Paper Gingerbread Men

Today's December Fun activity was a Christmas craft - paper Gingerbread men!

I cut large gingerbread men from paper shopping bags (I got the pattern from Chaos's preschool teachers so I'm sorry I don't have it to share).



The kids went wild decorating with buttons, felt, yarn, sequins, foam shapes and crayons. I think this would have been even more fun if we had gingerbread cookies to snack on while crafting!

Linking up to some of these great parties

Jesse Ornaments, Days 3 and 4

Our first snowfall and Wild One's second birthday left us a little sidetracked on our Jesse Tree adventure. We caught up tonight by making 2 ornaments. Wild One colored her ornaments too, but I don't planned to include a picture of hers every day since they're all essentially the same. I'll post a picture of all of them when we're finished.

Day 3 led us to the story of Noah and a rainbow ornament.



To make these, I first cut out a rainbow shape from white cardstock. The kids then went on a hunt for different colors to cut out from old magazines. (This was a fun way to work in color recognition for Chaos as well!). The kids glued down the squares they cut out and I trimmed the rainbow when they were finished. Easy peasy! Chaos was pretty thrilled to have Lightning McQueen on his rainbow too. ;)

Day 4 was the story of Abraham's faithfulness to God. To represent Abraham's new home, we made origami tents.



We used this tutorial, but at the end, we tucked in the sides to make the tent more square.

Click here to see our other Jesse Tree ornaments

Christmas Canvases

As part of our month long celebration, I've created a list of fun things to do each day during the month of December (the full list will be at the end of this post). Today's activity was to create some Christmas decor for the house.



I've been stalking cute Christmas pictures on Pinterest for awhile. I decided to try three different pictures - thumbprint Christmas lights, handprint Christmas tree, and footprint reindeer. We used washable paint (for my sanity) on canvas panels.


This one is my favorite I think. I love the bright colors of the lights.


Pinky insisted she did not want to have a red nose (the original picture had all of the reindeer with red noses) because Rudolph was a boy. We settled on Chaos having a red nose with all the girls sporting black noses and a bow in their antlers like Clarice.


I almost couldn't convince Wild One to let me paint her hand (hers is the lone handprint at the top of the tree), but once she tried it she wanted to paint her whole body! I still want to add a star at the top of the tree, but I love it even without it.



These turned out SO much cuter than I had expected. My original idea was to display them for awhile and then toss them, but now I'm thinking of framing them instead. I think these would make great gifts for Grandparents or, scaled down, cute ornaments too (I've seen a version of the reindeer made from thumbprints floating around Pinterest).

And as promised, here's our full list of December fun activities. I tried to keep things simple with lots of crafts and ornament making because that's what the kids enjoy most!

1. Watch a Christmas movie
2. Make Christmas decor for the house
3. Put up the Christmas tree
4. Make a Christmas craft
5. Make snowflakes
6. Make Christmas cards
7. Make and ornament for the kids' trees
8. Drink hot cocoa
9. Play with snow playdough
10. Make an ornament for the kids' trees
11. Bake cookies
12. Make an ornament for the family tree
13. Do a Christmas craft
14. Make an ornament for the kids' trees
15. Play a Christmas game
16. Winter sensory bin
17. Make salt dough ornaments
18. Make an (edible) Christmas craft
19. Do a Christmas craft
20. Make a snowman
21. Make an ornament for the kids' trees
22. Do a Christmas craft
23. Go sledding (hopefully there will be snow!)
24. Drive around and look at lights (this is a tradition we do every year after church)

Linking up to some of these great parties

Our Jesse Tree

Have you heard of a Jesse Tree? It was new to me when I stumbled upon it at 1+1+1=1. I followed her links to the (free) e-book at Feels Like Home. I was in love! I try to create a handmade ornament with the kids every day during December. What a better way to combine our tradition with the true meaning of the season?

If Jesse Trees are new to you too, there is a great description in the e-book. Simply, it's a way of celebrating advent by highlighting a bible story each day starting at creation and leading up to the birth of Christ. Each day's story is then represented by an ornament.

