Craftsmas II
Traditional Crafts Day
A Day for Practicing Traditional Handicrafts
About Craftsmas II
Today is a celebration of traditional handcraft, the kind that predates glue guns, power drills, or laser cutters. It’s Craftsmas II, the older, more severe sibling of Craftsmas, and its only requirement is that whatever you make, you make it by hand. Choose a traditional craft from your ancestral land, or just pick something that calls out to you. It could be treenware, blacksmithing, quilting, sloyd carving, embroidery, cornhusk dolls, basket weaving, needlepoint, or anything else that involves hand tools and a workbench. Then spend the day learning the basics. If you can, make a Christmas decoration: an ornament, garland, figurine, carved tree, hand-stitched star, or wool angel. We promise that this will become one of your favorite decorations for years to come. And yes, you are officially permitted to leave it out until next Christmas, right next to the St. Brigid’s cross.
Ways to observe
(A) Low effort
Research a traditional craft in your region or heritage. Watch a few tutorials. Try making one simple item—like a folded-paper ornament, corn husk flower, or woven bracelet—without using electricity.
(B) Recommended
Pick a traditional handcraft and spend the afternoon learning it: whittling, basket weaving, embroidery, hand sewing, broommaking, knot tying. Use it to make a Christmas decoration. Sign and date it.
(C) High effort
Take a full day to apprentice yourself— virtually or in-person—to a new-to-you traditional craft. Build a tool, carve a spoon, hand-sew a quilt square. Hang your finished item on the wall.
Inspiration
Traditional crafts are as varied as the cultures that created them, but they share one thing in common: skills learned slowly, passed from person to person, shaped by use and memory. These aren’t productivity hacks or Pinterest projects. They’re forms of knowledge that resist automation, reminders that we still know how to make beautiful things with just our hands. Over the years, I’ve been learning how to make simple leather goods. Keychains, tote bags, the occasional wallet. I’m not especially good at it, but there’s something deeply satisfying about slowly saddle-stitching a wallet together from panels that I’ve skived by hand. The work is quiet and absorbing, and when I’m finished, I show it off with completely disproportionate pride. I wish that same joy for everyone.
Adornments
Watch
Nanook of the North (1922)
Robert Flaherty’s classic silent film—often called the first feature documentary—follows Nanook, an Inuit hunter in northern Quebec, and his family. In stark, reverent scenes the film shows Nanook building igloos, hunting walrus, sewing animal skins and carrying out traditional tasks.
The Woodwright’s Shop, Seasons 1 - 36
This long-running PBS series, hosted by Roy Underhill, offers a meditative education in pre-industrial woodworking. Across 36 seasons, Underhill demonstrates hand-tool techniques drawn from American and European traditions—hewing logs, dovetailing joints, and turning spindles—all without electricity.
The Magical Craftsmanship of Suzhou (2022)
Chinese director Sun Zeng-tian’s feature-length documentary offers an observational portrait of twelve master artisans in Suzhou.
Read
The Craftsman by Richard Sennett
A sociological exploration of skilled labor and the meaning we derive from making things. Sennett begins with the idea that craftsmanship is a fundamental human drive, an instinct to pursue quality through dedicated effort.
The Unknown Craftsman by Soetsu Yanagi
A foundational work in the philosophy of folk art, this book offers a Japanese perspective on the value of handmade beauty. Yanagi, founder of the mingei (folk craft) movement, draws on Zen principles and Buddhist aesthetics to honor the skill of anonymous artisans.