Tag Archives: Christmas

DIY Reindeer Ornaments

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It’s the time of year for Christmas crafts. Buddy always makes a gift for his grandparents and other family members, and I’m always looking for new inspiration. Buddy made these two years ago, but I didn’t blog about it at the time so as not to ruin the surprise for our family.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

We started by buying blank wooden ornaments similar to these. I also bought Sharpie paint pens and acrylic paint. The package of ornaments came with the wooden circles with a prepunched hole and some twine for hanging. The only thing Buddy and I had to do was paint them.

I painted the background of the ornaments white and let them dry completely before asking Buddy to help. When Buddy was ready to work, I put some brown paint in a paper plate. Buddy dipped his finger into the paint, and then he did three or four fingerprints on each circle. Then we let the ornaments dry completely. Once they were dry, Buddy wrote his name and the date on the back of each ornament. Then I used the paint pens to decorate the fingerprints to make them look like reindeer. We had two fingerprints that ended up smearing together, so I made that one to look like a full reindeer instead of the head.

The great thing about this craft is that it is very easy to do, and it doesn’t take a long time for kids to complete. Another great thing about these ornaments compared to others we’ve done in the past is they aren’t fragile. Since we usually mail our ornaments to family out of state, it’s nice to have the peace of mind knowing they won’t break. I thought they turned out well, and I love to pull mine out every Christmas.

Santa Hat Stacking Game

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Buddy loves to play games, so I decided to add “play a Christmas game” to our advent chain this week. (Read more about our activity advent chain here.) But I knew that I wanted an easy, low prep game, since the week before Christmas is always very busy. When I saw a Santa hat cup game on Lalymom’s blog, I knew it would be perfect.

This game is so easy and fun! I pulled out some miniture plastic cups that I bought awhile ago and some pom pom balls. Buddy loves playing with pom poms, so he was super excited to see them. The game is simple to play. You put a cup down and add a pom pom to the top to be the ball of the hat. Then the next person puts down his or her cup and pom. If your hat knocks down the tower, you lose. We have large tweezers in the bag with the poms, so we decided to use that to put the pom poms on the cups.

After we played our game, Buddy wanted to play with the cups and pom poms. He made “pies” by putting the poms in the cups. Then he had a lot of fun serving them.

This was a fun, seasonal game. We won’t play it year round, but I know we’ll try it again next December.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours! I hope you have a wonderful and restful holiday.

Jingle Bell Play: A Preschool STEM Activity

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I’ve been on the lookout for fun and easy holiday activities to do with Buddy this December. Buddy loves playing with his magnatiles, so when I saw a jingle bell magnatile activity on AndNextComesL’s blog, I knew it would be perfect. This is a STEM activity, which means it builds skills in Science, Technology, Engineering, or Mathematics. This particular activity focuses on the science of magnets, engineering with building magnatiles, and mathematics of working with different types of shapes. 

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

I ordered a bag of assorted jingle bells for this activity, which was perfect. Some of them were very tiny, though, so they’re definitely not appropriate for younger children. I put the bells in a small cup, and I told Buddy that we would be decorating trees with the bells. Buddy loved the ideas of the bells, but he wanted to build gingerbread houses instead. 

Buddy put the bells inside the cubes and along the edges as well. He kept adding more and more until we used almost all of the bells! Even though only parts of the edge are magnets, they still held a lot of the bells. 

After building the house, Buddy decided he wanted to put the bells on a train. He poured the bells into the middle of the train base, and he was surprised when they flew to the edges. I thought he would be excited by it, but actually, he was frustrated because he wanted to put some squares on the side instead. He carefully pulled each one to the middle, but when they got too close to the edge, they flew back to the magnets. It was a great science demonstration of the power of magnets. 

Once we had finished making the train, I decided to pull out our horseshoe magnet to experiment with the bells. We were able to pull the bells from the sides of our houses with the magnet. Then, Buddy stuck the end of the magnet into the cup of bells. He was delighted to see that a massive amount of bells stuck to it. 

Buddy had a blast with the bells, and we’ve already pulled them out again. On that day, Buddy was trying to get plastic pony beads to stick to the magnatiles like the bells, so we talked again about how magnets stick to metal. And then we pulled the bells back out to play. I’m sure this will be an activity we do every December for years to come, and I expect we’ll probably do it outside the holiday season too. 

