ChatteParfaitt
Posts: 6562
Joined: 3/22/2011 From: The t'aint of the Midwest -- Indiana Status: offline
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There are tons of great things to do with the kids, from decorating the tree to making Christmas cookies. I make a home made Christmas scented potpourri that I give away to friends and neighbors. It's very easy, you just gather the ingredients, let it cure in a big plastic bag for a few days, and then dispense into small canning jars with a tight lid and some Christmasy ribbon. Let me know if you want the recipe. I make cranberry sauce and prepare that as gifts as well (my sub loves it). I've hand painted my own Christmas cards. -- Perhaps you could so something similar with family pictures and some finger painting. I often do sewing or craft gifts for special people. I agree that it brings a lot more to the holiday. Kids Xmas Decorations: String popcorn. You can jazz this up by alternating a dried cranberry. They have to be able to use a needle and thread, by 5 or 6 they can do this. Take dried pasta, paint it, glitter it up, and string it for decorating. Make Santas from red felt and cotton balls. Add some green felt and you can do elves, too. For boots or whatever get black felt or a real magic marker. Buy a box of Popsicle sticks and some stick on 'eyes' and you can turn the above into easy hanging ornaments for the tree. With enough colors of felt you can do snowmen, nutcrakers, family members (even the dog or cat). White craft paper and a pair of scissors turns any square into a beautiful snowflake with a few snips. Just fold and snip. The more you fold, and the more snips you do, the more complicated your snowflake will be. Decorated Christmas cookies were always a big hit at my house, we spent hours on this. We also made brandy balls, and one of my favorite pics of my daughter is her around two rolling a brandy ball in confectioner's sugar. I've got more.
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