October is Almost Over!

That means it is only 5 or so weeks until our household launches into the fun of our annual Countdown to Christmas.

Instead of getting a chocolate treat every day, we do some kind of activity. Some of these are Christmas related and some are just a little bit of pre-meditated fun.

I can get quite frantic around the Christmas period as I seem to insist on hand making a whole lot of stuff for every man and his dog, so this tradition started from a need to ensure that I take time out for my kids each day during the silly season. It is now quite a fixture and we really enjoy it. 

In the past, I have blogged some of the activities but I have found that trying to take photos to impress people on the interweb actually creates a ridiculous amount of stress and friction whilst performing the activity. 

At the end of the day, while it is fun to share what we have done with all of you, it is more important that we get our family bonding (which is not a public thing). So, this year, instead of keeping an eye out for an expose of our exploits, why not try it yourself. I have compiled a list of many of the activities that we have used to get you kick started:

Seasonal Awareness 
* Charitable Donation   
* Learn about Christmas in Another Country   
* Go to local Carols By Candle Light 

  

 
Family Fun 
* Dress up and Have Photos with Santa   
* Family Movie Night   
* Go and See the Christmas Lights   
* Play Board Game   
* Read a Christmas Story   
* Make a Christmas Video   
* Have a Toy Christmas Picnic   
* Try a Christmas Themed Science Experiment

Decorating  
* Put Up the Tree   
* Decorate the Hall Table/Mantle   
* Buy Your New Christmas Ornament and put on the Tree   These ornaments will leave home when the children do.
* Make Paper Chains and other Decorations

       
Food 
* Choose a Recipe and make a Christmas Treat   
* Decorate Biscuits   
* Decorate the Gingerbread House
* Make Reindeer Food    

Physical   
* Dance to some Christmas Music   
* Decorate the Bikes with tinsel and bells and go cycling   
* Go to the Playground   
* Have a Bubble Blowing Extravaganza       
   

Craft   
* Colour in Christmas Cones  I have also seen packs of these at my local craft superstore this year.
* Christmas Craft Kit, e.g. door hangers, photo frames etc  There are loads of things to choose from at your local craft and variety stores
* Glitter Animals    
* Christmas Snow Globe    
* Clothes Peg Santas   
* Cardboard Gingerbread Decorations  We actually did a variation on this theme where we threaded kraft gingerbread man cutouts. 
* Make Cards and Gifts for Teachers  I like to keep this simple as it can get time consuming if you have lots of teachers. One year we gave jars of M&Ms. Last year it was home made bookmarks.  
* Make Cards for Friends  That could be as simple as writing in store bought cards, or you can go the whole hog with glitter and markers 
* Christmas T-Shirts  Buy some cheap Tees and decorate them using whatever medium you are happy with (fabric paint, applique, iron on transfers etc) 
* Hand Print Christmas Tree Canvas   
* Make Toilet Roll Christmas characters  Just Google this one - there are lots of ideas out there
* Salt dough fingerprint trees  (there are two links here)   
* Learn how to make Danish paper hearts   

Christmas Countdown 2013 - 21 Sleeps to Go!

Dress Up for Photos with Santa

There is something that I am not overly keen on with regards to Santa, but I can't tell you what it is. I spent the first couple of years of parenthood trying to avoid Coca Cola's Big Red Fella. But, as with a lot of my parenting theories, this was an epic fail. EVERYONE expects the kids to be au fait with Santa and his role in their consumer driven lives. So unless you want your kid to be a social oddity, it is hard to stand firm on principles that aren't entirely clear in the first instance.

I have now decided to not be such a grinch and I have even started letting my kids have overpriced photos with Santa. However, if I am going to relent to such ridiculousness, I am certainly not going to take it seriously. That's why I fully encourage the kids to dress up.

Last year they went in Elf suits which were very cute. This year, DD got to choose the Christmas Dress Ups back in early November. I was a little bemused when she went the way of the Reindeer, particularly as her costume involves a mask. But hey, we roll with these things!

So, dressed in Christmas T's (which me made as one of last year's Christmas activities) and reindeer headwear, we set off to Santa's "grotto" (well, that would be less "grotto" and more "stage"). Watching people do second takes as they saw DD go past with her mask on was very entertaining. Even Santa was a little taken aback by the outfits - he actually asked for a copy of their picture!

