The 12th Day of Christmas

Well, according tradition, today is the 12th day of Christmas and it's time to take down the decorations.

I bought this quite a few years ago, before I decided that I should be designing my own work.  I then went out and bought a few pieces of Christmas fabrics but have never used them (except in a quilt that needed over 40 different reds.  For the background, I chose an Australian print that had black and white circles on it, it was very challenging to make the blocks work in a flowing way.).

Each star is made of a different fabric, a couple are Christmas fabrics.

The Christmas tree has some lovely little embellishments that apply to Christmas also, and I have a small collection of things I thought I might use, buttons, etc.  No such luck, I never did get around to making anything Christmassy. So I still use this one at Christmas time.  But it is now off the wall and in the cupboard.

It has always seemed a lot of effort to make Christmas decorations that will only be used for a very short time.  It might be especially short for us because we rarely put the decorations up until just before Christmas Day, we are always behind time with getting ready for Christmas. I have never felt particularly motivated to make any Christmas items. I think it is a busy time, coming to the end of the school year, the weather heating up, shopping, cooking, cleaning, and I usually don't have a lot of energy for Christmas frivolity.

I also think I have heard that the gifts of the 12 Days of Christmas make up a present for every day of the year (not leap year) but I can only ever get it to add up to 364, so, unless Christmas Day doesn't count, there is one day missing.
It works like this - 1 for the first day, 1+2 for the second day, 1+2+3 for the third day, etc.  This adds up to 364 for me.  If you know how to make it 365, please let me know!!