REVIEW: Craft It Up Christmas Around the World 

http://ukhandmade.co.uk/content/review-craft-it-christmas-around-world

Review by Maggy Woodley of Red Ted Art

I was very much looking forward to receiving Craft it Up Christmas Around the World and having a good old browse. Basically, I LOVE Christmas and I think that it is a particularly wonderful time of year to craft with the kids. For me it is all about cozy afternoons together, huddled around a table and creating new things, maybe a Christmas Ornament to keep or a gift for a family member. It is all about memory making and that warm festive feel! I was also very interested to see the book because of the “Around the World” element. I love traditional crafts from around the world that have been passed down through the generations and define childhoold crafting. For me that means making Walnut Babies and Foil Angels, as I have vivid memories from my own Germanic childhood of making these.

When the book arrived it was immediately hijacked by my daughter (aged 4.5 years), then later by my son (aged 6 years). All I could hear from my daughter were delighted little exclamations of “Ooh, Mama, take a look at this, you can make button trees” and “Awwww, these little hearts are so cute” and “Can we make these please?”. Later, when I was finally allowed to get my hands on the book, the three of us browsed through it together; my son loved checking out which country we were in and I enjoyed reading out the different country specific facts to them.

There are number of cute projects that we are definitely keen to try. My son loves the Santa Cards, my daughter wants to make the Pom Pom Christkind, whilst I rather like the idea of the Jingle Bracelets. Having said all that… I have to confess, I was a little disappointed by the “around the world” element of the book. Yes I did like the little country specific facts, that was definitely up my street, but the crafts, although relating to the given fact were (mostly) not what I would call a traditional craft from a specific country (which is what I was expecting). If you are simply interested in the quirky information about different countries and a craft that relates to that information, than this is indeed a lovely Christmas Craft book from around the world. If like me, you come with “traditional” interests and expectations then it is a little disappointing. 

I think this book would make a great gift for kids, they will enjoy reading through the projects and are probably able to do a majority of them unaided (aged 8 years +, younger children will need assistance, which of course is fine as it is all part of the Christmas craft memory making). If you are an avid user of Pinterest, a number of these crafts will look familiar to you, but they are brought together in a lovely and approachable format.

Craft It Up Christmas Around The World
Libby Abadee & Cath Armstrong

RRP: £9.99
CICO Books

ISBN-10: 1782491562
ISBN-13: 978-1782491569