovely Christmas.

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  9. This is a fantastic idea and you are one smart cookie to come up with it!!

    The pillowcase designs are perfect.
    Merry Christmas...

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  10. I love your header photo - your house looks like it is set in Wonderland. And I am stealing your pillow case idea. It has never occurred to me to just buy the festive pillowcases when I admire sheets like that. What a super idea.
    Someone made my daughter a wonderful pretzel/popcorn/chex mix/with melted white chocolate on it, sort of a crunchy salty sweet mess but great. She said it was called Serendipity. Have you ever heard of this? and Merry Christmas!

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  11. They are perfect! What a great idea, Nan!
    Merry Christmas to you and yours!

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  12. Merry Christmas, Nan - I hope you all have a wonderful time.

    I love the pillow cases - especially Margaret's. As a child my presents from Father Christmas always came in a pillow case - but just an ordinary white one!

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  13. The penguins are so cute! In our family Father Christmas (never Santa!) brought small, funny presents so a stocking was fine. Big presents came from Mum and Dad and other people. Our children carry this tradition on pretty much, so the stocking isn't outgrown!
    Have a lovely Christmas, Nan.

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  14. What a great idea! And I love the thought that went into the choice of each pillowcase.
    Hope you have a very happy Christmas!
    Love,
    Kay

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  15. This is a fantastic idea. Santa, no doubt, is proud of you. Merry Christmas Nan.

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  16. What a totally fabulous idea!!!!

    Merry Christmas Nan!

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  17. Happy Christmas, Nan, to you and yours!

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  18. Wonderful idea!! I love all the patterns, especially yours and Tom's.

    Merry Christmas to you and your family, dear friend.

    Lots of love,

    Les

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  19. What an excellent idea! The prints are gorgeous, too. Merry Christmas, Nan... love your header photo.

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  20. To each of you, I thank you so, so much for taking the time at this busy season to leave a note about the pillowcases. They were a grand success! We opened differently than before - the big presents under the tree first, and then one of the kids piped up and said where are the stockings? :<) So, Tom and I hauled them down from upstairs saying ho, ho, ho. The kids absolutely loved them, and loved getting one for themselves to bring to their homes.
    Thank you again for writing.

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  21. Great idea! I hope everybodys' pillowcases were filled with just what they wanted (and somehow I am sure Santa Claus did a perfect job!)

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  22. Sallie and Kay, they were great fun and so beautiful!

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  23. A FABULOUS idea! I'm thinking of adopting it. :)

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  24. Yvette, they worked out perfectly!! Everyone loved them, and now there is the treat of having one to sleep on. :<)

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