Old-Fashioned Christmas Activities (based on Little House books)

Longtime readers of this blog might remember when I blogged about the summer craft clubs we do each year (read about them here or here).   They've been a very fun part of our summers the last few years and I love the friendships and artistic skills my kids have developed through their participation.  This year we decided that the summer just wasn't long enough for such fun things, so we opted to continue the group through the school year, meeting together one Friday night a month.  When I hosted this past week, I thought it would be fun to capitalize on the proximity to Christmas as well as my 7-year-old's fascination with the Little House books, so we made it a fun night of old-fashioned Christmas activities.  It was a blast and perfect for the age range of girls (7-9 years old).  They loved the quotes from the book that I read to accompany each activity.   I think that this activity would also be great for similarly aged boys (maybe without the Little House emphasis).   :) 


All quotes from this book:



Activity:  Making heart shaped cookies with sugar sprinkled on top


Prep:  Have the gingerbread dough made and refrigerated beforehand, so all that the children need to do is cut out their shapes and sprinkle them with sugar.  We made little tinfoil labels and tucked them underneath each cookie, so they could keep track of whose was whose. 

Quote:  (page 34) "And the stockings weren't empty yet!  Mary and Laura reached in and pulled out two small packages.  Inside each package was a little heart-shaped cake.  The tops of the little cakes were sprinkled with white sugar.  The sparkling grains looked like tiny drifts of snow."  


Activity:  Stitching together stockings 


Materials:  Embroidery floss, chenille needles (thick but still pointy enough to get through the felt), felt.

Prep:  Have the stockings cut out in advance, thread the needles and knot the threads (and maybe even make the first couple of stitches for them), so they can each get started sewing right away. 

Quote:  (Page 48)--this quote doesn't really talk about making their own stockings, but it does talk about hanging them up.  I figured that it was safe to assume that their stockings were most likely homemade.

"Aren't you girls going to hang your stockings?" Pa asked. 

"But I  thought Santa Claus was going to bring us horses," Laura said.

"Maybe he will," said Pa.   "But little girls always hang up their stockings on Christmas Eve, don't they?"  



Activity:  Apples studded with whole cloves

Materials:  plenty of whole cloves (found in the spice section) and apples (or oranges)--we actually used clementines when we did the activity, since they were on sale for a great price that week. 

Prep:  None

Quote:  (page 15) "Aunt Eliza had brought Ma a large red apple stuck full of cloves.  How good it smelled!"

Treat:  Peppermint sticks (I found them at Walmart and at the drugstore)

Quote:  (page 34) "They plunged their hands into the stockings again.  Out came two long sticks of candy.  It was peppermint candy, striped red and white.  They looked and looked at the beautiful candy.  Laura licked her stick, just one lick.  But Mary was not so greedy.  She didn't even take one lick."

Starting Your Own Kid's Craft Club

 Since a few of you seemed like you may be interested in starting your own kid's craft club, I decided to summarize (as much for me as for you) how to get one going.  We've done it as a summer activity, but you could definitely keep one going during the school year if there was interest.  You can do this with boys or girls and any age 4-11, as long as the crafts/activities were appropriately picked for the right age.     
 
  It does take some organizing and a bit of benevolent dictatorship to get moving with this, but  it's been so worth the effort to see the kids trying fun, creative ideas and developing friendships at the same time.  We made participation in the craft club free of charge, other than the supplies you provide when it's your turn to host. 

Here's how to get started:

1.  Make a general plan of how many kids you want to include and how often you want to meet.  (My suggestion is 6-8 children of similar age and meeting once a week).

2.  Invite people.  Tell them what your plan is and give them a deadline to respond.  This is also a good time to ask them what days/time will work out best for them.

3.  Based on who wants to participate and the days/time that they're available, pick an official day, time, and length.  (We ended up with Wednesday afternoons for 3 hours).    Please note that it may not be possible to accommodate everyone's preferences.  Go with the majority and if it doesn't work for someone, they'll either need to change their plans or they may not be able to participate. 

4.  Make a calendar of the dates (we had 8 participants, so I just calendared 8 Wednesdays in a row) and have people sign up for a day to host.  I did this by email and had everyone "Reply All", so that they could see which days were taken.  There was some trading around that happened later, but that was much easier to do once it was on the calendar initially. 

5.  Have people submit their craft ideas as soon as possible to be included on the calendar.  I did this so that 2 people did not plan the same craft unknowingly.  I think it also was inspirational to see other people's ideas.

6.  Be realistic.    Keep in mind the ages of the children when planning the crafts.   Younger children may have difficulty with some fine motor skills (like detailed cutting or tying knots). 

7.  Be flexible.  Be prepared for time fillers should the craft take less time than you'd expect.  ( I often planned a secondary craft while other moms would have them play outside).  Also expect that each child has a  different threshold for attention.  While it's fine to encourage a rushing child to slow down and take their time or remind a more detail oriented child that craft club is ending soon and they will need to wrap up, just don't criticize.  Kids are different and that's okay.  If two kids finish quickly and run off to play, it's okay.  Remember it's all about friendships and fun, which brings me to my next point. 

8.  Keep it lighthearted and have fun.  Remember that fun and developing friendships is what it's all about.    One of my crafts was really difficult for some of the girls, in particular my own daughter.  As her frustration level rose, I found myself starting to get a little irritated.  I had to remind myself why I was doing this in the first place and it helped me to be more patient with her and the others who were struggling.   

Coming soon a post filled with cheap, easy, fun craft ideas. 

Mary Poppins Convention?

No.  It's just the summer craft club.

 Every week a different mom hosts the club, providing a craft or two for the 8 participating girls.  This is one of the projects we did at our house.  They traced simple drawings on to these cute umbrellas I found at Oriental Trading Company and then they colored them in with sharpies. 

They had fun and took their time making their own one-of-a-kind umbrellas.

Here's a close -up of Cami's Pooh bear version.

And my favorite panel of all, done by one of the girls.  It cracked me up every time I looked at her umbrella.

The girls have also tie-dyed t-shirts, painted birdhouses, made truffles, made beautiful bracelets, made necklaces out of ribbons and washers, and hand painted silky butterflies, and still have four weeks to go.

In the meantime, Emma is developing new friendships and experiencing first-hand the sense of pride and accomplishment  from creating something beautiful.

It really is a beautiful thing.  

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