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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

Children's activities to do in the run up to the big day.

22 replies

seabuckthorn · 22/07/2012 21:00

I'm looking to plan some activities to do with my older DC-preschoolers in the run up before Christmas.
Baking but mainly crafty.
Google has a many idea but does anyone have any particular winners?

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SrirachaGirl · 22/07/2012 21:03

Bake gingerbread men people for the Christmas tree (an edible craft!) or go to a craft shop and get foam cut-outs for the kids to decorate.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 22/07/2012 22:21

Aaaaaah they are lovely at the pre-school age (mine are 10 and 12.6 so a different kettle of fish to entertain)

When mine were little:

a trip to see Santa (of course) but not one of those soul destroying shopping mall ones. We went to Deal Castle in Kent once and Burnham on Crouch Santa Steam Train. And one IIRC Auldersley End Steam Train.

Feeding reindeer or geese (mine loved a walk round the lake with a bag of brown bread) Especially if there's icy puddles Grin

Local switch on of the lights , but these are really early, usually November.

Bundle them up warm (put PJ under their clothes) then go out to look at the neighbours trees and lights in the dark.

Baking- gingerbread men, vanilla cookie stars (you can layer up the stars to make a 'tree' stacked large to small)
Gingerbread houses look lovely but expensive and time consuming.

I'm going to poach an idea from the John Lewis website and make a chocolate crispy wreath ( a ring of chocolate cornflake on silicone paper, decorated with icing holly leaves, berries and Smarties)

And of course your Christmas Eve Hamper for after a Christmas Eve walk.
I put jars with candles outside to 'guide' the reindeer.
DD leaves a tray for Father Christmas.
If you can get to Ikea, they do little tea-sets for children.Well worth looking. Or those Paint Your Own Teasets .

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 22/07/2012 22:22

And if we get snow (unlike last year, tsk tsk) it's more magical Wink

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 22/07/2012 23:03

Another couple of nice things for little DC that don't cost much (and I still do Blush )

We bought Christmas fleeces 8 years ago (Lakeland Limited) and they still appear every year. 2 on DC beds, one on the sofa.

Plug in timer for our old fibre-optic tree. When the tree lights up, they can get up. (We put in in the hall, they can see the lights from the bedroom).
DS sleeps in DD room on Christmas Eve, they can open their stockings when they wake up. But 2 years ago I heard DS on the stairs running back to tell DD "He's been". (He doesn't believe in Father Christmas now, he 'plays along' )

Which lead us to - last year DH and I put wrapping paper over the living room doorway for them to burst through. Grin. Idea stolen from MN.

seabuckthorn · 23/07/2012 10:02

Wow 70 great ideas thank you! Loving the Xmas fleece, my boys are snuggly creatures at heart.
Totally forgot we could go and see the neighbours lights and I seem to remember our village has its own 'lights on ceremony'.
Baking is always a hit in our house and I could cheat considerably using ready made gingerbread dough- will have a newborn remember!
I'll get some Xmas sticker books etc too.
Have a couple of Christmas DVD's- the snowman, father Christmas etc.
I best write a list!
This sunshine is seriously off putting, I'm thinking carols and hot chocolate not sun cream and ice lollies!

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seabuckthorn · 23/07/2012 10:04

I really want to wrapping paper the door! Not sure if it would freak my 2:6 year old out.
May hang balloons upside down instead over the door but balloons are distracting at that age!

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seabuckthorn · 23/07/2012 10:07

Ooh snow! I want snow we haven't got to try to our sledge out yet! I could totally handle sledging 4 weeks after giving birth Grin Maybe I should add that to the birth plan 'must be sledge ready 2-3 weeks after the birth incase of snow'.

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milk · 23/07/2012 12:58

Gingerbread men/women Grin

Tesco makes "Tesco Easy Home Bake Gingerbread Dough 500G" if you are busy with other Christmas stuff :)

img.tesco.com/Groceries/pi/242%5C5052526036242%5CIDShot_225x225.jpg

yousankmybattleship · 23/07/2012 13:05

We always make pomanders (is that what they're called?) the oranges with cloves stuck in them. They smell gorgeous and are really easy to make. Go on Christmas tree spotting walks, paint fir cones.

(By the way the Tesco ready made gingerbread taste like floor tiles)

moonblushtomato · 23/07/2012 20:45

Other ideas I've used with my LOs.....

