Creative Holiday Traditions From MacPherson’s

Once you are a part of the MacPherson’s team, whether or not you’ve dabbled in the arts before working here, the creative spark rubs off on you. It’s inevitable, with so many art supplies around! In celebration of our creative endeavors on and off the clock, we wanted to share some of our creative holiday traditions with you.

Gratitude Place Cards

“Every year for as long as I can remember I’ve created place cards for every guest with the question “What are you thankful for?” written with a space to answer. When guests arrive or before dinner is served, everyone is given time to write. Before we eat, we go around the table and share as much as we wish. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because of this tradition. I love the ritual of giving thanks for the good things in life. It’s a beautiful reminder to celebrate a peaceful day and relax with family I don’t see that often, especially in preparation for conversations with family members or friends who I maybe don’t see eye to eye with. And for me, it’s fun to prepare the craft over morning coffee, or during a movie the night before. I like the fact that my friends and family can take it home to keep!”

Time Spent

Making the placecards varies depends on materials, participation lasts 10-20 minutes.

Materials

The place cards have varied between paper and fabric crafts over the years.

“This year I am switching it up and painting dinner napkins for everyone using Inktense and aloe vera, Jacquard Lumiere in champagne and rose gold, and I will have fine-tipped POSCA in black, gold, and red for writing. Having the napkins stretched onto embroidery hoops makes writing is easier. Then we will use paper napkins while the cloth ones dry!”

Additional materials

Cutting mat

Scissors and craft blades

Adhesive

Gold plated wire

Feathers

Felt

Tea-dyed pages out of a French philosophy book (it was a phase)

Cardstock or balsa

Homemade Ornaments Through The Years

“My family decorates an ornament every year and I date them to look back on. Growing up my family always saved all of our home made ornaments and every year those were the first to go up on the tree! I wanted to make sure that my kids have the same experience I did. I love looking at the tree year after year and seeing all of the memories along with how their artistic and creative skills have grown as the years go by. We always save them and re-hang them year after year. Our tree is a harmonious array of memories and sentimental tokens that we’ve made and collected as a family. The theme is to usually paint things that we are grateful for.”