does anyone do a christmas eve hamper?stuck for ideas

[Dirtydishesmakemesad]

It has become a bit of a tradtion that my children get a little box/basket of things as an early present for christmas eve mainly to keep them occupied but also its so nice they have little christmas pjs and fluffy dressing gowns we have pics each year etc.

The ages this year will be
7 (dd)
5(ds)
2(dd)
and 1(dd)

I have pjs and dressing gown for each but i cant think of an acitivity that they can do wihtout TOO much adult help mainly because i tend to be quite busy christmas eve and the whole point of the activity is to keep them happy while dh and i run around :)

Cant be colouring as ds has trouble holding pencils well (he is improving with help but seeing his two year old sister do better make his little face fall).

thanks!

I can't imagine children of those ages occupying themselves for more than 5 or 10 minutes without adult help - not all at the same time and not without creating more mess than is worth it.

But maybe it's just my lack of creativity? Do you have any teenagers locally that you could ask to help out for a couple of hours and give them free reign with the remainder of Xmas paper/ stickers / glue and stuff? We have someone who would love to do that and I'd give her £7 or 8. She's 14 so I might not leave the house but just feel free to get on with stuff uninterrupted

DVD to watch? Big floor jigsaw? Brio type train track?

They normally do pretty well entertaining themselves (although im not saying its quiet or tidy!) Last year they had a making angels set and muppets christmas carol on dvd. Big jigsaw sounds like an option! with some other dvd afterwards.

You can get little sets that make a magic tree. You sit a cardboard tree in water and it grows colourful blossoms within about half an hour or so. I bet somewhere like Hawkin's would do them. Or a big bag of cotton wool balls and some big sheets of card to make snow pictures.

The Snowman DVD?

Oh and I agree that either you or dh would need to be with them - otherwise, how do you know that the 2 and 1 year olds wouldn't eat the glue etc? :)

have just remembered Fuzzy Felts - can you still buy them? That might amuse them for a little while.

bake cookies and let them decorate for santa? make/write santa a christmas card he can pick up with his milk and cookies?

We have a "Christmas Activities Box" that lives in the loft with the decorations and the Advent Calendar and only comes out on 1st Dec. It's got a bunch of Xmas books in it (including a couple of Usborne christmas craft ones, if you have a look on The Book People they usually have all sorts of activity books this time of year) and Xmas DVDs and basic festive craft stuff: all last year's cards, extra-thin paper for making snowflakes, star-shaped hole punches, that sort of thing. I think one year we drew round a Xmas cookie cutter onto last year's cards and then cut them out to make decorations, which went on a ribbon with paperclips so safe/easy. As long as the older ones keep the younger ones away from the sharp scissors that might be a runner? Or the older ones could cut up cards to make simple jigsaws for the younger ones?