christmas classes

Christmas is still on my mind. Early last week, I was dreaming about Christmas decorations. Well, I just couldn't resist temptation. So yesterday, I enjoyed a peppermint mocha from Starbucks and this went up...

 

Too early for most people, but feels perfect to me :)

The other holiday item I've been thinking about is my December scrapbook. In 2008, I followed Ali Edwards' loose December Daily structure. And in 2009, I followed Jessica Sprague's free Holidays in Hand class. I really liked how my 2009 book turned out, having prompts to follow... especially for those days when we didn't do anything especially holiday-like.

Without a question, I'll be making another December album this year. They are so much fun to pull out and remember the details of the holiday season, which otherwise could blur together year after year. And with a little prep in November, they can be totally manageable in December. So my dilemma? Which class to follow this year.

Ali Edwards is again taking us through her December Daily approach. There is no fee, so all you have to do is visit her blog for inspiration and tips. Generally, December Dailys involve designing a page per day with photos and words in mini-book format. There's also an active Flickr group for sharing your pages. Even if I follow prompts from a different class, I think I'll still be borrowing inspiration from the December Daily concept.

 

I'm also looking at Tracy Clark's class for Big Picture Scrapbooking, Picture the Holidays. This class gives you daily photo prompts for all 31 days of December. The downside is that there isn't as much of a focus on words, but I do like the idea of being challenged to photograph the holidays in new ways. Instead of capturing nearly the same images as last year, I think Picture the Holidays could really help me see things in new light.

 

And of course, I'm also looking at Shimelle's Journal your Christmas class. I've never spent money before on a class to organize my December album. But I do like that once you enroll in Journal your Christmas, you have permanent access, including access to years past plus all future years. This class gives you journaling prompts as well as a photography focus = best of both worlds! And in addition to the prompts, there's the message boards, a digital kit, an online party, a workbook for bloggers... gosh too much to even list! Go read about it :)  As you can probably tell, I'm super tempted to join in, but the practical side of me is saying I can make this album without paying a class fee. What to do?!

Any recommendations? And did I miss any other great holiday classes? I would love to hear how you're approaching your December album as well as your suggestions!