Christmas Marshmallow Painting

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Buddy and I have been having a lot of fun doing Christmas activities this week. Our first activity was making a gingerbread train, and when we bought the candy, Buddy begged me to buy jumbo marshmallows. He promised me he’d use them on his train, and he then he only used one. So when we finished and had a full bag of marshmallows left over, I realized I needed to find something else to do with them. Buddy heard me comment about finding a marshmallow activity, and he specifically asked to paint with them. And that’s how we came up with Christmas marshmallow painting. 

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

I grabbed a piece of painting paper from our paint pad, and I drew a large triangle. Then I grabbed our Crayola washable paints, and put some colors on a paper plate. Finally, I pulled out a few jumbo marshmallows and Q-tips to use as paint brushes, and I found Buddy’s painting smock. 

Buddy was so excited to start painting with the marshmallows. I showed him how to stamp with the marshmallow, and I told him to stay inside of the triangle to make the tree. He did a great job of very carefully covering the area of the triangle with green paint. 

Once he had finished the tree, Buddy got a new marshmallow to make the trunk. I told him to make straight lines down to make the trunk. 

After Buddy made the tree, I did a new plate of paint with colors for lights and ornaments. He did one large marshmallow yellow stamp to be a star at the top. The rest were small dots made with Q-tips. We couldn’t decide if they were Christmas lights or ornaments. Buddy said they were both. 

Buddy had so much fun with this activity, he asked to do it again the following day! So I cut up the painting paper, and we made Christmas cards. This was such a simple idea, and it was so easy to clean up! I just threw away the marshmallows, Q-tips, and paper plates, and it was done.  I’m sure we will be doing marshmallow paintings again soon. 

Easy Christmas Activities to Do With a Preschooler

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December is here, which means Buddy and I have started our advent activity chain. I spend some time in late November deciding on some activities to do with Buddy every day. Some are complicated, such as making a gingerbread house, and some are much more simple. (You can read more about this activity and get a list of ideas here.) I want to focus on the easiest ones to do here, as well as some slightly more complicated ones that are our favorites. I’m sure that I’m not the only parent who wants to do special holiday activities, but doesn’t have a ton of time to prepare them. These are all activities we’ve done and loved, or are ones on our to do list this year.

  • Make Christmas cards
  • Play with jingle bells – I saw this post from And Next Comes L’s blog, where they play with magna-tiles and jingle bells, and I can’t wait to try it!
  • Practice using scissors with a Christmas cutting box
  • Have a Christmas dance party
  • Decorate a play doh Christmas tree
  • Learn Jingle Bells and make a video to share
  • Make salt dough ornaments
  • Make cinnamon applesauce ornaments
  • Play a Christmas game – Some ones I’m considering for this year are Jingle Bell Toss from Playground Parkbench and the Santa Hat Stacking Game from Lalymom.
  • Make a Christmas painting
  • Build a fort and read Christmas stories
  • Throw indoor snowballs
  • Play with cotton ball “snow”                                                         
  • Create a Christmas scene with stickers
  • Color a Christmas picture
  • Practice fine motor skills and decorate a tree with playdoh or pom poms – There is a great, free printable on You Clever Monkey’s blog.
  • Go to the library and check out Christmas books
  • Walk down the street and look at Christmas lights
  • Play outside in the snow followed by a cup of hot cocoa
  • Decorate a gingerbread house – this last one isn’t very easy, but it’s one of my favorite things to do this time of year, so I had to include it! (Wilton has preassembled gingerbread house kits (affiliate link) that do make the process much easier!)

Do you have other fun holiday activities to do with a preschooler? Please share them in the comments.

Cinnamon Applesauce Thumbprint Ornaments

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Buddy makes ornaments to give as Christmas gifts every year, and this weekend we worked on this year’s ornaments. Because our family reads this blog, I don’t blog about the ornaments before we give them to keep them a surprise. So while I won’t go into detail about what we did this weekend, I do want to share the ones we made last Christmas.

I made cinnamon applesauce ornaments as a child, and every Christmas I pull them out and they still smell amazing! The previous two years, I made salt dough ornaments with Buddy, so I thought cinnamon applesauce ornaments would be a nice change of pace.

