Julehjerte – Danish Christmas Hearts

I have been putting it off for as long as possible, but it really is difficult when all of the UK has gone Christmas crazy as soon as it hit November. And it’s not that I don’t like Christmas – I mean it’s the most hygge time of the year, so of course I love it. But I still feel I should at least wait till the 1st of December before I unleash the Julehygge – Christmas crazy like you have never seen.

Growing up in Malaysia in the 90’s, Christmas did not get as much attention as it does today. I remember my mother being incensed by the fact that we only got a day off from school on the 25th for Christmas when I was a kid, cause how is that enough time to get all the Julehygge in? This changed later on as the school calendars changed and we got a much needed Christmas break.

Despite this our home was always transformed during Christmas. My mum would go out of her way to bring some Danish Christmas spirit into our home, ensuring we had advent calendars (my grandmother brought a ten year supply on a trip over one year), adventslys, having a mini Nisse army take over our home , proper julemad (Christmas food) and of course learning how to make julehjerte and julestjerne (paper Christmas hearts and stars). And maybe it’s silly but till this day, it’s probably the one thing I associate most with Christmas – that and hanging danish flags around the Christmas tree.

So this year while planning to make some decorations just to remind me of home, I stumbled across some HAMA beads that I had randomly picked up in a craft store a couple of months ago. Don’t ask me what I needed them for, it was a spur of the moment decision made when I was overwhelmed reminiscing about my childhood and the trauma of being the only weird kid in Malaysia playing with HAMA beads. Plus they were on sale – so it really was a no brainer (I can just feel Dan rolling his eyes at me as I type this). And now I have the perfect use for them.

I will make Julehjerte’s with them!

Made a stop motion video cause it’s more fun than just photos

I used a square pegboard for this heart, but as any HAMA pro will tell you a heart shaped board would be a better bet though the square one works just as well. And of course they need to be ironed with the special ironing paper on both sides so they melt evenly – I used low heat for about a minute.