Little Family Fun: Christmas

Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts

Awesome Christmas Gift for Kids

Are you looking for an awesome Christmas gift for the kids in your life?

This just might be it!

Kids LOVE to be creative and make stuff.

And this book is something they can use ALL year long to let those creative juices flow!

I published this book last month and you will not be disappointed.

It is full of big, colorful photos and step-by-step instructions on how to make each and every craft.

So check it out!

It is on sale on Amazon right now!

And an added bonus: These crafts are NOT complicated nor do they require complicated techniques or materials.

All you need to make every single craft in this book are 11 basic craft supplies that you can find on Amazon or even your nearest Walmart!

Construction Paper
Craft Foam
Craft Sticks
Googly Eyes
Yarn
Washable Paint
Hand-held Hole Puncher
Scissors
Glue
Marker
Pencil

That's it!

In fact, you could make this Christmas Gift even MORE awesome by buying all the supplies to go along with it! Your child will be all set and ready to create--all year long!

So give the gift of Creativity to the kids you love.

Christmas Scripture Reading

I've been searching for a way to focus on Christ more this Christmas season. I decided I wanted to read all four Gospels before Christmas. So I made this little chart to keep me on track. If anyone is interested in joining, you can follow this chart as well. I know my Savior lives. Merry Christmas!

Christmas Tree Craft

This craft was so simple and easy, even LL(1) joined in on the fun!

Check it out!

Supplies:

Scrapbook paper in different shades and patterns of green. (for the tree)
Scrapbook paper in different patterns of red. (for the ornaments)
Scrapbook paper in a yellow pattern. (for the star)

(Or you can use a sheets of green, red, and yellow construction paper too).

White paper
Marker
Scissors
Glue

Prep Work:

On the white piece of paper, draw a big triangle. This is the tree shape. :)
From the green paper, cut out a pile of strips, about 1" wide.

From the red paper, cut out a pile of circles, about 1" wide.

(I have a paper punch that I used to get these cut. But you could also just trace a small circle and cut them out, or just cut from scratch!) :)

From the yellow paper, draw and cut out a star.

Craft Time!

Give your child the green paper strips and a glue stick. Have them choose a strip one at a time and glue it onto their triangle shape:

After the triangle is covered, YOU cut out the triangle, including the tree base on the bottom.
Hand the red circle ornaments and the yellow star to your child and have them glue these on their tree:

All done!

LB(4) and LL(1) had a blast making this craft. And now we've got them hanging up as special Christmas decorations!

(Here are the creations in progress):

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Reindeer Craft

This craft is so easy to get ready, and put together. LB(4) loved creating his own little reindeer to decorate the house for Christmas. Here's how to make it:

Supplies:

Craft foam in light brown, and dark brown or black.
2 googly eyes
1 red pom pom
Glue
Marker

Prep Work:

Using the light brown craft foam, cut out a circle
Using the dark brown or black craft foam, cut out 2 antler shapes

Craft Time!

Give your child the pieces and the glue.
Show them how to glue on all the pieces to create their reindeer!
Then have them draw on a smile with a marker.

There you have it!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

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Candy Cane Shape Activity

Here is the last activity we did during our "Candy Cane" themed week. Decorating candy canes with shapes is a simple craft, AND it's also fun and educational.

Prep Work:

If you can find some, buy a package of foam shapes. (You can usually find these in craft sections and craft stores. The ones we used were also stickers so we just took the tabs off the back and stuck them on. You could also just glue them on.) **OR you could also just cut shapes out of construction paper or foam yourself. :)
Cut candy cane shapes out of white paper or cardstock.

Here's what you do:

Put all the shapes in a bowl and have your child choose a shape. Then have them pull out all of that shape.
Once you have enough to put on the candy cane, have your child stick them on.
Repeat with all the different shapes you have.
You could even punch a hole in the top, tie a string to it, and hang them on the tree for ornaments!

Merry Christmas!

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Felt Christmas Tree Countdown

When I was little, we had a felt Christmas tree calendar that my sweet mother made from scratch. It was one of my favorite Christmas traditions!! Even when I was in high school I loved it. I finally made one of my own this year and am looking forward to having this tradition in our home for years to come. :)

Here's how I made it:

The tree:

Cut a Christmas tree shape out of a piece of green felt.
Cut out a brown piece for the trunk on the bottom.
Glue the tree and trunk to a big piece of felt.

The ornaments:

Using different colors of felt, cut out Christmas shapes to use for ornaments on your tree. You can have doubles of some ornaments, or just do whatever shapes you want. ***OR If you don't want to do a bunch of different ornaments, you could just cut out circles and have your kids decorate them like ball ornaments! I bet they would love to see the different designs they made as they get older. :)
Some of the ornaments I made (some not pictured) are: snowmen, mittens, presents, hearts, penguin, balls, bell, stocking, santa hat, reindeer, christmas tree, gingerbread man, candy canes, gingerbread house, and a star.

Here's what we do:

I have a Christmas candy jar shaped like a giant ball ornament. Every night I put one of the felt ornaments inside. The boys take turns each morning opening the jar and pulling out the ornament for that day. They get to choose where to put it on the tree, then we pin it to the felt tree with a small sewing pin.
We do this every morning until Christmas. (Our tradition is to put the star on the top of the tree on Christmas morning.)

