Frequently Asked Questions

How to get the most out of using Make for Christmas

We've tried to make Make for Christmas the premier resource for finding interesting and exciting links to all craft projects related to Christmas and the festive season.

On this page you can find helpful tips and information for getting the most out of Make for Christmas.

There are a number of helpful tools attached to every link that allow you to add personal notes Make for Christmas and email links to your friends.

How do I use Make for Christmas's links tools?

Registered Make for Christmas members have a number of tools available that they can use to make Make for Christmas the perfect way for finding and saving the best Christmas craft links on the web.

A Great Link to a Fantastic Web Page

This is just an example link to show off the anatomy of a listing in Make for Christmas

View all 9 pages from this site

Permalink: makeforchristmas.com/listing-detail.php?site=thelongestyear.typepad.com&link=8249

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
  1. Link Name: This will briefly describe the contents of the page linked to. The color of the box will vary depending on which main section of the directory that you are in.
  2. Description: Some links will have a brief description to help clarify the subject or to mention other points of interest.
  3. Preview: This is a new feature in this version of Make for Christmas and is a response to requests from users of the site. Where possible we include a thumbnail preview to give an idea of the appearance of the project, though you must have Javascript enabled to see these (most browsers do by default). If you move your mouse over a preview, if there is a larger version available, this will be displayed.

    We do not host these previews and believe that displaying them on Make for Christmas is fair use. We believe that previews will lead to more users clicking through to visit sites that we link to. However, if you are the owner of a site that we link to and would prefer that your previews were not displayed on Make for Christmas, please let us know through the Contact Us page and we'll promptly desist from showing your previews here. Please visit our site owners' page to find out more about our policies on previews and also how we can host images to save your bandwidth.
  4. More From This Site: If we have included any other pages from this site on Make for Christmas, you can click here to see a page that will give you all the links in one place.
  5. Email a Friend: You can click on this to send an email to a friend to tell them about a link you have found on Make for Christmas. Clicking this link will open a new preconfigured email in the default email client on the computer that you are using.
  6. Add to Favourites: Registered Make for Christmas Members can click here and add a link to their list of favorites. If there is a red X on top of the button, that link is already saved as a favorite and clicking the button will remove the link from the favorites. Saved favorites can be viewed by clicking the My page button which is displayed at the top of the page when you are signed in.
  7. Personal Notes: Registered Make for Christmas Members can click here and write personal notes about the specific link. These notes are automatically saved as they are written and they are private, so they cannot be viewed by other users. When signed in, any links that you have previously added notes to will have a small circular green icon with a white tick on the notes button to help you quickly identify them.
  8. Report This Link: If you there is a problem with a page that we link to or you think we've got an inaccuracy in our description, you can click on this button to let us know about problems.
  9. Permalink: This is a permanent link to this pattern or project on Make for Christmas. Because we are constantly adding new links, a project may move from one page to another. If you want to link to a specific project on Make for Christmas, you should use this permalink for the URL.
  10. Problem With Linked Page: A graphic like this will only appear on a link where there has been a problem recently opening the page. In the example above, you can see the amber warning that shows the link has been unavailable twice in the previous day. There is a specific FAQ that explains the links status system.

How do I look for free Christmas craft projects?

To find the perfect free Christmas craft project, simply choose from one of the many categories listed in the left hand column and click the text to open that page. Here you'll find a whole range of patterns, tutorials and craft projects.

How do I use the search function?

If you are after something more specific use the SEARCH function. We've tried to make the search as easy as possible by applying relevant key words to each entry. So if you are looking, for instance, for projects using 'ribbon', just type in 'ribbon' into the search box and results will be returned from each category.

We're always keen to hear from our users, so do let us know if you think the search could be enhanced and how you would like it to work.

How do I choose how projects are sorted?

Projects are automatically returned in date order, with the projects most recently listed shown at the top. However, if you prefer to sort the results alphabetically press the 'Order Links Alphabetically' links that appear above and below the lists of links. Please note that if there are more than one page of links and you aren't viewing the first page, you will be returned to the first page.

Are all the links relevant?

Every link has been visited and checked personally by us and checked that the Christmas craft project is relevant to our site.

Are all the links live?

We know how frustrating it is to find page after page of dead or broken links. That's why we check all the links on Make for Christmas every 24 hours!

If we find a link is unavailable, we add a green box graphic to it so that users know that it was recently unavailable. We then recheck the link 12 hours later and if the link is functioning again, the green box is removed.

If, however, the link is still not available, we change it to an amber box. It is then checked 12 hours later and if still unavailable, it will be changed to a red box.

If the link is still not working 12 hours later it is removed from Make for Christmas. This way we ensure that links are not removed just because of a temporary error, but that our users are aware of links that may no longer be working.

However, because this is an automated process, it is reliant upon the sites we link to returning the correct HTTP status codes. On occasions, some sites return an OK code even though the original page has been removed. Should you find a page that appears to have been removed but there is no warning on Make for Christmas, do please use the Report a Link button so that we can intervene manually.

What if Make for Christmas is missing a link?

We've spent many happy hours trawling the internet looking for great Christmas projects, however we know that there are still plenty of pages we've not found yet. Please let us know via the 'Suggest a Link' page of any useful web pages we should be including - or get in touch using the form on the 'Contact Us' page.

If you're a site owner and you publish your projects to an RSS feed, you can submit your feed and we'll keep an eye on that to ensure that your new projects are added to the directory.

What is RSS?

If you wish to be kept informed of the latest update to the site subscribe to the RSS feed at the top right hand side of the page. Please click here to find out a bit more about what RSS is.

I am a site owner and I don't want my projects and/or photos displayed on Make for Christmas

We want to put the best free Christmas crafts patterns and project pages in front of our users and make it as easy as possible for them to click through to visit these sites. However, if you'd prefer that your pages are not listed on Make for Christmas, please let us know through the Contact Us page.

We now display, but do not host, project previews and believe that displaying them on Make for Christmas will lead to more users clicking through to visit sites and projects that we link to. We lazy load previews, meaning that we only display your preview if someone scrolls down the page to your link. Please visit our site owners' page to read more about our use of project previews and how we can host your previews for display on Make for Christmas.

We fully believe that displaying previews is fair use. However, if you are the owner of a site that we link to and would prefer that your images were not displayed on Make for Christmas, please let us know through the Contact Us page and we'll promptly desist from showing your previews here.

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