Two Canberra friends are commandeering a global craft effort to hand-make special Christmas decorations for those who lost their homes in the South Coast bushfires with the campaign #remakechristmas.
Juanita Watters and Bianca Brownlow have been taken aback by the speed by which the project has travelled around the world, with craftspeople from the United States, Norway, Ireland , Belgium and South Africa among those making the decorations, using knitting, crochet, sewing, papercraft, mosaic, pottery and more.
The idea for the project came about as Juanita helped her parents sort through the buildings burnt on their property near Cobargo on New Year's Eve.
"The most upsetting thing to see was their trunk of Christmas decorations, which they had packed up only days before to store away until next Christmas," she said.
"So many of these decorations held so much meaning. We loved 'rediscovering' them as we unpacked them each year. There were the decorations I had made in preschool from playdough and dried pasta. There were the ones knitted by my late grandmother and others collected by family members on our travels around the world."
When Juanita shared a photo of the burnt decorations, Bianca reflected on how many people would be in a similar situation. She had the idea to tap into their community of crafty friends to handmake new treasured decorations for people who have lost everything in the bushfires, in Cobargo and beyond.
"When you're looking for things to take, you don't think first of Christmas decorations," Juanita said.
"It's obviously not a priority for people at the moment and we didn't want them to get to Christmas and have nothing to hang on their tree."
Bianca said people had their own take on decorations and what was meaningful to them. She had hand-kitted sushi decorations which she loved.
The decorations could be for Christmas, Diwali or Hanukkah, showing people care and love in the aftermath of the disaster.
In the month since it was launched, the project's Facebook group has grown rapidly to more than 600 members from Australia and around the world.
The plan is to focus first on giving decorations to people in Cobargo, possibly by putting them on a Christmas tree at the end of the year and letting people select their own. It will expand to other bushfire-affected communities.
Anyone can participate by making as few or as many decorations as they like and sending them to PO Box 370, Dickson ACT, 2602 before the end of October. All the details and lots of pattern ideas can be found at facebook.com/groups/remakechristmas or @remakechristmas on Instagram.