Pinky, Chaos and Wild One each have their own mini Christmas tree in their rooms (like these from Walmart). We decided these would be our Jesse trees. We are using the free e-book and Pinky's Beginner Bible for our Jesse Tree adventure.

Today we read Genesis and made our first ornament - the Earth and stars. (I decided to do different ornaments for Wild One, I'll get to those in a minute).



To make these ornaments, we first cut out a square of black foam and glued an Earth on it (don't those continents look exact? ;)). We added stars using glitter glue and silver sequins. To finish we punched a hole in the top and added a ribbon. I think they turned out really cute!

I wanted Wild One to be included in this activity, but I wanted to do something that she could be more hands on with (instead of me making the ornament FOR her). I found the idea of printing out coloring sheets (I'm using cardstock) and mounting on scrapbook paper from Christmas Your Way. I'm going to combine the printables on that site with the ones I found here at Catholic Icing. Wild One took an extra long nap today (I'm not complaining!) so she'll start her ornaments tomorrow.

Our plan is to do an ornament (or 2) each day. I'll do a post for each of them. I also have some other winter/Christmas fun crafts for this month. I can't wait to share them with you!

Pompom Garlands and Christmas trees

As a final touch to the kids' Christmas trees this season we made pompom garlands. I gave them each a blunt tip needle with a double strand of embroidery floss. We had a large assortment of pompoms to use, and we found that some were easier to thread than others. Pinky had no issues doing this project on her own while Chaos needed help with the harder poms (they had a more solid middle than the others). I had him tell me the color of his poms as he handed them to me and we sorted them by size as we worked. This was a fun activity to do while watching a Christmas movie together.

And now that the last of the ornaments have been made and hung on the trees, the only thing left is for Santa to visit. Here's a view of our trees, with the garlands we made, one last time before the big night.


Pinky's mini tree


Chaos's mini tree

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Salt Dough Ornaments

During our most recent blizzard (yikes!), we made salt dough Christmas ornaments to relieve our cabin fever. There are tons of tutorials and recipes out there, but the one we used was 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt and 1 cup of water.

Chaos and Pinky had a great time cutting out shapes (there's even a "snow plow" in there - how appropriate!). We painted them with acrylic paint and sealed them with two coats of Mod Podge. Even Daddy had a good time getting involved in this project.


Pinky's favorites. She made Rudolph, Clarice and Coach for her tree.


Chaos really wanted to use our truck cookie cutter so we call this one the snowplow.


Daddy's Michigan State ornament


Mommy's favorite - my snowman!


A look at all of the ornaments!

Glitter Yarn Ornaments

I tried a quick, but messy, ornament craft with the kids today. I found the tutorial here on scrumdilly-do. These really turned out cute, but were just impossible to photograph.

We had 3 different types/color of yarn cut to varying lengths. Chaos chose only blue yarn for his ornaments while Pinky preferred to to use all colors.

Here are the best pictures I could manage:

Felt Christmas Banner

Pinky brought home this adorable felt Christmas banner from Sunday School last week. I think it would be simple to recreate at home. The shapes are cut from felt and decorated with glitter glue, then glued on to the white felt background (I cut off her name at the bottom of the banner in this picture). We have this hanging on our front door

Snowmen Ornaments for Kids

The kids wanted to make an ornament for their Christmas trees today. In honor of all the snow we've gotten this weekend, I decided that snowmen were a great idea! I found the idea here at Little Family Fun. We decided to make our snowmen just a bit smaller since they would be adorning small trees. I think they turned out cute!

Our snowmen (Pinky's is on the left and Chaos's on the right):

Our first Advent Ornament!

Tonight we made our first ornament of the season for the kids' Christmas trees. I picked up some jingle bells when Hobby Lobby had them 50% off. Let me say, the kids were IMPRESSED with the bells. They were so excited that they got to make something with them! We simply strung bells onto silver chenille stems and twisted them into a circle. It's a simple, no mess activity that really works on hand-eye coordination.

Pinky's finished jingle bell wreath (Chaos ran off with his before I could take a picture):

I think it would be super cute with a little red bow glued on the top too.