Candy Cane Cookies

To go along with our "Candy Cane" theme last week, I decided to make cookies!
I had a box of candy canes, and wondered what would happen if I ground them up in my blender and added them to my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe. The result was the cookies you behold before you-----and yummy enough that I pretty much ate a whole batch to celebrate. :)

Here is the recipe:

Candy Cane Cookies

Ingredients:

1 cup white sugar
1 cup brown sugar
2/3 cup butter
2/3 cup shortening
2 eggs
2 tsp. vanilla
3 cups flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 package white chocolate chips
10-12 candy canes (ground to powder in blender or food processor)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
Cream together the sugars, butter, and shortening. Add eggs and vanilla.
Combine flour, baking soda and salt. Mix into the wet ingredients.
Add white chocolate chips and candy cane powder and mix.
Place teaspoonfuls of dough on cookie sheet lined with parchment paper and bake 7-9 minutes.

Merry Christmas!

Candy Cane Hunt

You may notice that we do a lot of "hunting" activities around here. I remember how much I used to LOVE to play hide & seek with different things when I was little, and lucky me--my boys love it too! Hunting for anything is fun, especially when they are delicious CANDY CANES!

Here's what you do:

Get a box or 2 of candy canes and take turns with your kids hiding them in a room and then finding them!
Variations:

You can even make a rule that they have to be hanging on something if you want.
Or you can hide them all on your Christmas tree and search for them on there.
You could set a timer and see which team can find them the fastest.
You could even play outside and hang candy canes in the trees & bushes in your yard!

And if you're looking for another fun Candy Cane game to play, check this cute Candy Cane Ring Toss game!

Bean Candy Cane Craft

Welcome to our Candy Cane themed week!

Our first activity is this Bean Candy Cane Craft (aka: "one of the easiest crafts known to man"). :)

Hope you enjoy it!

Prep Work:

Draw and cut a candy cane shape out of cardstock (ours was about 5" tall, 1" thick).
Get 2 bags of dry beans: 1 red kidney beans, and the other white lima beans.
Place a small handful of each kind of beans into a bowl.

Here's what you do:

On the candy cane paper, show your child how to make a candy cane pattern with the beans: red, white, red, white......
Then let them practice the pattern on their own. (Pattern-making is a good math skill for preschoolers to practice. Bonus!)
Next, have them glue the beans onto the paper, following the pattern they just practiced to make their candy cane!

Once the glue is dry, you could even add a string to the top and turn this into an ornament for your tree!

Merry Christmas!

Christmas Present Memory

Here is another quick and easy Christmas game you can whip up faster than Prancer can prance.

Prep Work:

I used the same paper presents I made previously for a sorting activity. Click HERE to see how to make them.

Here's what you do:

Flip all the presents over.

Now play memory!

Take turns flipping 2 presents over to see if the bow color matches.
At the end, count all the matches to see who wins, then play again!

Picture Presents Christmas Game

We played this easy game to go along with our Christmas Present themed week.

This is a fun way to practice abc's, letter sounds, spelling, colors, speech sounds, reading--anything you want to work on with your child!

Prep Work:

Get 4 envelopes and 4 bows.
Find something that has pictures (Old magazines, Newspaper ads, Other pictures you've got tucked away----like mine. I used the pictures that came with an ABC banner which I bought at the dollar store months ago. I cut the pictures off because I just wanted the letters as a banner in our kitchen.):

(Banner in our kitchen--sans pictures):

So, whatever concept you decide to focus on (abc's, letter sounds, spelling, colors, speech sounds, reading, etc.) look in your magazines, ads, or other place for pictures that go with that concept.

I wanted to work with LB on his speech sounds, so I cut the words below off and just used the pictures:

Next, get your envelopes and place 4 of the pictures you cut out inside each envelope.

Then place a bow on the flap of each envelope so it looks like a present!

Here's what you do:

Lay out your envelopes and let your child choose one. Have them open it up and pull out the picture inside! Have them name it, pronounce it, talk about it, match it----whatever and however you want to practice the concept you've chosen.
Open all the envelopes one at a time. Then have them close their eyes and put new picture presents in the envelopes and do it again!

Since I just wanted LB(3) to practice his speech sounds, I had him pull out the picture and tell me what it was. Then we'd practice saying the word together a couple times to practice his pronunciation of sounds.

Nothin' to it. And he LOVED it!

Later, I think it would be fun to play with LM(5) to practice reading. I would have him pull out a picture and match it to the word that I cut off the bottom (or you could just write the words on papers to match). So many fun possibilities!

Christmas Present Sorting Activity

Sorting is a good math skill to teach children. And when you can pair it with something we all love--like CHRISTMAS PRESENTS--the result it truly magical. :)

Prep Work:

Get out 3 pieces of different colored paper (I used red, green and blue) and scissors.
Stack the papers on top of each other and draw and cut out the following shapes:

big circle, little circle
big square, little square
big triangle, little triangle

Then get out 3 crayons that match the colors of paper you chose (for me: red, green and blue).
Draw ribbon and bows on the shapes with the different crayon colors. Best to work in shape groups, for example: take all 6 circles and draw red bows on 2, green bows on 2, and blue bows on 2. Then move onto the next shape.

Then PLAY!

Lay out all the shapes and give your child a category to sort by. If they need help, then show them how to do it first, then let them try.

Here are all the ways your child can sort these "presents":

Size: small and big.
Color: red, green, blue.
Bow Color: red, green, blue.
Shape: triangle, square, circle

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