Christmas Archives – Page 5 of 6 – The Pinterested Parent

Popsicle Stick Gingerbread House Ornaments

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As you know, we are staying with my husband’s aunt as we await the completion of our home. There is a sweet 2-year-old that lives with her & my daughter & her have become two peas in a pod. My daughter has been taking on a big sister role. She has been trying to teach and at times gets a little bossy, but it is adorable to watch. They spend a lot of time drawing and reading together & I spend a lot of time doing both with them as well. Every time they draw together my little one always asks her friend “What are you drawing?” The answer is usually the same “a house”. She loves to draw houses.

Houses are fun & easy to make and with the holiday season approaching, when I think houses, I think gingerbread.

The idea was that I wanted the girls to make gingerbread house ornaments out of Popsicle sticks. My first design I liked, but it was more time-consuming than what I had wanted for a simple craft & I did not want to repeat it several times.

I made these simpler houses instead.

I asked the girls what color they wanted their houses.

I cut squares out of construction paper in the color of their choice & glued Popsicle sticks around them like shown.

I cut out a triangle for a roof & lined the sides with sticks as well.

I glued the square over the triangle as shown.

I glued a loop of yarn around the back of each for hanging. When all the glue was dry. I gave both children their houses & let them decorate. They used buttons & markers.

They both made lovely ornaments.

My daughter wanted to hang hers right away. We do have a tree yet, but we hung it on the door knob for her.

Thank you as always for stopping by. Please follow us on Facebook as well.

Wed
04 ^th

Snowflake Crafts For Kids

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Hand Print Snowflake Craft - Winter & Christmas kid's crafts.

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A funny thing happened the other day. A group of my friends were talking about the winter & things to do with our kids. We began talking about cutting paper snowflakes. I had said that it had been so long since I had last made one that I was not quite sure if I even remembered how to. This conversation sparked us to all attempt to make snowflakes with some funny results. We were all out of practice & went through sheet after sheet of paper until we finally figured it out. This crafting adventure with the grown ups led to a couple of fun snowflake crafts at home.

Wed
28 ^th

Gingerbread Men Crafts

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“Run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me. I’m the Gingerbread Man.”

I know it is early & we have not even had Halloween yet, but always around this time of year my mind starts wandering to gingerbread. Why, you might ask? Because every year, I start getting ready to construct my annual holiday gingerbread house. Since it is usually a time consuming project, I typically start in the beginning of November.

Here is a gingerbread version of our old house from a few Christmases ago.

This year has been hectic with moving out of our house & waiting for the construction on our new home to finish. With all of this going on, a gingerbread house is not in the cards, but that can’t stop us from making some gingerbread crafts.

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We are staying with relatives during our construction. We just so happen to be sharing a roof with a little girl, a little younger than Mai, who also enjoys crafts as much as we do. Last night the three of us worked on a couple simple crafts together.

Build a gingerbread man

This was a quick & easy craft for both children. The skill level will be different depending on age. I did this craft with a 2 & 3 year old.

What you will need:

Construction paper (brown & white)

Googly eyes

Buttons

Pom poms

Glue sticks or school glue

Magic marker

Draw & cut out a few gingerbread man shapes.

Cut wavy lines out of white construction paper for the icing for the arms & legs. Put those, googly eyes, buttons & pom poms on a plate to be used for decoration.

Give your child or children some glue & let them go…

Here was Mai’s original craft. She then decided that she wanted to draw in a tutu, ballet shoes and some hair as well.

Our other tiny crafter did a great job on hers as well.

And of course, mommy did one as well. I stole the rosy cheek idea from my daughter.

They both did great on their crafts, but before we picked up we squeezed in one more.

Footprint Gingerbread Men

I painted both children’s cute little tootsies in brown paint & pressed them onto a piece of paper one at a time.

I dipped a finger into the same paint & formed the arms on either side of each foot. With white paint, I added the icing to the arms & across the bottom of the feet.

We finished them off by drawing in the face, bow & buttons using magic marker. This will make a lovely holiday keepsake & a great memory for the kids of this time that they are sharing together.

Thank you as always for stopping by. Please follow us on Facebook as well.