Late or Early?

Okay, don't get mad, but I have a Christmas project to post. I'm either late or really, really early on this one.

Ever since I ordered Wild One's first Christmas ornament from the Land of Nod (a felt bird), I've been eager to try my hand at crafting some ornaments out of felt. Next Christmas we plan to put up a second tree in our (hopefully) finished basement. We want it to be a tree that the kids can decorate, touch, and rearrange without fear of broken ornaments. So, what better to decorate with than felt, right?

I saw this ornament on etsy and thought I'd try to make it myself (is that allowed/ethical?). I like the etsy version better, but still, I'm kind of fond of this one. I love all things robots and spaceships, so I crafted this little ornament for Chaos:


Well, I intended it for Chaos. Pinky took off with it to hang on her Christmas tree which is still up in her room (we *may* convince her it's time to pack it away before the 4th of July).

Hopefully this fulfills my urge for Christmas crafts for at least a few months. I have so many other felt projects I want to tackle...

Advent Ornaments, cont'd

Today we did made ornaments inspired by this post at No Time For Flashcards. I couldn't find adhesive backed foam, so we used glue with these. I think they turned out really cute! They were fun to make and even Chaos made one.

Advent Ornaments, cont'd

Today, Pinky decided to craft with her Daddy. They had a lot of fun and made some really great ornaments!


First, a prepackaged craft foam snowman


Next, more candy canes - this time with glittery pipe cleaners


After that, they got creative and made a tree topper and a star


And I had to get involved and helped make a snowflake


Finally, a picture of the tree with all of Pinky's ornaments so far.

Advent Ornaments, cont'd

After a great trip to the craft store, we have some new ornaments today!


I got the idea for this ornament from here: Twinkle Ornament Pinky wanted to use different sized pom poms (we had small and large) in all colors. I think it turned out cute! We did add craft glue to help the pom poms stick and to prevent the pins from popping out.


I also picked up some quick craft sticker ornament kits. Pinky had fun putting these together while the glue dried on her pom pom ornament.

Advent Ornaments, cont'd

Today we jumped back into making Christmas ornaments. We kept it simple. I cut basic bulb shapes from felt and had Pinky glue decorations to them. Very easy and quick.

Advent Ornaments, cont'd

While I was in the hospital, the kids stayed with friends of ours. While they were there, they made some cute Christmas ornaments. I thought I'd share them here.


Chaos's contact paper Christmas tree


Pinky's beaded wreath


Pinky's beaded snowman (I LOVE this one!)

Advent, Day One

Our first day making ornaments was a success! I may have been alluding myself thinking that making only one ornament a day would fly with Pinky! I presented her with several options today and she (as I expected) picked all of them.

First, we made pipe cleaner candy canes. This was simple, but Pinky did have trouble twisting them together. We did the traditional red and white and added some pink and purple for good measure.


After making the candy canes, Pinky decided they would look better as hearts. So we twisted a few to make heart shaped ornaments. Pinky called them "love ornaments."


Then, the pink and purple candy canes made her think of butterfly antennas. She decided we needed butterfly ornaments. I swear, she came up with this all on her own!



Finally, we made a Christmas tree out of craft sticks and some simple decorations.



Here's what the whole lot looked like when we were done. Six very different ornaments.


We might run out of tree before we run out of ornament ideas! I will try to take a picture of her tree about once a week so you can see how full of ornaments it gets!

Our Own Advent Tradition

Last year, we bought a My Little Pony Advent calendar to help Pinky count down the days until Christmas/her birthday. She LOVED it. This year, we wanted to do another advent project with her, but wanted something a little more family oriented.

My husband came up with the idea of having a small Christmas tree in her room, and I thought it would be a lot of fun to make one ornament everyday until Christmas to decorate it. That is how our advent project was brought to life!

We started with this small, pink tree from Walmart ($15). It's a cute tree (though not nearly as full as the picture shows), and it's prelit! Pinky loves using it as her nightlight.


During the month of December, we will make at least one ornament everyday together. So, be on the lookout for a craft a day post as we get started (with slight interruption for the birth of Wild One)!