Christmas Fun for Children
Christmas is a holiday that children love and it is not just the presents. They love the decorations
and the warm feelings at this time of year. They can also be very impatient and hyper in waiting
for Christmas to arrive. Here are some ideas to help you keep your children busy and happy.
Create a picture frame out of cinnamon sticks by laying them log cabin style and gluing together at the corners. Take a picture of the family and place it in the frame. Write the year on the back and hang it on the tree.
String popcorn and cranberries for the tree. For fun alternate with gum drops. This adds a nice spark of color while keeping it festive.
Make Candy Cane Cookies by making a batch of sugar cookie dough. Divide in half into two balls. Add red food coloring to one of the balls and mix well. Take a piece of red dough and roll it out in a rope shape. The kids love this. Do the same with an uncolored piece of dough. Lay the two side by side and pinch the end together at one end. Twist the dough ropes around each other and pinch the ends together. Bend the top for the crook of the cane. Bake like normal.
Starting in October, write down a list of the things that you do for the holidays that the children would like to do too. Create an advent calendar for the last 12 days of Christmas and give to the children early. Let them know that this is one of the gifts that they are getting. They will be thrilled that they will be included in the holiday preparation and will know what to expect. Your love and time will be remembered for years after.
Most children love Pinata's but they can also cause hurt feelings. What I do is we spend a night making small personal pinata's for each other. We blow up a balloon and tie it closed. It is them covered with torn strips of newspaper about 1" wide that have been dipped in a flour and water paste and drawn through two fingers to get the excess off. You then wrap the balloon with the strip and prepare another. Cover the balloon at least once. Let dry. You should add at least one or two more layers. This may take two days as it takes a while for it to dry. When it is dry all the way through, pop the balloon and pull it out. Cut a flap in the ball(paper maché) and begin to decorate it for the person you are giving it to. When done, fill it with surprises and close the flap. Seal and decorate the flap. The person can break it open at their will and no one goes without or gets hurt breaking it open. It can even be cut open to empty it and hung up for a beautiful room decoration.
After the first good deep snow storm, we like to make snowmen. But with a twist. We take sprayer bottles and fill with water and add food coloring. These are then refrigerated for about 1 hour to get the water real cold. We then go out and color our snowmen. It doesn't hurt the grass and the food coloring is diluted so it will hardly ever stain. We have had some very beautiful dresses on the snow women and the men look very dapper in a sprayed on vest.
Go down to the local newspaper press and ask if they have any end rolls. These usually do not have enough paper on them for a run of papers but you will think you have a ton. They are happy to give these away for free for cub scouts, schools, churches and families. I cut off a sheet and outline my children on it. These are then colored in by the child and hung on their door as a Christmas decoration. They can also color the paper, cover it with stickers, sponge paint it, or use rubber stamps to decorate it. This makes a nice gift wrap for the Grandparents. It makes a nice table coloring for a Christmas(or any) party. Just use stencils and color the paper to fit the theme. The kids can even help.
Most kids by now know how to use a computer. If you have access to a computer at home, a
library, school or college, have the children use their know-how to design the family Christmas
cards. Select a few they have created on the computer or drawn on their own with a pencil and
take them down to a copier. Copy them on green or red paper to send this year. My favorite
cards are ones that were created with love.
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