Merry Christmas

Hey everyone!

The baby should be coming sometime today!

In the mean time I wanted to share a Christmas quote with you.

Peace is not the absence of troubles,

But the presence of Christ.

The Christmases I remember best, the Christmases which touched my heart the most, are Christmases filled with love and giving and the Spirit of the Savior. . . . Bringing the Christmas spirit into our hearts and homes takes conscious effort and planning but can surely be accomplished."

-Thomas S. Monson Christmas Devotional 2012

I was looking for a heartwarming quote to share with friends,

and I couldn't quite find what I wanted,

So I made my own.

You can download it here for free.

Here are some fun Christmas Ideas:

We Three Kings:

Where we had fun making kings crowns and gifts for the baby Jesus.

 

Oh Christmas Tree

Where we made a felt Christmas Tree,

and Christmas Tree snacks

Shepherds and Candy Canes

Where we made candy cane scented play dough.

Santa Day

Where we made all things Santa

Reindeer Day

Where we did a few reindeer crafts.

Merry Christmas!!

We Three Kings

Today we learned about the "Three Kings"

or the Wise men

We started out by reading A Star So Bright: A Christmas Tale

By M. Christina Butler

This is such a sweet book!

There is a cut out star on each page,

and the animals look at the new star,

and go and find the baby Jesus.

Who is under a lit up twinkling star on the last page.

My babies LOVED it!

We talked about the wise men,

and how they searched for the baby Jesus.

We made king's crowns out of card board and tinsel,

and decorated them with dot markers.

(Or the Bingo Markers we found at the Dollar Store.)

We made up gifts of Gold (more tinsel),

Frankincense (Essential Oils)

Myrrh (Perfume)

We "wrapped" them in tin boxes, and put bows

with magnets on them.

We made stars,

with markers and glitter.

Then we hung up our star, and put our baby Jesus

right under it,

And brought our gifts to the baby.

Then they played pretend as Kings,

or mommies

Merry Christmas!

Oh Christmas Tree

...how lovely are thy branches.

Don't you just love the Charlie Brown Christmas Tree message?

We first read Tale of the Three Trees

By Angela Elwell Hunt

Which tells about what three trees want to become,

one a treasure chest, one a boat fit for kings, and the last wants to grow tall and point to heaven.

They all three get cut down and the first becomes the baby Jesus' manger, the second the boat Christ calmed the sea in, and the last the cross of Jesus.

It's a beautiful story perfect for Christmastime.

Next we decorated our felt Christmas tree,

Check out this felt Christmas Tree,
Made with fancy ornaments!

It was funky and fun.

It would be awesome to decorate the ornaments,

and write Christmasy things on the back of each ornament

(like random acts of kindness to do at Christmas time, or scriptures telling about Christ's birth.)

We also made a tree craft.

I have wanted M. to practice her cutting skills,

So I had her cut out some tissue paper from the dollar store.

We cut out a girl ice skater,

Glued on a magnet, and put it on some aluminum foil.

(Not that it stuck super well, but it made it glide better.)

Then as my little artist always does,

She added some flair.

For our snack we made Christmas Trees out of Cheerios Rice Crispy Treats adding green food coloring with the melted marshmallows.

I found this was a little tricky.

I finally figured out what worked.

I used a funnel when it cooled slightly,

I sprayed it with Pam put the rice crispy mix inside,

put it on a plate, molded it a little more,

and let it set in the freezer.

The kids LOVED this snack,

they spent over 15 minutes putting on the candies.

It was a hit!

Shepherds and Candy Canes

We had a fun & festive day!

In preparation for candy cane and shepherd day, 

Last night I made candy cane play dough.

To keep baby H occupied I got out a little bowl full of flour,

and some measuring cups and let him go to town!

M. also had a great time playing and pretend cooking.

She could have done that for hours!

The Recipe for Candy Cane Play dough found here

And the trick is to mix it on the stove until it looks like play dough:

Then you take it off the stove and knead it.

I made play dough a couple of years ago for valentines day activities,

and I didn't let it get solid enough on the stove,

and it turned into a gooey nightmare!

So once we had our sweet peppermint smelling candy cane play dough,

We rolled it out into "snakes" and twisted it around its self to make a candy cane shape.

Three year old hands needed help to get it just right!

Then we painted the letter C like a candy cane.
We used tape and peppermint scented tape.

We put on the tape, painted the C traced on the paper,
and blotted it try, and pulled off the tape.

It sure smelled good!

Then we read The Legend of the Candy Cane
By Lori Walburg

This "sweet" little story was about a man who mysteriously opened a candy shop in town, and a little girl helps him unpack all of the candy.  She finds a candy cane and asks what it is and he tells her all of the symbolism behind it.  My little girl loved it!

Then we made mangers with shepherds out of gram crackers,
and other yummy candies!