I used the recipe for cinnamon applesauce ornaments from Mc Cormick. Buddy and I mixed together 3/4 cup of applesauce with 5 ounces of cinnamon. I loved the look of the glittery cinnamon spice ornaments on Simply Notable’s blog, so we poured in some glitter into our mixture.

Buddy had a lot of fun pouring in the ingredients. Then we took turns stirring them together. Buddy was able to stir a little to start, but once it started to become dough, I needed to stir it. Once the dough was formed, I sprinkled more cinnamon on a piece of wax paper and on my rolling pin, and I rolled out the dough. Then I gave Buddy a small heart cookie cutter. We cut out the hearts together, and then I moved them to a cookie sheet.  After they were moved, I had Buddy stick his thumb in each one. Then I used a straw to cut a small hole at the top of each one. 

The ornaments baked in the oven at 200 degrees for 2 and 1/2 hours. Once they were cool, I used a silver paint pen to outline Buddy’s thumbprint. I finished the ornaments by tying a piece of red ribbon through the top. Everyone loved these ornaments! They were so cute and smelled great. I’m looking forward to pulling mine out again once I set up this year’s Christmas tree.

 

Christmas Cutting Box

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I’m always looking for fun and easy ideas to do with Buddy. When I first saw the idea of doing a cutting box on Paper and Glue’s blog, I knew Buddy would love it. He’s been learning to use scissors at school, and he’s very excited about it. We’ve done very little cutting at home so far. I want to help Buddy learn, so I knew this would be the perfect activity for him.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

I bought these toddler scissors for Buddy. They are kind of magical. They cut paper, but they don’t cut skin, hair, or clothes. These scissors are perfect for helping Buddy learn to cut in a safe way.

Last weekend, when I was wrapping some gifts, I set aside scraps for Buddy. I included several different sizes of wrapping paper, some paperboard, ribbon, and a bow. I meant to put in some tissue paper in there as well, but I forgot. 

We have a Christmas activity advent chain (read more about it here), and I set this as an activity for one day. It was great as a low prep activity. I pulled out the box and scissors, and that was everything we needed.

Buddy was very excited about cutting the different items. He did well with the wrapping paper. He’d cut a piece, scrunch it up, and hand it to me. “Here’s your present!” Buddy thought that was a lot of fun. When I left to start dinner, he ran back and forth over and over to give me more “presents”. (His table is within my eye sight in the kitchen. If he was using sharper scissors, I wouldn’t have let him finish this activity without close supervision.)

Buddy did have some difficulty cutting the bow and ribbon with his safety scissors. I was able to do it, but both needed to be held taught  to be cut. If you are using regular kids’ scissors, it shouldn’t be a problem to cut ribbons and bows.

This would make a great after Christmas activity because there is always a bunch of wrapping paper trash once packages are open. I’m planning to set some of that aside for Buddy, and try again after Christmas.

From my family to yours, Happy Holidays!

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Tips for Making a Gingerbread House with a Toddler

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Gingerbread houses have always been a special holiday tradition for my family. My mother used to host a gingerbread workshop at our church every year. As a result, I learned a lot about constructing a solid gingerbread house and what types of candy are best for decorating.

My first gingerbread house, made with help from my mom and little sister.

I still love gingerbread as much as I did as a kid. I love finding the perfect candy for decorating the house. And I love building gingerbread with people I love. My friends and I have an annual tradition of making haunted gingerbread houses at Halloween. This year, Buddy helped for the first time. However, the house was a bit of a mess. I knew I wanted to try again at Christmas, so I put some thought into how to make Buddy’s house a successful one. Here are my tips for making a gingerbread house with a toddler (or for kids of any age).

1. If you are new to gingerbread, use a kit. 

I love homemade gingerbread, but it takes a lot of practice to do it well. When you make it from scratch, not all edges will be perfectly straight and not all pieces will be the same thickness. Royal icing hides mistakes well, but it’s easier if everything is shaped the way it is supposed to. It also is a lot less time consuming to just buy a kit.

2. The younger the kid, the more candy you will need. 

You will need more candy besides just the kit. The pictures on kits have a little candy and a lot of icing decorations. But young children can’t do that. I bought some extra peppermints, spice drops, m&ms, and Wilton icing decorations. Other favorites are sugar ice cream cones (for trees) and white chocolate covered pretzels (for fences) and snow caps.

