Christmas Parol

     

If you are a Disney fan, you probably saw the "Merry Christmas" short from them. To be honest, I really cried when I saw it. Growing up, I never really saw an awful lot of Filipino representation in the media. When I saw the parol hanging in the streets, I really wanted to start making some. If you don't know what a parol is, I'll tell you! Parol are an ornamental lanterns hung up up during Christmastime in the Philippines. They are commonly shaped like stars and various levels of complexity. Parol are just as important in the Philippines as the Christmas tree is in other parts of the world. 

    Pretty much as soon as my mom watched the Disney short, she knew she wanted some in her home. A few minutes later, I received a text with a link to a parol how-to video from Nifty. So we bought the supplies and I began working on them shortly after Thanksgiving (much later than most Filipinos).

    Now, I'm not so great at making tutorials, so this is just going to be a post showing the progress of my parol and what I'm using. So, let's go! 

    We got bamboo sticks off the internet, colorful cellophane and tissue paper from the store, and of course we had twine and hot glue already (I'm a crafter so I'd obviously have that 😂). After getting all my stuff together, I was ready to begin. 

    The first step is to make a five-pointed star frame. This took me a while to do the first time, but I'm really starting to get the hang of getting enough tension on it to where I don't need string at this step. It might just be the hardest part. Then you have to do it again. 😂

    Next, I stack the stars on top of each other and tie them together. After that, I put little lengths of the bamboo sticks in between the two stars and glue them. Now the star is more dimensional. 

    Once the glue is completely dry, I pick out what colors I want my parol to be and pull out my cellophane. The cellophane gets cut out and then glued to the frame.

    After the cellophane is glued on, I cut up pieces of tissue paper to embellish my parol. Then the most relaxing part. Gluing on the little poofs. 

    Of course, the tails need to be made, so I fold up some tissue paper and than cut it kind of like I would cut out a snowflake. Then I string the tail and glue it to the parol.

    Then, I am all done! I've made a few already and have already gifted one. I really love making these. These will be placed in the window or pretty anywhere I want. 😂

-fin

    Thank you SO much for reading. It means so much to me that you do! I know that one of you  caught on to what I was doing when I posted on my Instagram stories when I started making more parol. Keep an eye out for a post on this site eight days from now (a super easy way to be notified is to follow or subscribe 😉), or for a post four days from now on She Be Fierce 2! I just published a post about making hot chocolate bombs ('tis the dang season) so go check it out!