Christmas images flood our minds at this time of year. The smell of pine, home-baked cookies and pies and the excitement of decorating the tree. But stepping out into the shopping throngs can push all these wonderful Christmas memories out of our thoughts as we face the glitz, glitter and commercialism that await us at the mall. Why not give your children the true meaning of a family Christmas with crafts and creations that are fun, bring joy and become family traditions for a lifetime?

Rather than purchase expensive and flashy tinsel garland for the tree, why not make your own the old-fashioned way? A garland of popcorn and cranberries makes a wonderful addition to the tree and is fun for all to make.

You will need:

*Cranberries, fresh

*Popcorn - air-popped is best, or microwave popcorn that is natural and not salted or buttered. The popcorn you string should be a day old, fresh popcorn breaks too easily. Make extra as the kids will inevitably consume it as they work.

*Heavy duty sewing thread. Waxed dental floss is another choice for the string, it won’t break and can make it easier to slid the cranberries on.

*Sewing needle. If you don’t want the kids to use a needle, try a toothpick. Securing the string to the toothpick is trickier but can be done.

You will need long lengths of thread. Tie a knot at one end and thread the other end through the needle. Each child can work on one length of garland and they can be tied together when they are finished, just leave a couple of inches extra thread at the top when you tie off.

Push the needle through the cranberry and then slide it down the length of the thread to the knotted end. Next do the same with a piece of popcorn. Continue alternating cranberries and popcorn until you have finished the garland length. Tie them all together and hang the garland on the tree.

After Christmas, you can take the garland and drape it over bushes outside to give the birds who winter in your area a nice Christmas feast of their own.

In many regions, fall is nearly over. That is, most of what there was to fall, has fallen. Now comes the job of gathering together all those dead leaves. Kids love to rake leaves into a big pile for jumping into, moms and dads with gardens might put them in the composter, others bag them up for the day they pick up the yard waste and in some communities you can still burn leaves.

But if you want to keep the kids busy outdoors in the fresh fall air, another idea is to use the leaves to make a scarecrow. The materials needed for the main body are simple:

* An old pair of pants or overalls, jeans or strong material

* An old button-down shirt, plaid flannel is traditional but any cotton shirt will do

* Some elastic bands

* Safety Pins

* Old boots or shoes

Wind elastic bands around the ends of both pant legs and at the cuffs of the shirt sleeves. Have the kids fill the pants with leaves. When the pants are stuffed full, tuck the shirt tails into the pants and attach with safety pins. Use at least two or three front and back and one on each side to keep your man together. Then they can start stuffing the shirt through the neckhole.

The head can be done a few ways. Some use a pumpkin for a head, but it may lack support. Another way is to draw a face on a pillowcase and gather it around a medium size air-filled play ball. This year the kids and I stuffed a plastic shopping bag with leaves and tied it up. We used a stick for support, long enough to go down the shirt and into the bag to hold it straight up, a neck if you will. Then we used a halloween mask fitted over the bag for the head and face. Ours is a jack o’lantern mask but any mask will do. Imagine how scary having Frankenstein sitting on the porch will be for the trick or treaters.

After the main construction, you can get creative with the shoes and other accessories. Your scarecrow can even sit in a chair holding the bowl of Halloween candy. Or use sticks to pose him standing in the yard. Put stuffed gloves on the ends of the shirtsleeves to give him hands. Let the kids be creative in making the scariest scarecrow in the neighborhood.

Have a happy and safe Halloween.

I’m on vacation this week, but don’t worry, I’m swatting up on great crafts to bring you on my return in a few days.

Stay tuned for some terrific ideas for the fall/autumn season and the runup to Christmas and all the festive holidays.

Duncan Cairncross

It’s a runaway best seller in the UK, especially to baby boomer men, who are also buying it for their sons.

It’s Conn and Hal Iggulden’s The Dangerous Book for Boys. DBB, as we’ll call it, summarizes all those activities and crafts that boys used to do before TV, computers and video games came on the market. Many of them are now effectively banned by the Health and Safety “police” who dog our lives and make them unnecessarily miserable — especially for boys.

For North Americans, I should tell you the book is very Britain-oriented, in that it contains bits from Shakespeare and poetry from Kipling and other patriotic poets and authors.

Nevertheless, it contains a lot of Boys Crafts, which is why I like it. For instance, how to make “the greatest paper plane in the world”. Now there’s something to know about.

How to construct a battery, build a treehouse (oh, the danger!), make a bow and arrow (is this a terrorist’s manual?), make water bombs (it is a terrorist’s manual), and invisible inks, marbling paper, understanding girls (very coyly done), tricks with dogs and skimming stones on lakes.

In short, my sort of book. If you want to know about “The Golden Age of Piracy”, it’s all here. From making a pinhole projector and a crystal radio to grinding an italic nib, it’s a veritable treasure trove.

So, if you’re interested in boys’ crafts, or crafts for Real Men, you know where to go.