Santa's Workshop and Christmas Party

Phew!!

I feel like I have been in a whirlwind.  A fun whirlwind though.

This is the first moment I have had to post all the fun we had before Christmas creating, wrapping and finally our special Christmas party.  

The kids love creating for their Moms and Dads and this year was no exception!

So here you go.....enjoy.

Here are the gifts the kids made for their parents:

 Simple snowflake decorations for the tree made using some paper straws from the Dollar Store.

 Snowglobes

I found these great plastic snowglobes also at the Dollar Tree.  We glued some cute little figurines in the bottom and filled it up with some fake snow and gold glitter.  We skipped the water part and they were just as fun to shake and make it snow.

Rudolph handprint keepsake.

Candle Centerpiece

A friend gave me a bag of corks and I thought of what we could do with them.

Well, I soaked them overnight, cut them in half and hot glued them onto an old CD.  The kids added all the details and greenery.  We added a battery candle light to the center and they were so pleased with them.

 Gift Tag

With the leftover corks, we made some cute gift tags for the front of our wrapped presents.  

They could be used as an ornament afterward.

 Our cute little Christmas cards.

Fireplace Ornament

These turned out so cute.

I glued the craft sticks together to form the fireplace base.  We then added the details.

 Felt Wreath

I picked up these felt wreaths.  I added the kids pictures in the center and we decorated them with pom-poms.  They were really cute!

 We painted and sparkled these cute wooden snowflakes I got at the Dollar Store.

This was what the presents looked like all wrapped and ready to go.

I make a large bag from paper and the kids decorated it.

See our cute cork tag on the front?

Christmas Party

We enjoyed such a fun party with some of our friends who came to join in the fun.

Here are some of the games and things we did.

 Pin the carrot nose on Frosty.

I picked this game up at the Second Hand Store.

 Christmas Bingo

I printed these cards off years ago from a free site.

 Jingle Bell Toss

Snowball Junk in the Trunk
The kids LOVE this game.  I decorated an empty tissue box, we filled it with cotton balls and the kids have to wiggle and shake all the 'snowballs' out of the box.

Christmas Shakers
A friend of mine gave me some metal cases so I added some pasta to the inside, we taped them up and decorated them to use as shakers.




We ate some fun foods too:

We made little Rudolphs.
Graham cracker, pretzel antlers, raisin eyes and a raspberry nose.

I made them some little snowman cheesestick to eat on the way home.


….and finally.....
The kids love seeing the mailman coming so we made him a special card.
I printed off a free colouring sheet and we made it into a card.

 (front)

(inside)

Thanks so much for taking a peek into our creative world.

Christmas Greetings

As the big day gets closer, we continue to work on some great holiday gifts and surprises.

The kids just love the idea of creating to give to their moms and dads.  Lots more of that coming after next week as we don't want to spoil the surprise for the parents.

So here's what we did this week.

The Stockings were hung.

I cut a simple stocking shape and the kids sewed it together.  We decorated them and hung them up.

I added their names at the top after the pic was taken.

Little Reindeer puppets were made from a piece of brown construction paper.

I added some twine and bells after.  They loved shaking their little puppets to hear the bells.

And....a big red pom pom for the nose!

Elf Windsock

Just a piece of rolled up paper decorated with elf features.

 We did a gingerbread day.

Above were made using a paper towel roll.  These are cute as they can sit on a shelf.

Puppets made with a kit I bought at the Dollar Store.

Gingerbread houses.

I searched for 'printable gingerbread houses' and found these easy ones.

I printed them onto some heavy white cardstock, the kids coloured them and we put them together for the tree.

Colouring of course.

Grinch Day

So every year we do a 'Grinch Day'.

This year is was on Friday.

So very fun!!

We all wore green and watched the Grinch movie.

We played 'Pin the Heart on the Grinch'.

I printed this off in parts and laminated it.

Grinch Puppet.

I cute a small paper plate into the Grinch's head shape and we added details.

Happy Grinchmas.  Simple wall hanging of the Grinch going down the chimney.

Food we ate:

Green Grinchy popcorn.

I tinted the butter with some green food colouring.

When we ate the popcorn, our tongues turned green!!  Boy, did we laugh.

Heart sandwiches for the Grinch's heart growing big.

Green cucumbers with a slice of banana and a strawberry snack held together with a pretzel stick,

(I have sugar free kids so this was a great alternative)

And lastly, this cute tree.  

Here's the link:

http://krokotak.com/2019/12/christmas-tree-3/

Christmas Fun

Who doesn't love a cute and easy little snowman.

Just fold a piece of white paper and add some features...super simple.

Ornament Suncatcher

I cut an ornament shape from black paper and then using some mactac, the kids added small squares of tissue paper.  They looked pretty with the sun shining through them.

Santa ornaments were made with a little kit I bought at the Dollar Store.

 Cone Santas are so easy to create 

Here is the link that I used to get started:

http://krokotak.com/2015/12/paper-santa-claus/

Since my kids are crazy about the 'FROZEN' movie, we made an Olaf gluing.

Here is the pattern:

https://www.thepurplepumpkinblog.co.uk/do-you-want-to-build-a-snowman-rudolf-olaf-edition/

What can you do with your leftover papers?  

I took a paper punch, punched out circles, folded them in half and glued them together to make an ornament.  I used 8 circles for each ornament and of course, the kids decorated them before I glued them together.

And lastly, some simple coloring.  Wow, we have moved from the 'scribble' stage to colouring in the lines.

Thanks so much for taking a look!

Let's Get Christmas Started

Hello and Welcome

My little ones are anxiously waiting to get started with Christmas so here we go.

So fun to see the excitement in their eyes.

Simple Christmas wreath using a paper plate.  

Simply glued green squares around edges and added the handprints and some pom-poms.

Santa Banner

Simple, fun Santa banner to hang.

Link for how-to's for Santa here:

http://krokotak.com/2019/11/santa-claus-3/

Santa Puppet

Here is the link to print and make the puppets.  We added some cotton as details.

https://teachables.scholastic.com/teachables/books/Santa-Paper-Bag-Puppet-Pattern-9780439503808_029.html

Stick Christmas Trees

Cut paper into tree shape, accordion fold and punch holes in center to thread stick through.

We glued on coloured circles to look like the lights.

Santa Advent Countdown Clock

This was very fun.  Not only do the kids get to visually see the numbers but they get to count down to the big day!  I printed out the pattern and glued it onto some cardboard for stability as I know it's going to get a lot of use.

Here is the pattern I used:

http://krokotak.com/2014/11/christmas-advent-calendar-santa/

That's it for this week but there will be lots more to come.

Enjoy and thanks so much for stopping by.