Holiday season is around the corner and every working parent knows how hard it is to keep children busy with plenty to do over any holidays. It is usually cold outside and wet. Many children will be so very tempted to sit in front of the video games all day long if they had the opportunity. Well I encourage crafts with my children because it helps with family bonding, as well keep the brain active and creative while they are not in school.
Holiday season always starts early in our house because of the seasonal gifts that I offer, so as soon as Halloween is out of the way, holiday season pretty much starts. Everyone thinks crafts is so lame, but in reality they are therapeutic to be honest for both adult and child. Aside that, they can be a little expensive if you have many kids involved in a certain craft. Well over the years as a mother and a serious craft lover, I have found several crafts ideas for the children that WON’T break the bank. They are simple crafts and mostly aimed for the holidays, but really, they can be done for any occasion and for any time of the year.
Because there are so many crafts, I have decided to make more than one blog about these crafts so that I have more room to talk about them a bit more. The two subjects that I am blogging about today is making a snow globe and old traditional English Christmas cracker for the dinner table.
This is one thing that my youngest daughters absolutely love to make at this holiday season. I purchased a kit from fivebelow.com for $5 and it has two snow globe kits in it. It was a win, win for me because both of my younger daughters wanted to make this one. All we needed in extra was the water that went inside.
The girls was able to make their own custom inserts because it is molding clay that they used to create their wintry theme. One daughter decided on the snowman (which is illustrated on the instructions) and the other made a penguin. It took the girls about an hour in total to make these globes, they had a lot of fun in comparing their talents and creativity, then of course they got to put them in their rooms for their decor. This was ideal if you had a sleepover and needed an activity or like my girls, enjoy the home crafts stuff. It was extremely easy to make and did not require any additional items.
We all love making the very old traditional style Christmas cracker for the dinner table. There are not many places here in the US that actually sells them, but you can never guarantee the safe content inside that’s age appropriate, therefore I do prefer to make our own. I try to encourage children to decorate these themselves although you can get the foiled card for it if you want a fancy finish to a particular occasion because these are very versatile that you can use them at any event really. I like to make some for thanksgiving as a celebration and same of the holidays and New Year. I sometimes make these for birthday dinner table or anniversary if there are no party. The ones I have made with the children are plain, where they sat and decorated the card themselves, you can also include glitter if you like the sticky stuff, but for this time, we stuck by coloring pencils. There are many templates out there to print and download, or if you still continue to struggle, I do sell on etsy.com the whole package set, which includes the snap stick that goes inside which makes the snapping sound, paper hat, and joke paper. Everything apart from the little gift you wish to insert inside for your age appropriate receiver. This is because I have looked EVERYWHERE for all the items in total and struggled to get it all together over here. But fear not, I have it all sorted and it is extremely affordable, more affordable in fact, than buying them ready made at a store. I buy small inserted gifts from the dollar store to suit the age of my receiver. You will need glue stick and/or sticky tape, and means of decorating the card (unless you get the fancy foiled card) and some sorts of ribbon to close up each end.
We firstly decorate the whole card, then turned it around to face inside and stuck on the snap stick. Close up the cracker length-ways using the slots provided or you may use tape/glue. Close up one side of the cracker with the ribbon and then insert the paper hat, joke and your gift of your choice. Close up the other end of the cracker with another piece of ribbon and I always write a name on the cracker and place it in the Christmas tree until it is required.
When it is dinner time, they get placed next to the cutlery and in between the meal courses, you crack open the cracker with the person sitting next to you to open the hat and wear it, tell the joke and receive your gift. Its all fun and games really to make light of the dinner festivities. It is something me and my family have done for all time and it is a tradition that we all love to do. It is a great ice breaker if you have guests over for your meal, and children young and old love this simple thing. I will post a “how to” video on this cracker to show how easy it is to make. It is very inexpensive to make, lots of fun for that day and something new to try on the actual day of the event.
Hope you stop by again to read more blogs about keeping your children entertained this holiday season. There is a crafty world out there, and it need not cost you a fortune. If you would like more information, feel free to comment here and I will help as much as I can to find what you need.