Mon
15 ^th

Easy DIY Personalized Ornament

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This weekend was filled with Christmas parties & breakfasts with Santa. We were on the move all weekend long trying to make sure that the big guy knew that Mai really wanted that train set for Christmas.

The parties had a ton of great activities and projects for the kids to do and as we all know my daughter loves her projects. There was a cookie making station that Mai took full advantage of. They had assorted sugar & gingerbread cookies for decorating along with colored icing and assorted candies & sugars.

There was also a watercolor station, a sticker station & an ornament making one. The crafts just kept coming. My artsy little girl was in her glory. She brought home several cookies, a few new crafts & a new dolly from Santa. The ornament making reminded me that I had bought a couple of cheap clear plastic Christmas balls at the beginning of the season. I had completely forgotten about them. We kept our craft momentum going when we got home with our quick & easy personalized ornament.

What you will need:

Clear plastic Christmas bulb ornament

A black sharpie

Kid’s paint (We use Crayola’s water based non-toxic paint)

Directions:

With a sharpie draw on the name of the person you are making the ornament for. We made two, one for Mai & one for her Nana.

After you write in the name, draw random lines & closed shapes all over the whole rest of the ornament.

Paint each shape in a different color. Mai chose to just mix her colors for her ornament for her Nana because “Nana likes a rainbow.”

Let the paint dry & hang your ornaments on your tree & admire. I touched up the Sharpie lines on Mai’s Nana ornament after it dried.

Sat
13 ^th

The 12 Days Of Christmas (The Toddler Edition)

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On the first day of Christmas my toddler gave to me…
A diaper full of poop & pee.

On the second day of Christmas my toddler gave to me…
Two mismatched gloves &
A diaper full of poop & pee.

On the third day of Christmas my toddler gave to me…
Three glitter pens
Two mismatched gloves &
A diaper full of poop & pee.

On the fourth day of Christmas my toddler gave to me…
Four fresh picked boogers
Three glitter pens
Two mismatched gloves &
A diaper full of poop & pee.

On the fifth day of Christmas my toddler gave to me…
Fiiiivvve hours of ‘Frozen’
Four fresh picked boogers
Three glitter pens
Two mismatched gloves &
A diaper full of poop & pee.

On the sixth day of Christmas my toddler gave to me…
Six tantrums while playing
Fiiiivvve hours of ‘Frozen’
Four fresh picked boogers
Three glitter pens
Two mismatched gloves &
A diaper full of poop & pee.

On the seventh day of Christmas my toddler gave to me…
Seven jokes on farting
Six tantrums while playing
Fiiiivvve hours of ‘Frozen’
Four fresh picked boogers
Three glitter pens
Two mismatched gloves &
A diaper full of poop & pee.

On the eighth day of Christmas my toddler gave to me…
Eight milks a spilling
Seven jokes on farting
Six tantrums while playing
Fiiiivvve hours of ‘Frozen’
Four fresh picked boogers
Three glitter pens
Two mismatched gloves &
A diaper full of poop & pee.

On the ninth day of Christmas my toddler gave to me…
Nine million questions
Eight milks a spilling
Seven jokes on farting
Six tantrums while playing
Fiiiivvve hours of ‘Frozen’
Four fresh picked boogers
Three glitter pens
Two mismatched gloves &
A diaper full of poop & pee.

On the tenth day of Christmas my toddler gave to me…
Ten excuses for not sleeping
Nine million questions
Eight milks a spilling
Seven jokes on farting
Six tantrums while playing
Fiiiivvve hours of ‘Frozen’
Four fresh picked boogers
Three glitter pens
Two mismatched gloves &
A diaper full of poop & pee.

On the eleventh day of Christmas my toddler gave to me…
Eleven boo boos bleeding
Ten excuses for not sleeping
Nine million questions
Eight milks a spilling
Seven jokes on farting
Six tantrums while playing
Fiiiivvve hours of ‘Frozen’
Four fresh picked boogers
Three glitter pens
Two mismatched gloves &
A diaper full of poop & pee.