3. Get your house built and candy set up before bringing the toddler to the table. 

We did a gingerbread train kit because Buddy is obsessed with trains. While Buddy took his nap, I constructed the train. I also took all of the candy out of the packages and put into small bowls. The kit icing comes with a cap so you can easily do some early and the icing will stay fresh. If you do a real royal icing, a wet dish cloth over the bowl will keep the icing fresh for a couple hours.

4. Give your toddler easy decorating tasks. 

The tiny candies are really hard for small hands to place accurately. Large candy has to be held to dry, otherwise it slides down the house . Neither of these things are particularly easy for toddlers to do. The best places for toddlers to decorate are flat surfaces. Buddy was most successful decorating the wheels (which rest on the ground), the top of the train, the top edge of the caboose, and the fence/yard.

5. Let your toddler have some input over the more difficult decorating tasks.

I asked for Buddy’s input on places that I knew were going to be tough for him to decorate himself. Some sample questions I asked were,  “What candy should go here?”, “Where else should we decorate?”, and “What color should I use next?” We also ended this way when Buddy couldn’t resist the candy any more and every piece in his hands went into his mouth. (Eating the candy is the best part of decorating, so I don’t blame him!)

6. Let your toddler be creative. 

Toddlers and adults see the world in very different ways. A toddler’s viewpoint is actually great for gingerbread houses. Buddy wanted to add some dinosaurs to our train to make it a dinosaur train. And while I never would have thought to do that, I think it adds charm to our train.

7. Accept that it won’t be perfect. 

I am a perfectionist, so I want my colors to be in patterns and my candy to be nice and neat. It just won’t happen if a toddler is an active part of the decorating process. And that’s ok. We had a lot of fun  together, and I think our gingerbread train turned out great.

Please comment if you have any questions about anything related to gingerbread! And good luck with making a gingerbread house of your own.

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Stocking Stuffers for Babies and Toddlers

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This time of year, I’m always looking for great gift ideas for Buddy. Stocking stuffers are especially difficult for little ones because anything too small can be a choking hazard. But there are still a lot of great things available for stocking stuffers for young kids.

Buddy was 8 months old at his first Christmas, and a year and a half at his second Christmas. This year he is two and a half. Below is a list of things that I’ve gotten  for his stockings. I’m also including a few of our favorite travel toys that we got at a different time of year, but that would be great in a stocking.

*Disclaimer- this post contains affiliate links for your convenience. As an Amazon associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.*

Great for Both Babies and Toddlers

  • Bath Toys – I got the Munchkin Barnyard Friends bath toys for Buddy’s first Christmas, and we still play with them. This year I bought the Munchkin Fishing Toy to go in Buddy’s stocking.
  • Balls – I bought the Bright Starts Activity Balls for Buddy as an infant, and they were a favorite for a long time. We throw beach balls around all the time at our house, and that would be great in a stocking. Koosh balls are also lots of fun.
  • Pull back vehicles – I got a pull back James train last year and it is by far the best pull back toy I’ve ever seen. Buddy didn’t even know Thomas and Friends at that time, and now that he’s obsessed with trains, he loves it even more.
  • Cars – Buddy got O’Ball Go Gripper cars last year. This year I have a small Lightning McQueen car for him.
  • Small board books – As an infant, Buddy loved small finger puppet books. We have also done Indestructible books in stockings, and they are so great because they take up no space! The dollar store also has nice, small board books.
  • Snacks – Puffs, yogurt melts, fruit snacks
  • Small stuffed animals
  • Toy phone or remote – Buddy got this Fisher Price phone in his stocking as an infant and this VTech remote last year. This year we got a Thomas the train “phone” that makes sounds for a small board book.
  • Finger puppets
  • Mittens and mitten clips
  • Ornaments – This year I bought a firetruck ornament for Buddy on one of our trips this fall that will be in his stocking.
  • Small instruments – kazoos, egg shakers, or other small instruments. Buddy loved this musical instrument set as an infant (his favorite gift on his first Christmas.) Some of them are too big for a stocking, but several would fit well.

