Growing up in a military family, I always found that maintaining family traditions was one of the best ways to stay grounded and feel at home no matter where we happened to be physically located. My own family is still relatively young and we have yet to start any new traditions, but one Christmas activity from my childhood has always stayed with me. It is centered around decorating the Christmas tree and I hope that my children’s memories of it will be as fond as mine are.
Every year, when we bring the tree home, regardless of whether it is live or artificial, we gather as a family to adorn it with all of it’s trimmings. With Christmas tunes playing in the background, we begin by preparing refreshments. To drink, we make our version of warm apple cider: pour regular apple juice into a mug, add a cinnamon stick, microwave until warm, use cinnamon stick as a straw to slurp up every last drop of the cider. It’s warmth and subtle flavor make it the ideal holiday drink for children. It’s also fun to have special mugs that you use for this every year. I remember using those yellow smiley face mugs for the longest time, I’m guessing until they all broke. My mom would also have made some cookies for us to enjoy as we strung lights and popcorn around the tree. We can spend several hours at our task as we reminisce about the significance of particular ornaments and take care to spare no inch of the tree from some adornment. I’m not big on tinsel (although it was a staple when I was a kid!), but candy canes are a must!
This particular time of family sharing and enjoyment is the main kick-off of the Christmas season for us. The music, the sweet aroma of cider and cookies lingering in the air, and the warmth of family are prefect for getting into the Christmas spirit. It is one of my favorite parts of the season, and it is a holiday tradition that I hope will continue for generations to come!
In the hopes that Debbie and her family will try the Apple Cider, I sent her some cinnamon sticks wrapped in monogrammed cozies. They’re all bundled up for the cold weather and are just waiting to be dunked in some warm apple juice!
I also made her a star ornament, using this star pattern, to include on her family’s Christmas tree.
As for our own tree, we got our first real Christmas tree in years and decorated it simply with colorful lights and cinnamon ornaments that the girls made.
Even in its simplicity, it was one of the most beautiful trees I’ve ever seen.
Hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas!
I’ll be posting again soon to show you all of my loot from the Traditions Swap.
Wanted: A DIY t-shirt with an image in Santa’s likeness on it.
Solution: One upside-down handprint!
These shirts are so easy and so much fun to make. I traced the body with a pencil then filled in with fabric paint. For Santa, I stitched the face, but I could have just as easily used the same paint that I used to outline him. The outline was painted using a toothpick. And those cotton-ball-looking-thingies are different sized white pom-poms that you can pick up at any craft store…attached with hot glue.
To make Mr. Reindeer, I used one foot and two hands.
For this guy’s extra parts, I went with buttons…also attached with hot glue.
Now that the girls have some holiday threads we’re all set to go pick out our tree this weekend. I know. It’s almost Christmas and we’ll probably be taking it down in less than two weeks. But, it’s been in the 80s here all week and I’m determined to get into some Christmas spirit before the big day actually gets here! Actually, this isn’t the first time we’ve gotten our tree late. A few years ago we went out and picked up a tree on Christmas Eve…got a great deal on it, too!
Anybody else wait ’til the last minute to put their holiday decorations up?
I came across this activity in a book that I had totally forgotten about until I found it while cleaning up before our trip. The original idea is to make little hats and mark faces on the child’s hand, but I thought a glove would be fun, too!
Here’s the rhyme:
Five little elves trimming the tree
getting Christmas ready for you and me.
The first little elf whose hat was red,
said “I’m tired. I’m going to bed.”
The second little elf whose hat was blue
went to hide in Santa’s shoe.
The third little elf whose hat was yellow
went to the kitchen to eat some jello.
The fourth little elf whose hat was green
was sent to his room because he was mean.
The fifth little elf whose hat was purple
was very rude and made a burple!
It’s a silly little number, but it worked out great for both of my wee ones. I use the glove with Charlotte (the little one) and let Annabelle put the little hats on her fingers and take them off as I go through each color.
They both love doing this over and over again and I love it because I can engage both of them in the same activity and know that each child is getting something out of it!
For the hats I cut semi-circles using a play-doh lid as a template (cut circle then cut in half). I used a glue gun on the overlap to make ‘em stick. I also used the glue gun to attach the hats and embroidered faces to the glove.
Here are some more elf poems that you could also use:
This little elf went to the workshop, (point to thumb)
This little elf stayed home, (point to index finger)
This little elf ate a candy cane, (point to middle finger)
This little elf ate none, (point to ring finger)
And this little elf cried, “Ho, Ho, Ho,” (point to little finger)
All the way home!