On the twelfth day of Christmas my toddler gave to me…
Twelve “I’m not hungry”s
Eleven boo boos bleeding
Ten excuses for not sleeping
Nine million questions
Eight milks a spilling
Seven jokes on farting
Six tantrums while playing
Fiiiivvve hours of ‘Frozen’
Four fresh picked boogers
Three glitter pens
Two mismatched gloves &
A diiiiiiaaaaaaper full of poop & pee.

Tue
09 ^th

An Old ELf, A New Elf & A Crafty Elf

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For somebody that was as eager for the holiday season to begin as I was, I was a little behind in putting up our Christmas decorations. It had been a busy few weeks, but we finally found an evening to put up our Christmas tree.

The first year that my husband & I started dating we purchased our first Christmas tree as a couple. We put it up in my apartment. We spiked some eggnog, put in the movie Elf and decorated the tree together. Eight Christmases later & we are still doing the same thing. Now we just have an extra set of hands & there is one smaller glass of eggnog minus the rum added into the mix.

We let Mai do most of the decorating this year with a few boosts from mommy & daddy. She did a lovely job.

We also added a new elf tradition to our holidays. Last year my sister bought Mai an Elf on the shelf for Christmas. Tonight I read her the elf’s story. She listened, intrigued by his tale, nodding in between sentences as to say that she understood. She named her Elf “Koontz”. She whispered to him that she would like a train set. Forgive me if the next few weeks are filled with pictures of our sneaky little visitor.

In the midst of all of our new & old traditions, Mai asked me if we could make a project. She loves working on projects. Since we were surrounding ourselves with elves, I figured why not one more.

Paper Plate Elf Mask

What you will need:

Paper Plate

Paint

Foam sheets or construction paper

Cotton balls

Glue

Pipe cleaners

Pencil

Directions:

Draw eyes on the back of your paper plate & cut them out.

Paint your plate in flesh tone. Let dry.

Paint on two pink circles for cheeks.

Paint a mouth and nose.

Cut out shapes for the hat, ears and collar. You may use construction paper. I always opt for foam sheets though as they do not rip or wrinkle. Glue into place.

Bend 4 pipe cleaners into curls as shown.

Glue the curls to the edge of the hat. Draw on eyelashes & eyebrows with a marker or paint.

Glue two pipe cleaners to the back of the mask. Use the pipe cleaners to secure the mask to your head.

Glue cotton balls to the rim of the hat & to the end of it to form the fur.

Wed
03 ^rd

My Favorite Christmas Songs

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Tonight I was on hold with the warranty company for my camera. Being the clutz that I am I dropped it & broke the flash. The hold time was lengthy. I might have been annoyed, but my wait seemed easier as I listened to the beautiful sounds of the Christmas carols that were playing. One of my favorite songs played. I found myself hoping that they would not come back right away because I wanted to finish listening to the lovely tune. As the representative processed my request I started compiling a list of my favorite Christmas songs.

All Time Favorites

1. Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas

2. Walking In A Winter Wonderland

3. I’ll Be Home For Christmas

4. Please Come Home For Christmas

5. Chestnuts Roasting on An Open Fire

Favorite Christmas Originals

1. Rocking Around The Christmas Tree by Brenda Lee

2. Merry Christmas Darling by The Carpenters

3. All I Want For Christmas Is You by Mariah Carey

4. Happy X-mas – (War is Over) by John Lennon

5. Wonderful Christmastime by Paul McCartney

Favorite Children’s

1. The Chipmunk Christmas Song

2. Up On The Housetop

3. Frosty The Snowman

4. Rudolph The Red Nose Reindeer

5. The Charlie Brown Christmas Song

Favorite Religious Christmas Songs

1. The Little Drummer Boy

2. Oh Holy Night

3. Do You Hear What I Hear

4. Silent Night

5. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing

Favorite Silly Christmas Songs

1. Dominick The Donkey

2. I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Clause

3. Grandma Got Run Over By A Reindeer

4. Walking Around In Women’s Underwear

5. All I Want For Christmas Is My Two Front Teeth

Disclaimer* These are my favorite songs. I am not claiming that these are the best, they are simply the ones that I like best. Please feel free to share your favorites. I would love to hear from you.

