I want to make crafts. Really I do. Especially at Christmas, when I can't resist picking up magazines full of patchwork tree skirts and clever marzipan snowmen. I daydream about spending time cutting and pasting with my best nine-year-old friend, Lily. But it never happens. As my friend Carlotta once noted, I don't like to do anything unless I can do it fast. She's right. More than once I've returned from a spree at the craft store with grand ambitions, only to have my project stall out after steps one and two. And now, with my first child due in a month, I've begun to worry that this trait might be passed along. How can I expect my child to patiently decorate a gingerbread house someday if I can't even get past rolling out the dough?

That's why the following crafts hold such appeal for me and for others who find themselves with a lot of ambition but little time. Each project requires only one trip to the store and a free hour before dinner, so even someone like me and Lily, who shares some of my impatience, can take these projects from start to finish. In other words, they're exactly the kind of holiday decoration that gives me reason to celebrate.

Barbara Rowley is a FAMILYFUN contributing editor.