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   

A Wizard of Oz Birthday Extravaganza

It started almost a year ago when I went to the Mattel Staff and Friends warehouse sale...

... one of the big bargains was the collection of 75th Anniversary Wizard of Oz character Barbie Dolls. In a moment of rash consumerism I bought the 3 dolls that were available. As my daughter already had far too many things in her allocation of Christmas prezzies, I decided to hold them over for her birthday.

If you've read other articles on my blog, you may recall that last year I had been planning to have a totally over-the-top birthday extravaganza for her, but that was cancelled a month out due to some poor behaviour. Well, I still wanted to throw that extravaganza so figured that it would have to be this year, given that it was her first year at school and all (we must celebrate these things, you know!). 

So I started thinking (some time around January or February) and decided that seeing I had the dolls, Wizard of Oz might be a great way to go in terms of a theme. All I needed to do now was let my lovely, independent-thinking, headstrong daughter come up with that idea. I didn't realise that a certain Disney movie that deals with some rather icy matters might put my plans in jeopardy. We will not discuss my underhand manoeuvrings here, but suffice it to say that after some protracted negotiations (which may have included some movie viewing), the daughter decided it was the best idea ever to have said Wizard of Oz themed party. 

What I forgot to factor in to all of this is that DD is notorious for coming up with her own ideas on the execution of things. No sooner did we have the theme nailed (somewhere around about May or June) than she says, quite matter-of-factly "we can make sock monkeys to be the flying monkeys". Given my guilt over my not-very-maternal manipulations to get the theme that I wanted, I said "yes, I guess we can" - I'm not sure whether my husband will ever forgive me for that one. 

That was the start of some really crazy brainstorming on ideas for props, decorations and food (not to mention trying to figure out how to make convincing flying sock monkeys as a kiddie craft activity). Google and Pinterest became my close friends.  The problem with using  the Wizard of Oz as a theme is that there are so many different sub-themes to choose from. Having a good (digital) look around at various party ideas, I decided that gingham themes and rainbows were not what I was after. Also, grandiose ideas aside, we really didn't have sufficient spare cash to go completely nuts so there was a bit of a challenge to do whatever I could myself ("myself" being a loose term that includes my very capable husband as well).

In the end I simply couldn't bring myself to eliminate too many aspects of the movie (yes, I know there was a book first, but most people haven't read that). Consequently, I ended up with a little bit of a lot. It was an interesting process figuring out some of the props and food, not to mention the whole sock monkey thing, so I am actually going to write about those things in separate posts to give you and idea of what worked, what didn't and things you might like to watch out for if you ever find yourself in a similar situation. 

In the meantime, I hope you like having a little look at my photo collection and don't forget to check out the supplier credits at the end.

Decoration/Props
Giant poppies, giant lollipops, yellow brick roads, witches legs and more....

Food
Yellow brick road, tornadoes, witches fingers, lollipops, rainbow fruit kebabs and ruby red raspberry cordial were on the menu along with some of the other standard party fare.

Party Bags
Included a Ruby Slipper cookie, Scarecrow Brain sweets, Tinman's Heart lollipop, Lion's Courage chocolate bar, Rainbow sour strap, a sticker sheet and a DIY themed Chatterbox (Cootie Catcher) template.

Cake
We actually had two separate parties so I wanted to make a cake that could be used for both. My friend made the figurines and topper for me because she is fabulous at that sort of thing (I owe you big time, D) and I just concentrated on the cake. Who doesn't like a rainbow surprise in the middle (apart from people with food colouring intolerances).

 

Supplier Credits:
Wizard of Oz clipart - Jazzy Patterns 
Cake Figurines & Topper - Bite Me Cakes 
Backdrop Printing - Little Dance Invitations 
Monkey Wing Embroidery Design - Urban Threads


And Most Important of All:
To my right hand man, super-duper helper and husband extraordinaire -I simply couldn't have done it without you.