Baby Stocking Stuffers

  • Teethers
  • Rattles
  • Bibs
  • Pacifiers

Toddler Stocking Stuffers

  • Two piece puzzles – We got a great one from the Target dollar spot. This one is similar to one I made for Buddy.
  • Crayons – We love Crayola triangular washable crayons. Our current set is well loved and it will be nice to have a new box.
  • Color Wonder markers – We have one book (Thomas – of course) but it only comes with a few markers. Buddy will find more in his stocking and extra Color Wonder paper later on Christmas day.
  • Card games – Buddy is just starting to get into games. We have a family memory game made on Shutterfly, this Go Fish animal game, and an World of Disney Eye Found It card game for his stocking this year.
  • Thomas the train minis – I bought one set of these minis before a trip this year and Buddy LOVED it! I’m excited to give him some new ones with some of his favorite trains.
  • Stickers – Puffy ones are our favorite, and right now there are some great ones at our dollar store. Party stores also have great stickers for cheap.
  • Duplo animals – Buddy is obsessed with Duplos. We got him this animal set earlier this year. I found some small bags with a mystery animal and a few squares at Toys R Us that we will put in his stocking this year.
  • Colorforms – They are reusable stickers that are so travel friendly. We love them! Here is a link to some great ones from Frozen, but you can also find them sometimes at the dollar store.
  • Fun Band-aids – Buddy wants Bandaids all the time. I’m sure he’s not the only toddler who would find this fun.
  • Play doh and tools – Last year I wanted some small tools that we could use on a plane. I found these dough tools from Caryko that are great!

I hope this helps with your holiday shopping! Please add a comment if you have a great stocking stuffer that I’ve missed!

DIY Salt Dough Ornaments

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Salt dough ornaments have always had a soft spot in my heart. When my parents were first married, they couldn’t afford to buy ornaments, so they made a bunch out of salt dough. As a result, our tree always had a ton of salt dough ornaments. If preserved well, they can last forever. I still have the one they made for me the year I was born.

When Buddy was born, I knew that salt dough ornaments would be a good gift to make for family members. We have made them for his first two Christmases. The first year, we did Christmas tree fingerprint ones and a couple Santa handprint ones. Last year, we did Santa handprint ones for everyone.

The recipe for salt dough is very easy: 2 parts salt, 2 parts flour, 1 part water. I think both years I did 1 cup salt, 1 cup flour, and 1/2 cup water.

When you roll it out, you will either need to flour the surface or put it on wax paper. I usually flour the surface and my rolling pin as well. Once you have a flat surface, you are ready to start cutting out the ornaments. After the ornaments are made, they bake at 200 degrees for 3 hours (or until they look completely dry). They will need to cool before painting.

Fingerprint Christmas Trees

For the trees, I used a cookie cutter to form the outline. I put them onto a cookie sheet, and I used a straw to cut out a small hole at the top for the ribbon. Then, I had Buddy put his fingers all over them to form the lights.

Once the ornaments were baked, I painted the green background first with a glittery paint. Then I did different colors for the lights. Once that was dried, I used a silver paint pen to connect the lights. After everything was dry, I sealed it with two coats of Mod Podge. I finished by writing Buddy’s name and the year on the back. Then I added ribbon to the top.

Handprint Santas

For the Santas, I rolled out the dough, and then had Buddy stick his hand in it. It was tough to get it in enough to leave a print, but not too much so that it would break the dough. Whenever I got a good one, I used a butter knife to outline the handprint, and then used a spatula to put it on the cookie sheet. I used a straw again to make a hole for the string.

Once the Santas were baked, I used a black paint pen to outline the edges of the beard and the bottom of the hat. Then I filled in the beard and hat with the red and white paint. At the end, I added the eyes and nose. I used two coats of Mod Podge to seal the ornaments after they were finished.  Once again, I wrote Buddy’s name and the year on the back of the ornaments. Then I added ribbon to the top.

I always make extras, because sometimes salt dough ornaments break. Also, sometimes the painting or finish of the dough doesn’t look the best every time you do it. (Although if you are very artistic, maybe you don’t have that same problem that I do.)

Salt dough ornaments are a fun and easy way to decorate your tree. I was amazed at the difference in Buddy’s handprints between his first and second Christmas, and I’m so glad I have them to keep forever. My dad cherishes these homemade ornaments so much he leaves them out year round.

I hope you enjoy your salt dough ornaments as much as I have. If you have any other great ornament ideas for kids, please share. I still haven’t finalized our plans for this year yet!

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