Sorting out all their old toys and taking to the charity shop together to get an idea of giving at Christmas as well as receiving. (They get so much the little tykes!!)

Doing a Christmas craft project e.g. making tree decs, cards etc. Really cheap packs can be bought from The Range, Poundland etc.

Writing a letter to the Big Man and then making a whole morning of going to post the letter followed by a trip to local cafe for hot chocolate and cake (om nom nom)

In November the whole family makes a Christmas cake and everyone gets a stir of the mixture and makes a wish (the emphasis being on wishing something for somebody else - God I'm hard!!) This to me always heralds the start of the season and, although no bugger ever eats any of the damn cake, I wouldn't be without it!!

Not long now......Hmm

seabuckthorn · 24/07/2012 08:30

Love the idea of making a whole morning out of posting the letter to Father Christmas! You did mention cake yes? Grin
I'll definitely make some of those oranges... I'll google, are they just normal oranges studded with cloves?
I'm getting quite a list now- brilliant.
Also I have sorted DP's presents so just 3/4 more people to do!

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seabuckthorn · 24/07/2012 08:48

Christmas cake is a big part of our build up too! Though my eldest always needs to "test" the mixture!

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TheHairyBaker · 24/07/2012 15:37

I attempted to do one simple festive activity a day with my two year old last year from December 1st onwards. A bad bout of sinusitus meant we didn't achieve it but the build up was really magical.

Here are some of the things we did do

Attended the switching on of the lights
Made paper chains for his room
Made a large cardboard Xmas tree with glitter baubles for his bedroom wall
Baked Xmas tree ginger biscuits
Chose the tree from a beautiful local wood (which were selling them)
Made Rudolph out of a paper plate and card. Glitter red nose and sparkly antlers.
Visited a Christmas market
Attended a nativity
Made snowman Christmas cards
Watched The Snowman

Lots of things were really simple but this prevented me from getting too stressed. I also was really organised and did most of my Christmas chores (card writing, present buying, food ordering in November) so I could really enjoy December.

I think I may start my list of fun things to do this December now.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 24/07/2012 15:49

When my DD was 6 months old and my DS was just 3 yo we escaped to Lakeside one afternoon, just him and me.

He went to see Father Christmas (queues were short).
He chose a decoration.
We bought a little Teddy Bear and a red box to wrap it in for DD (from DS).

He has the photo, he says he can remember the day, but that might be just us talking about it [aaahh]

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 24/07/2012 15:54

seabuck are you near any of the big stores that have a Grotto? Like Harrods, Selfridges.

You need to pre-book, but AFAIK you have a time-slot so there's not hours of waiting (unlike the shopping centre ones)

You could go before school breaks up, not so busy. Then maybe hot chocolate and a Christmas biscuit.?

We do a pre-Christmas Hamley's shop (mainly for a look, DD will buy Sylvanian Family. DS tends to pocket his cash (little blighter) if he doesn't see anything he likes) Grin

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 26/07/2012 20:55

One year I did a Teddy Bear on Every Step (I stole the idea from a feature about hotels in Good Housekeeping Magazine)

We bought little teddy bears in Nov/Dec (M&S ,Ikea and the Museam of Childhood in Bethnal Green had little bears about £2-3 each. The M.o.C. ones were dark green or red )

On Christmas Eve I put them on the stairs each with a tiny gift -cholocate coin, Quality Street.
They had fun collecting them, then the bears went into the toybox after.

fuzzpig · 29/07/2012 14:59

Shamelessly marking place! I am crap at craft but really want to create some memories with my two :)

Bunbaker · 29/07/2012 15:02

Why are we discussing Christmas in July?

insancerre · 29/07/2012 15:03

Make reindeer food to put out on Christmas eve. Just mix porridge oats with glitter and sprinkle on the grass (snow? Grin) or the path. Looks all sparkly and exciting.

HollyBollyBooBoo · 29/07/2012 18:21

Because we want to Bunbaker feel free not to join in, or hide the thread or entire Christmas section for that matter.

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 29/07/2012 18:50

Last year we made Reindeer Food (for the first and last time)

Porridge oats, some sugar shaken up with a few drops of food colour- ours was lilac, and some little gold glitter edible stars from Lakeland ,that I had. (We did edible in case birds or foxes ate it)

It was put in the DC Christmas Eve hamper in a cardboard treat box.

It would have looked lovely sprinkled on snow, but we had none. My DS dumped his in a lump on the lawn. (little git just doesn't get it sometimes)
Where it sat like a mound of vomit Grin until it decomposed I cleared it up.

