A welcome sign with seasonal decorations that are changed every month can send a subtle hint to your family: Mother’s Day is coming soon!
This unfinished wooden message board was purchased at a 100 yen store, stained, then painted white, and finally, “Welcome Friends” written on it. The seasonal decorations are all made from a light weight air drying modeling compound such as Hearty (Karui Kaminenedo) and hung from tiny clothes pins glued to the back of the board, also sold at 100 yen stores. If you are going to change the decorations every month, you want it to be simple, or it will stay one season all year long.
Here are just a few decorating ideas for Mother’s Day that won’t make you feeling silly. And if you involve your children in decorating and doing things for Father’s Day, birthdays, and Christmas, it should take just a few hints to get your children inspired for Mother’s Day, too. So, here are some gentle hints to get them going.
If your child has given you any hand made gifts in the past, this is the time to dig them out of storage, and display again with pride. Tell your child how much you like it, and how glad you are that he took the time and effort to make it for you, and how it makes you feel loved. It is also fun to show them their growth and development if you point out how much bigger his hand is than when he made it, or how much more detail she includes in her artwork than she used to.
Displaying it shows the value you give the items, and the message won’t be lost. However, if you give verbal messages as well, the learning increases exponentially. And who knows--once they realize how much you like it, they might just want to make you something again.
Decorate with mother’s day cards from past years--on the refrigerator, on a book shelf in front of books, on a windowsill, or on the piano. If you feel silly displaying them, then at least put them in a scrap book and leave it on the coffee table. I promise you, they will enjoy looking at it as much as you do.
Look for photos of each of your children with you, and put them in inexpensive frames. If you are the photographer in the family, you may not find any photos. So make mother’s day a day to make sure these photos are taken--you will really appreciate it in 10 or 15 years, since you can’t go back in time to take them if you missed the opportunity the first time around. I have so few, I wish I had asked someone to take those pictures.
If you use a special plate on your children’s birthdays, and other noteworthy days, they are very likely to think of using it to honor you. It doesn’t have to say, “You are special.” It can be any plate that is unlike any other you have, and that is only used on special occasions. It is how it is used that makes it special, not what it looks like. It can be a red plate, or one with hearts on it--it doesn’t have to be expensive--one from the 100 yen store or flee market is just as good as an expensive one. My teenage son still talks about how honored he felt whenever he was presented with the “Special” plate. If you want to try your hand at designing your own, there are companies that sell kits--you draw a design on paper, send it to them, and they make the plate and send it back to you. Or, you might be able to find a shop where you can paint your own design on ceramic plates, then go back and pick it up once it has been fired.