Following the strenuous activity of being photographed, we refueled on babycinos and Gingerbread Santas (there's something a bit wrong with that, huh) in one of the department store cafes. That involved passing another Santa who was equally as taken with my little reindeer.

Thanks to the Reject Shop for having such tacky but entertaining antler sets! Now over to Bon Jovi for the final word...

Christmas Countdown 2013 - 22 Sleeps to Go!

Make Paper Decorations

Today was a Preschool Day for DD so the activity needed to be relatively simple. Along with the two previous activities, this one is a repeat on last year. I have to admit that making paper chains and snowflakes wasn't a particularly engaging activity last year so I thought I might have a few other alternatives up my sleeve. In my travels I found a couple of fun sites:

• Snowflakes
• Paper Streamers

Thinking that streamers might be the way to go, I went out and purchased some crepe paper streamer rolls. I guess I had rather grandiose notions of the play room being heavily decked out in streamer goodness.

What I keep forgetting is that my children's memories are long and they are creatures of habit. As soon as they saw what the activity was they were off looking for paper to make paper chains. We have a good supply of coloured construction paper so they just chose the colours they wanted to use, I cut the sheets into strips, then they got stuck into assembling (stuck - haha, i made an unintentional pun). The construction paper is somewhat repulsive to sellotape so it was a good thing that we happen to have 2 staplers in the house!

  
DS, who is only 3, found the stapling somewhat tricky so he required a fair bit of help. DD fared better and both of them persevered until their chains were about 1/2 a metre in length. From there it was a quick segue into paper snowflakes before I had a chance to suggest anything else.

I hadn't really been prepared for Snowflakes, so I had to do a bit of a rummage in my paper stash. I found some lovely lustered paper and set to folding it, only to find that it was impossible for the kids to cut through. After a bit of head scratching, I remembered that we had kept the tissue paper from yesterday's Christmas ornaments - problem solved (with the added bonus that I now feel like some kind of recycling superhero!).

So, we made paper chains (I finished the rest) and snowflakes (DS required a fair bit of help with the scissors on that one) and there is absolutely no sign of those streamer garlands that I thought would look so pretty. 

Who cares! These activities are supposed to be all about the love...

Christmas Countdown 2013 - 24 Sleeps to Go!

Put up the Christmas Tree

I have always liked having a Christmas Tree. In my early 20s I bought my first good quality artificial tree along with some matching swags. While I like the smell of a real tree, I have always hated the mess they make and the nuisance of having to dispose of a tree carcass in January. Plus I have a small fixation with symmetry and it is really difficult to get a perfectly shaped tree that stands up to my nitpicking.

 I have traveled a fair bit over the years and I have enjoyed collecting tree decorations. I thought going into Harrods at Christmas time was a bit special until I got let loose in Germany and Austria. Dressing the tree has a wonderful nostalgia as I bring out all of those little baubles of memory.

Keeping the tree "tasteful" and "balanced" is something I love to strive for, but I have had to loosen up my expectations now that I have little helpers. And the little helpers do love to rearrange the ornaments as the season progresses.

So today, we have put up the Christmas Tree. Hopefully that will bring some relief to DD as she has been pestering me about the tree for a few days now.

Christmas Countdown Eve

It's 25 sleeps to go....

... until we celebrate another Christmas in our little family.

Celebrations are an important thing to us. We like a little pomp and ceremony. Of course, Christmas is a little different to other celebrations as it is not focused on one specific member of the family. Rather, for us, it is a celebration of our family; it is a time where we like to celebrate that our lives have been touched and improved by many amazing people. Christmas is not a day, it is a season. We spend almost a month doing things that reaffirm our family unit and oftentimes make us look outwards to our wider circles of friends, acquaintances and community.

As mentioned in my previous post, last year was the first time we did an activity based countdown. I made up little activity cards that were placed in a string of numbered felt stockings. This year, I wanted to ditch the stockings in favour of playing with my die-cutting machine. So I bought some graphics sets from Lettering Delights, downloaded some free digital papers from Digitee and Smitten Blog Designs and messed around until I had some card concepts that I liked. I printed the cards and cut them out (using my very spiffy machine) and then I printed and cut coordinating stickers with the daily activities to stick on the back of each card.

It was quite a bit of work, but  having seen how much my kids have pulled out last years cards and played around with them throughout the year, I am happy to put a bit of work into something cute for them.

Now for the fun to begin....