Gift Santas, Santa Garlands

Hi all,
Here are the Santa Garlands & Gift Santas, all these stars are so simple to make, great for children to crochet for cheap gifts. I've used the same vintage pattern as before.  http://www.freevintagecrochet.com/christmas/santa-claus-star.html
For both I've used 8ply/dk and a 3.50mm crochet hook to make smaller stars & a tighter fabric & I'm using English terminology dc (sc for US).

I found the original pattern bulges a bit as you crochet the circle, that didn't really bother me for the stuffed Santas & the gift Santas below as it actually helped shape both designs.

For the Santa garlands though, after round 2, I added another dc (sc) to every round up to round 7, which gave me 40dc. That gave me a smaller star, with 8dc for every point. Following the pattern, for each arm & leg point I did 5 rows red, 2 white & the rest black. For the gloves on all the stars I did less rows to finish, I just preferred them a bit shorter than the original. The face point I did 2 red, 3 flesh, 2 white & the rest red.
The beard, I fastened white to the first row of flesh on the face & worked a dc around the back of each dc's post. Continue with 1ch, 6dc the next row, then decrease each end of every row until you have 1 dc, fasten off.

Finish with beads for the eyes, jingle bells on the hats & star buttons on their bellies. I found they bend over a bit hanging from hand to hand, but a bit of spray starch on the backs should stiffen them enough to behave. I've run out of wall space with Christmas, so hanging them like this filled a narrow space nicely.
                                                                             
                                                                              Gift Santas

The Gift Santa here uses the star pattern with a circle of 8 rounds just using the original pattern, giving you 45dc - 9dc for each point.   Join the hands in the middle then sew the bottom edge of the hands/arms to the legs, putting Santa in a seated position, using the centre of the legs as a starting point. Hot glue a lightweight metallic star onto his hat to finish, unless it's for a young child.
This size holds about 5 wrapped chocs/ lollies or a small gift.

Love to all
Jen.