Christmas Cheer

For any of you who have kept up with this blog, I am sure you have noticed that I have really been neglecting my updates. Well here's my reason why... baby Graham was born 9/29/09. And so life with THREE boys (ages 3 and under) at home has kept me more than a little busy these past two months. And thus, even now, I am afraid I am not given the time to do a great job posting about our holiday crafts. So I am simply going to list the highlights of our Christmas craft-making here. Happy holidays to all!

BOOKS: There are so many inspiring holiday books out there. I'd love to hear your favorites actually if you care to share! But here are just a few we're reading these days: If You Take A Mouse to the Movies by Laura Numeroff, Merry Christmas, Curious George inspired by H.A. Rey, and Gingerbread Friends by Jan Brett.
ACTIVITIES: These are just a quick sampling of what we've been trying this December:

1. Wagon Wheel Pasta Christmas Trees
Easy as it looks. Simply cut a triangle of green construction paper. Let the kids glue wagon wheel-shaped pasta to it, add glitter, and there you go!


2. Salt Dough Ornaments
This is a preschool crafting classic. We made a batch of salt dough (any recipe would do, let me know if you need one), and added food coloring to create the colors. I then used cookie cutters to get the basic shapes we wanted and had the kids decorate them with small rolled balls of the dough. Before baking we used a straw to make a hole in the top. They baked for 2 hours. Once cooled we used mod podge to seal them. I then tied a piece of yarn through the hole for the ornament.




3. Pine Cone Ornaments
We painted pine cones and then covered them with glitter. I tied ribbon on them to hang on the tree. The kids had a great time with these and were particularly proud of these creations.




4. Gingerbread Cookies
No explanation needed. So much fun, and so tasty!


5. Hand Print Rudolph
So easy and cute. I traced the boys hands on construction paper and cut them out. Then I gave the boys a brown paper triangle, two black paper circles, and one red circle. The boys assembled their Rudolphs with glue.