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 - 18 Sleeps to Go!

Decorate the Mantle

One day we will have a beautiful hall table to decorate, but I have been looking for one that is just right for a couple of years now and still haven't found it. Until I succeed on that front, the rather unattractive mantle above our unused fireplace gets the attention.

It was a good day to do this activity today. The little ones were tired and fractious so having an activity that didn't require too much of them was perfect. Last year we had lots of decorative items that the kids had made at daycare which were ideal for the mantle, but this year it was rather slim pickings. So we had to make do with stuff I had in my decoration stash. 

  
But first off, I had the kids string their decorated cones from the other day. I had some spare beads lying around so we knotted on on at the end of some gold cord and threaded on a cone used a large upholstery needle (because I couldn't find the kid-friendly plastic craft needles that I put in a safe place recently). Another bead was knotted on about 10-15cm above the threaded cone and so we continued until there were 3 cones on a string. 

We hung the cones and then continued with placing the rest of the decorations. Somewhat conveniently I happened to have a box of 3 red felt sleighs that I had bought at Ikea last Christmas. They went perfectly with the little reindeer that I *ahem* splurged on when I took the kids shopping for their decorations the other day. Throw in a few mini candy canes and hey, presto! Decorations sorted.

The most difficult part of this activity was getting the kids to smile for a photo. 

Christmas Countdown 2013 - 20 Sleeps to Go!

Colour in Christmas Cones

Months ago I found these really cool colour-in Christmas cone printables doing the rounds on Pinterest. They appeared to be the ideal activity for a girl who has just spent 7.5 hours at preschool, so they were slated for today. Only problem was that when I went to download the files, I discovered that not only were they not free (just cheap at US$4.49) but I would also need to set up an account with all my contact details etc in order to purchase them. Really! I am not willing to give all my details for a digital download purchase of $4.49. 

So, what to do? Go and consult with my friend Google, that's what. And that is where I found these cool AND free cone decoration printables. The only drawback is that they come pre-coloured, so rather than a "colouring" activity, it became an "embellishing" one. Did the kids care about the change of plan? Absolutely not!

In a fit of uncharacteristic organisation, I actually prepared (almost) everything that was required for the blinging session before I left to collect DD from preschool. 

Fortunately I had the forethought to do a full set of cones for each child. I suspect there may have been blood spilt had they been required to agree on who got which designs. The industry was amazingly focused and there was a lot of glitter everywhere (there still is). DS demonstrated amazing precision dotting his Christmas Tree cone with my not-as-cheap-as-poster-paint Liquid Pearls. He then demonstrated some very "interesting" creativity when he stuck mini googly eyes on top of said Liquid Pearl spots (while I tried to not run off screaming words like "sacrilege").

We had to leave the artworks to dry before we curved them into their cone shapes. That was a pre-bedtime reprisal. If you are going to try these cones yourself, go straight for the double sided tape to secure the sides - I ended up just sticking my fingers together with glue.  

So, now me and my industrious little elves need to find a home for today's creations while you experience the Elves Lament....

 

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 - 23 Sleeps to Go!

Choose a New Ornament for the Tree

Well, actually, we go shopping for a new ornament.

When the children grow up and go forth to seek their fortunes in the big wide world they will, if nothing else, have enough Christmas Decorations to adorn their own tree. Hopefully they might have a few social skills and a decent work ethic to boot, but those aren't quite as sparkly. 

There is a part of me that actually cringes at the thought of buying decorations. I love how they look etc, but I was brought up in a family with a bit of an environmental conscience along with a disposition towards financial prudence. Christmas decorations, particularly commercially produced ones, really do seem to be an antithesis to such principles. So, I have to tuck my nagging scruples away and indulge in this crazy frivolity, justifying it all by telling myself we will make some frugal, eco-friendly decorations later on.

Today we went looking in 3 different shops for decorations, but DD had already decided where she wanted to buy her decoration from so the first 2 were visited very briefly. By the 3rd shop, DS was more interested in looking at toys so really wasn't very amused with being dragged over to the Christmas display. Perhaps I should have just let him buy a toy seeing as he really gets more enjoyment from flipping the card over than doing the activities anyway.

The bonus of shopping for these decorations after November 30th is that the stores start reducing prices to shift excess stock. I would lay claim to a bit of frugality by doing it this way, but the kids decorations were joined by a few other bits and bobs seeing they were going cheap. Consequently I blew my budget. Oops! 

So, we now have a Santa bauble for DD and a Slinky Dog (that does look suspiciously like a toy) festooning our tree. And while David Bowie & Bing Crosby sing of peace on earth, I hope that perhaps we might just have peace for 5 minutes while we enjoy the tree.