Friday, December 13, 2024
HAPPY FRIDAY, EVERYONE!
The days leading up to Christmas seem to be racing by, don’t they?
Of course, just like Santa,
we’re busy making our lists and checking them twice!
Christmas cards, Christmas gifts, Christmas menus…
We’re in the midst of it all!
Every once in a while though, we need to remind ourselves to slow down
and simply take in the magic of the season!
Recently, I (Laurie) did just that!
Daughter A, Little D and I enjoyed a morning at the theater!
What fun we had at Stages Theatre Company
a local children’s theater!
It was a FAVE for all three of us,
and especially this Little cutie!
Being able to spend time with loved ones during the holidays
certainly makes the season extra special
and today I’m sharing one of my favorite family traditions…
one I look forward to each year!
I am happy to report
that we have successfully completed our 2024 Christmas Craft Day!
Last year I first introduced you to this tradition in our post,
To sum things up, our Christmas Craft Day first began
with some good family friends about 28 years ago
when our own kids were between the ages of one and four.
Each year, we ate breakfast together and then spent the day creating ornaments
for our Christmas trees.
As our kids grew, so did the difficulty of the crafts!
Simple painting projects
transformed into more elaborate prep and crafting!
Our kids are all married now,
and between our two families we have four new Littles
who have joined in this annual tradition!
The GRANDS do a bit more playing and snuggling than crafting these days
but our Middles (our now grown kids)
love this time to catch up with each other!
In fact, they’ve taken over the craft planning part of the day!
This year we had one craft for the Littles,
and two crafts for the Middles!
The Littles - This Year’s Christmas Craft!
Since all of our Littles are fairly young
(newborn to three-years-old!)
the craft projects for them were kept to a minimum this year!
With that said, the one craft that was planned kept our Littles busy and happy!
Earlier this month, I highlighted this craft project
- making snow -
Check it out here!
Inside Snow!
1 cup baking soda
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup corn starch
1 tbsp cream of tartar
4 tbsp of water, separated
a medium bowl or pan
a whisk
Pour the baking soda, sugar, cornstarch and cream of tartar into a bowl/pan.
(We used disposable foil roasters.)
Mix well.
Add 2 tbsp. of water and mix using a whisk.
Add another 2 tbsp of water and mix well.
Place in the refrigerator to cool.
TIME TO PLAY!
We added toys to our snowscape as well!
This snow can be stored in the refrigerator for multiple days of play!
The Middles - This Year’s Christmas Crafts!
Meanwhile, the Middles settled in
to create candle holders and snowmen this year!
Ornament Candle Holders!
Gather glass candle holder plates, ornaments and bottle-brush trees
We found our materials at our local dollar store.
(If you can’t find glass candle holder plates at a reasonable price,
clear plastic plates could be an alternative option.)
Glue the ornaments and trees on the edge of the plate any way you like.
Add a candle in the middle.
Beautiful!
Tree Cookie Snowman!
Paint the surface of two wood rounds white.
(We ordered ours from Amazon.)
Hot glue gun the two rounds together, as shown.
Using paint and/or Sharpie markers, add a face to your snowman.
Hot glue a scarf (made of fabric or ribbon) to the center of the two rounds
as well as real twig arms and a loop of twine as a hanger.
Frosty!
If you'd be interested in setting up your own Christmas Craft Day
with friends or family,
you will find lots of tips and craft ideas in last year’s post, here.
Young Families -
Reach out to your group of friends and create a new tradition together!
Grands -
What a wonderful tradition to start with your own Littles!
You could make it a day for your whole family to enjoy together
OR
you can carve out a few hours of time (or even a sleepover)
to enjoy the Christmas season with your Littles
OR
invite another GRAND friend and begin a new tradition together with all your Littles!
During this busy holiday season
what could be better than a day with family and friends
filled with good food, fun crafts,
lots of laughter and memory making galore!
One of our Middles told us that she was at a work meeting recently
where they all were asked to share a favorite holiday tradition as an ice breaker.
She proudly talked about Christmas Craft Day
and received many smiles, oohh's and aahh's!
That is success right there!
Do you have a favorite family tradition that you look forward to year after year?
We’d LOVE to hear all about it!
’Please feel free to comment at the bottom of this post
or you can always email us directly at ourgrandlives@gmail.com.
We share new ideas regularly so be sure to stop by when you can!
We’ll be back next week with a yummy holiday post!
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Wow! I love this! I've been trying to find some crafts/traditions to do with my kids this year since things are a little different now after going through some family things recently. I just want this holiday season to feel special to them, and this is so helpful with so many ideas. I'll definitely be checking out these other links. Thank you.
I love these ideas! Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas! Thank you for sharing your post with us at The Crazy Little Lovebirds link party #67.
Steph@CrazyLittleLovebirds
Thank you for sharing and participating at SSPS 341 Laura. See you at #342, Jan 6. Merry Christmas/Happy Festive Season.
Hi Laura love these ideas and having the little ones around at Christmas makes it magical. I spent yesterday with my grandsons baking for Christmas day and making some welcome Merry Christmas signs. It is a lovely time of year. I've selected your post as one of my favourites to feature in the next #WeekendTrafficJamReboot. Have a great week. x Sue L
The children are darling! Merry Christmas