Reindeer Games

Well, I think I'm nearing the end of my Christmas DIY decorations. The only thing left to do now is get out the little tree I bought last year from the 100 yen store and decorate it with something simple. 

I just made this reindeer to hang on the back of a chair. It was pretty easy and took about 30 minutes. I realized that with all my collage gift wrapping with different kinds of paper, I still have quite a bit of wrapping paper left over. I used some pink floral wrapping paper for my reindeer here. 

I drew an illustration of the deer on my computer, printed it and cut it out. Then I used it as a stencil to cut out the same shape out of a pizza box lid. Bet you didn't know we have Domino's in Japan!

After spreading glue stick all over one side of the box cutout, I pressed the sticky side down onto a piece of the wrapping paper. Then I used an X-acto knife to trim off the excess paper. I made a red nose with some washi tape. Then I cut out 2 holes in the antlers with a hole puncher to thread some red ribbon through. 

This is the little reindeer head I drew on my computer. 

Christmas decorating in Japan is huge. Christmas day itself is more like Valentine's Day, though. All the restaurants are filled with young couples out on dates. And Valentine's Day is also big, but it's more like a Sadie Hawkins Day when the ladies are supposed to give chocolate to their sweeties. Then on White Day the guys are supposed to reciprocate. Phew, that's confusing, isn't it?