Christmas is an arbitrary date for people who don ' t go to church services . You could alternate years , or you could do what we do . One Christmas for us alone at home , one with his family and one with mine . My family is adjusting this year and we are going earlier in December . <| sep |> Because of vibrations in the tool , the blades of a jigsaw and scrollsaw are never going to be ' straight '. They can be close , but those tools aren ' t known for precision , they are designed more for gross cuts and curves . You need to make 14 cubes ? That ' s insanely delicate cutting . I ' ve cut lengths like that with a table saw . If you used a tablesaw to get each piece to 14 width and thickness , you might be able to rough cut each one , stack them all on end next to each other and sand or plane them by hand to the correct length . This is if you need exact cubes . If you just need to get really close , then you can probably just get them ripped down to 14 thickness and width , then chop them up with your dewalk and a straightboard clamping trick .