BiddyPop · 20/08/2012 13:25

I'll post my answers first, and then read the thread to steal a few new ideas for DD this year!! Grin

I read a Christmas story at bedtime every night in December. I now have a stack of different Christmas books - mostly bought on sale after Christmas and stored away!! (Nowadays, as DD is 6 and wants long stories, we have a Christmas story and then a chapter or 2 of Famous 5 or whatever the current book is). I ALWAYS, since DD's 1st Christmas (born 26th Dec), have kept "Twas the night before Christmas" as the Christmas Eve book. It might get read again between Xmas and 6th Jan (it gets stored in the Christmas decorations box - the other books are stored seperately as they are needed earlier) - but never before 24th Dec.

Every year, DD makes paper chains. When she was younger, she helped hand me the tape and hold paper together. Now she goes off and makes them herself. I just give her a box of strips I have cut from coloured papers, and a roll of sellotape.

Potato stamping, for fun or for cards for relatives. Hand and foot prints for cards, t-shirts, pictures for walls or in frames - all for adoring relatives and an afternoon of fun messing!! Or do it onto large sheets of paper to use as totally original wrapping paper.

Baking things like cookies. DD loves baking - in her first Christmas, she just mixed the eggs (whisk with a fork before adding to the mix) and pelted flour with a wooden spoon. Oh, and rolled out a piece of (spare) cookie dough and cut out shapes herself (which were baked seperately and carefully not mixed in with the "real" cookies - but DH and I lovingly sampled them all with her!! :) ). In the past 2 months or so though, she has taken over entire batches where all I did was measure ingredients for her and she has made cookies and a couple of chocolate cakes all by herself.

Making things like Christmas trees, snowmen, snowflakes and angels by tearing folded up newpapers, to hang in a chain on the windows.

Lots of printable pictures from so many websites for colouring in. They go from very simple shapes and pictures, to very intricate. And there are some lovely ones that are not just pictures but add a touch of homeschooling or activity - like counting, letters, numbers, sounds, .....but all fun. Northpole.com was a great one (until it got blocked at work) - lovely activity sheets and colouring sheets, and even some great printable stories.

Making your own pictures. Cover a whole page in crayon - differnt colours at random. Paint over it all in black paint, and then scrape away an outline picture (Mammy part!!) with a knife/scissor edge - comes up in lovely mixed colours!

Gather pinecones on a walk and paint them as tree decorations. Cover in glitter for extra fun!!

Watching Christmas movies in front of a warm fire in the afternoons - could be a great saviour with a newborn. Maybe with some marshmallows and "reindeer poop" (chocolate covered raisins) to nibble on?

Writing a letter to Santa and posting it or sending it up the chimney. Did you know that Santa LOVES getting pictures too for his office from all the boys and girls??!!

Going to see Santa somewhere. We go on the "Santa Train" (an old steam train excursion) every 2nd year, and somewhere new on alternate years - I am thinking about a country house where they have a Narnia land set up in the grounds this year. I try to avoid shopping centre versions.

Going to buy the tree as a family - if you get a real one.

A shopping outing for the kids to get their presents. Could be a chance for DH to bond with newborn while you have even an hour with older ones.

Hot chocolate stops when shopping (with regulation marshmallows on top). Actually DD is not a hot choc fan, she just wants steamed milk always, even still - but always wants loads of marshmallows.

A charity day - going through old toys to give to a charity shop or somewhere suitable for kids who don't have as much as you. Can be a chance to get rid of too small clothes too. Or, if that isn't feasible in your house, just thinking about other kids who don't have a lot and doing a shoebox for one of those appeals, or taking a tag from a "giving tree" and getting a present for that person.

Put on some Christmas music and dance around the kitchen/living room!!

If dry weather, go out and blow bubbles. If damp weather, go out in wellies and jump in puddles, and feed the ducks. If wet weather, have a carpet picnic indoors.

One evening, go out to look at any lights after dark - either a walk or in the car all snuggled up.

Track Santa on Norad website on Christmas Eve (great way to get kisd moving towards bedtime!!). There's also an app on ipod for how many days til Christmas - DH has that and brings it out occasionally during the year, but then most days in late Nov/Dec!! (And then tries to tell me he doesn't love Christmas!!)

My brain is now a bit mush and I can't find my list that I have safely stored in my pc, sorry. Hope they're some help!!

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