Sun
30 ^th

Dixie Cup Angels

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We had our first big snowfall of the year. I thought Mai would be overjoyed when she woke up & saw the ground covered in powdery white. She was, but when I tried to get her in her snow suit to go outside, the protests did not stop. She put on her furry boots & headed for the front door in her diaper. Of course, this was not going to happen. We did not make it out of the house that day. She refused to wear her snowsuit because she insisted that it was plastic. Where does she come up with this stuff?

The next day however, Nana got her to finally don her snowsuit & brave it out into the snow. My little angel made her first snow angel. I love angels. I believe in them. Tonight my little snow angel & I made our own.

Dixie Cup Angels

What you will need:

Dixie cups (3oz) – 2 cups for each angel -white works best (I couldn’t find any so we painted ours)

White acrylic Paint

White cupcake liner

Elmer’s Glue

White foam sheet or construction paper

White pipe cleaner

White yarn

Toothpick

Directions:

Poke a hole in the top of a Dixie cup with a toothpick. Use this as the top cup.

Paint 2 Dixie cups in white paint & let dry. Like I said white cups would work best, but I could not find the 30z cups in plain white.

Once dry, line the edge of a cupcake liner with glue.

Glue the liner over one cup right side up.

Line the rim of the second cup with glue.

Press the cup upside down over the first cup & cupcake liner.

Draw & cut out a set of angel wings. We like to use foam because it doesn’t rip or wrinkle, but you can use paper too.

Glue the wings to the cups as shown. Lay your project down to put weight on the wings. Let dry.

Loop 6″ long yarn strands around 10 times. Glue to the top of the upside cup.

Draw on your face & loop a pipe cleaner to form a halo & insert into the hole on the top cup.

Wed
26 ^th

Christmas Pasta Crafts

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My love for pasta crafts needs no intro. If you follow me regularly, you already know about my many boxes of pasta set aside just for projects such as these. This weekend we spent 2 days making crafts out of a variety of pasta for the latest article that we were doing in this month’s SEEK. I have to admit, we got a bit carried away. I could not stop once we started.

For these crafts you will need assorted pasta, Elmer’s school glue or a glue gun (for adult use only), paint, glitter & some ribbon

Pasta wreath

Pasta needed:

Bow ties

Place your pasta on wax paper & glue bow ties in a circle as seen below. Let dry. Paint the wreath in green & paint 3 more bow ties in red. Let dry & then glue the red bows to the wreath. Attach a bow, string or pipe cleaner around the wreath to hang.

Pasta snowflake

Pastas needed:

Ziti

Wagon wheels

Bowties

Ditalini

Place your pasta on wax paper & glue as seen below. Let the glue dry. In a small container mix the school glue with a few drops of water to thin out the glue. Paint the entire assembled snowflake with the mixture & the sprinkle with glitter. Let the glue dry & flip over. Attach a ribbon with glue to form an ornament,

Pasta Ornaments

Pasta needed:

Large shells (stuffed shells pasta shells)

Wagon wheel pasta

Elbow macaroni

Glue a wagon wheel on top of the flattest end of a pasta shell. Glue an elbow to the top of the wagon wheel. It should form a half circle hole.

Paint your ornaments in colors of your choice. Let dry completely. Using glue draw an ornament design on your shell. Shake glitter over the top. Let dry & then shake off excess glitter. String a ribbon or string through the hole.

Pasta Rudolph

Pasta needed:

Large shell

bow ties

Elbow macaroni

Medium sized shells

Uncooked chick pea for the nose

Googly eyes

Paint both sized shells brown. Paint the bow ties and elbows in black. Attach the pasta as pictured. Add the googly eyes & a red painted chickpea for his nose.

Please stop in & visit us at Seek and check out our latest article. Fun With Pasta Crafts

Tue
25 ^th

Christmas Ornament Potato Stamps

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Sitting in our cupboard in the kitchen is a sack of old potatoes that are growing sprouts. Those potatoes had seen better days and were on their way out. It would be such a shame to have to waste them, so we had to make sure that we put them to good use. In the fall, we made potato Jack-O-Lanterns. With the holidays approaching our potatoes have taken on a new form.

Christmas ornament potato stamps

Cut a potato in half & carve an ornament design into a potato.