Five little elves trimming the tree,
Getting ready for Christmas full of glee.
Santa said, “You must help me!”
And one little elf ran from the tree.
Four little elves trimming the tree…
Three little elves trimming the tree…
Two little elf trimming the tree…
One little elf trimming the tree…
Five little elves jumping on a sled, one fell off and bumped his head. Santa called the doctor and the doctor said, “No more elves jumping on the sled.”
Continue counting down to one little elf jumping on the sled.
One of the things I love most about visiting other blogs is seeing what everyone else is doing. I find myself endlessly inspired by other people’s ideas. Lately I’ve been enjoying this blog…big surprise…she does crafts with her kids!
A couple weeks ago her girls made a Christmas tree out of their hands. It was very cute and my immediate thought was, “Me, too! Me, too!” However, I seem to be accumulating alot of crafts made of paper, and I really wanted something that would last a little longer. So, we used paint and those cheap, flat, canvas boards to make a handprint Christmas tree…using ALL of our hands!
We started with the big hands (my husband’s and mine):
Then added the girls’ hands:
We couldn’t get a picture of Charlotte making her handprint because it took both of us to get hers on there! Hers is the star at the top.
Now, I wish we had used the good canvas so it would be ready to hang…as soon as I get a frame for this keepsake it will go right on our wall!
For the past month or so I’ve perused the pages of Etsy, looking for a sturdy Nativity set that could stand up to two toddlers. I wanted something that they could play with, something that would be with us for many years, and something that would be nice to look at…oh…and it had to be affordable (that’s always the kicker, isn’t it?)
I am so thankful that I peaked over there again last Wednesday because I found the perfect set on reserve for another customer. It was made of wood (pine), simple in design, and very reasonably priced. Upon looking a little more into it, I found out that the seller would create custom orders upon request. Score!
Did I mention that was last Wednesday? Right before the Thanksgiving weekend? So guess what I found in the mailbox today?
Isn’t it just lovely? The set was made, mailed, and received all within a week’s time. I can’t even tell you how impressed I am with this seller. Not only are the pieces beautiful, but she was so pleasant to work with. And fast!
Well, I could go on and on, but I wanted to get a few pictures up and pass on the seller’s info in case anyone else was in the market for something like this.
The Etsy shop is called Sawdusted. If you don’t see the nativity set listed, go ahead and convo her and see if she’d be willing to do a custom order (that’s what I did!).
The girls and I took to the yard yesterday to work on some glass jars I’d been collecting. I’m sure I saw this idea on the Craft blog but now I can’t find the link anywhere. Anyways, the person used glow-in-the-dark star stickers and frosted glass spray paint to make some decorative lanterns out of glass jars. I borrowed heavily from this idea.
I used letter stickers on big spaghetti sauce jars (and one jelly jar) and let my little munchkins play around with the star stickers and little artichoke hearts jars. It was a gorgeous day and the girls enjoyed alternating between playing in the yard and sticking stickers on their jars.
Actually Charlotte had her own ideas about where the stars should go.
Later in the day I sprayed over them with the spray paint. Just a note for those interested in doing this project…get more paint than you think you’ll need. The jars look better with a few coats of spray paint. I only got one can and after seeing them with the candles lit inside, there is definitely a difference between the first jars I sprayed and the ones that got sprayed towards the end when I started running out of paint.
Also, you have to be very careful when lifting the stickers not to lift the paint off, too. I would suggest doing a practice jar to kind of get the hang of it.
Some of my stickers left a little residue behind, so I used a q-tip and some Goof Off to carefully remove it.
They look beautiful along our entryway leading up to our door. Plus, I got a nifty new banner out of it!
This morning we took the first ornament out of a pocket from our Advent calendar. I’ve been so excited about this thing but it’s taking me forever to complete…so, I’m posting it as a work-in-progress. As long as I can stay a day or two ahead with the ornaments, I figure I’ll be ok!
Here’s what the whole thing looks like (unfinished):
As you can see, it’s a Christmas tree with pockets at the bottom. The tree has little red buttons sewn on, which is where the ornaments will hang. When I’m finished, there will be 24 buttons all over the tree…one for each ornament.
Each day, we’ll take an ornament out and hang it on our little tree.