It was super fun to make a manger scene instead of a gingerbread house.  The children connected way more with it, and had their own ideas of where the angels should be, and where the shepherds should be standing.

To prep I put frosting to make their stables,
but in hind-sight, I wish I would have just glued it with a glue gun.
(no one ever eats the walls any ways.)

I had royal frosting in snack bags for them to use.
(The mess free method.)

I gave them some ideas and then let them jump into decorating.


It was a fun happy and meaningful mess!

Santa Day

Today we celebrated Santa Day!

(Which is really a culmination of all things Santa.)

We started out with pancake Santas.

Miss Sassy does not like whipped cream (I don't get it)

So I used mashmellows instead.

And for Baby Hansome we used whipped cream,

strawberries, and chocolate chips.

It turns out he doesn't like whipped cream either.

We made a Christmas count down as well.

We did it clear back on Dec. 1st.

Man this month flew by!

You can find this printable here.

We glued 25 cotton balls on our Santa, and ripped one off every day. 

 Some people glue one on every day, but I could never commit to that...

Here are our picks from seeing Santa.

Yay! Baby H. didn't cry!

 So sweet...

She is telling Santa that she wants a Rapunzel dress, and a Rapunzel doll, and shoes, and crown.

Santa was so nice that she just kept on going and going while she had the chance.

We also made up on the house top Santas

I used a tissue box cut in half,
with a hole cut on top for the chimminey


I found a picture of Santa from google and printed it out.
Then she colored it while I hot glued the chimminey together.

We cut out the Santa and put him on a Popsicle stick.

Then we decorated the house with shape stickers.
While listening to up on the house top.


So here is my take on Santa,
We give our children imaginary creatures to give them sweetness to life. There are also tons of great literacy tools that go with Santa as well.  (Rhyming, books, poems)

But there are also great ways to tie Santa to Christ.

 

This book is my favorite.

It has very simple print and it says things like,

Santa wears red, Jesus wears red

With beautiful pictures of Christ in red.

I also love the poem "Teach them the True Meaning of Christmas."

Here is the abbreviated version:

And Santa whispered, "Teach the children the true meaning of Christmas." 

He pulls each item out of his sack...

The Star: A heavenly sign of prophecy fulfilled long, long, ages ago..The shining hope of mankind.

Red: The first color of Christ symbolizing the Savior's sacrifice for all.

Fir Tree: Evergreen--The second color of Christmas shows everlasting life. The needles point heavenward.

The Bell: Rings our to guide lost sheep back to the fold--signifying that all are precious in the eyes of the Lord.

The Candle: A mirror of starlight reflecting our thanks for the Star of Bethlehem.

Gift Bow: Tied as we should be tied together in bonds of goodwill forever.

Candy Cane: The shepherds crook used to bring lambs back into the fold.--A reminder that we are all our brothers keeper.

The Wreath: A symbol of the never ending eternal nature of love..having no beginning and no end.

I put all of the items in a Santa like sack and tell them what each symbolizes. It is very visual and perfect for kids.

But, wouldn't it be awesome if you had a family party with Santa and before he had children sit on his lap, he did a "true meaning of Christmas," monologue.  

One day... 

Reindeer Day!

I thought it would be fun to have themed days.

There are so many great ideas out there,

that a whole day full would be a fun way to get ready for Christmas.

I decided to focus on a couple of fun ( more commercial) ideas first,

and the more Christ centered second.

Day One: Reindeer Day

Day Two: Santa Day

Day Three: Oh Christmas Tree

Day Four: Shepherds and Candy Canes

Dav Five: Angels

Day Six: Wise Men and Kings

Day Seven: Stars and Lights

Day Eight: The baby Jesus

Day Nine: Stories of Jesus

Day Ten: Our Savior

This way we can have fun with Christmas,

but still keep it Christ-centered.

On our Reindeer day,

I made Reindeer crepes.

Using dried apples, whipped cream, raisins, a cinnamon roll, and a piece of candy torn off her gingerbread house.

I dressed her and her brother up in their reindeer shirts.

They both had them, and they were both green!

Later in the day,

We read Rudolf The Red Nosed Reindeer

 

Then we did our Reindeer Craft

using pom poms in paint,

and spaghetti noodles.

This is her cousin,
When I pulled out the spaghetti noodles and glue,
they were so excited and started making designs,
even before they knew what we were up to.
(I need to remember that for a rainy day!)

This is how their pictures turned out:

It was much easier for them when I put the glue down,
and they broke the spaghetti noodles.
Didn't they turn out cute!
(Notice the "girl" reindeer has a brown dress!)

I always let Miss Sassy explore after our craft.
It gives her new ideas and supplies to use.
(And it gives me a chance to clean up! Or bake a cake.)

She cutout the deer on the card and glued a million eyes on it.

We also made reindeer hats
with their brown hand prints, and a word strip.

I should have painted their noses red,
but we had a family party attend afterwards...

They had a ton of fun!

Jumpin' for joy!