All of the ornaments have a different component of the story of Christ’s birth. I’m hoping the girls will be excited about seeing what will come next. At the very least, I know they’ll have fun hanging the ornaments. :) They’re are basically just little linen softies with an image stitched on.
I decided to make this Advent calendar without treats or toys after seeing the beginning of the holiday season showing up in stores. When we went to the mall…there was Santa. At the hardware store…there were huge inflatable scenes with Frosty and Santa and all other aspects of Christmas that are devoid religious connotations. So, I thought that an Advent calendar such as this would be a daily reminder about what Christmas is all about. Hopefully, by Christmas morning, there will be no confusion about what we are celebrating when we open gifts and visit family and friends. We’ll still have fun with the other stuff, but I want my girls to understand the difference between the fluff and the meat of Christmas.
After reading our Thanksgiving book a few times and talking about the Pilgrims, I thought it might be fun for the girls to play dress up and pretend to be Pilgrims. So, I did some searches (link, link, link), made some adjustments, and came up with these little hats made from craft felt.
Some things are better in theory.
They humored me by letting me take these pictures of them with their hats.
See this one?
I stalled the hat-pulling by offering a distracting leaf to Charlotte.
And this one?
She was too preoccupied by her intention of grabbing fistfuls of hay and throwing them to bother with the hat. As soon as I got a pic or two, I stopped the hay throwing and the hat came off.
Actually, Annabelle has played with her hat sporadically over the past couple days, which gives me hope that, in time, they’ll enjoy this type of dress up game.
I’ll be storing these in our Thanksgiving box in the hope that one day they’ll look forward to wearing their Pilgrim hats for Thanksgiving. I have this idyllic picture in my head of my two little squirts anxiously awaiting the opening of the holiday boxes so that they can don their hats and play Pilgrim again.
I know that Thanksgiving is supposed to be about giving thanks and all…
but…
but…
turkeys are fun!
Especially when they talk!
We have been having so much fun with our latest project. I saw this turkey noisemaker on the Craftsanity blog and knew right away that we had to make it.
The instructions call for a soldering iron to puncture holes in the plastic cup, but I don’t recall seeing one of those around here so I used a lighter to heat up a nail and worked just fine!
This was one of those projects that both of my girls could get into, which makes it an instant success in my book. They both helped me tear the brown paper and glue it onto the cup.
Then we sponged some paint onto our feathers…just for fun!
I added the face once the paper had dried and then demonstrated to the girls what this little bird was capable of! The screeching ranges from gawd-aweful to chicken-like and tends to send house pets into a frenzy trying to figure out what’s going on.
For your viewing pleasure:
Everybody took turns making the turkey talk, but it takes a little practice to really get him going.
It’s a simple description of the Thanksgiving holiday that includes everything from the Pilgrims to hand-traced turkeys to cooking up a traditional Thanksgiving meal. Both of my girls have enjoyed reading it and Annabelle actually asked to read it twice last night. We have a couple of Tomie dePaola’s books and they always seem to go over well with our kiddos. So, if you’ve got some little ones and you’re looking for an “Intro to Thanksgiving” type of book, be sure to check this one out!
We’ve been doing so much running around lately there hasn’t been much time for anything at home. I’ve had a few chances to peak over at The Crafty Crow and, my goodness, all of those Thanksgiving crafts are just making my head spin! Turkeys everywhere! So, with turkeys on the brain and straw painting on my never-ending list of things to do, we set forth to paint some turkeys!
I dropped the first small dollop of brown paint on the paper and demonstrated to Annabelle the proper straw-blowing technique. The hardest part for her in the beginning was not getting close enough with the straw.
I’ve had to hold off on doing this activity with her until I knew should could blow out through the straw and not suck in. As it turned out, she proved to me just how big of a girl she is getting to be. Not satisfied with simply picking out her own colors, she insisted on opening and pouring them herself. It blows my mind every time I see just how independent she can be.
I forgot to thin out our tempura paint, which made it a little harder to distribute the paint around, but I like the results. Although, it would be interesting to see how the turkey would come out with a runnier consistency. Let me know if you try it!
Added: I should have known better than to post something when I still had some lingering curiosity about it’s potential. So, I added some water to our paints and tried it again. Here are the results. I actually think I like this one better. I’m going to try it again with Annabelle and see how she does with it, but I wanted to go ahead and get this image up to show you the difference and let you decide which way you prefer.
Just to recap, all you do is drip some paint onto the paper, then point your straw at the paint and blow!
