Christmas Crafts with the Children
Last week we received a huge Christmas hamper from Jet2 Holidays. They are celebrating Christmas with a fabulous advent competition. Every day from the 1st to the 26th of December, you could be in with a chance of winning a Jet2holiday! All you’ve got to do is head to www.Jet2holidays.com/advent, correctly answer a holiday-themed question, and you’ll be entered into the free prize draw.
The hamper was full of amazing Christmas goodies, some of which were quickly eaten by me and the children. The Christmas tree shortbread biscuits were gone with 15 minutes thanks to the three boys. I ate the fudge. Hubby wolfed the mince pies. I have a weakness for hot chocolate and the chocolate flakes were just amazing, making the best ever hot chocolate. Everyone in the family was happy with the Christmas treats!
Josh was most excited by the creative goodies in the box. There was a Christmas scene to make from foam pieces and a ginger bread house to create. This weekend was our craft weekend.
Sick day from school – Making the Christmas Scene
Last Friday Josh woke up feeling sick, he was feeling most sorry for himself lying on the sofa. He was still feeling bad by 8:30 so I decided he could stay at home. Most of the day was spent chilling on the sofa but by lunchtime he was feeling bored. He wanted to create the Christmas scene from the hamper.
Josh is my creative child, he is my middle son and loves to get creative with everything. From cooking to painting and sewing, he will give everything a try. Another very positive trait important for the creative process is patience. Josh will sit for hours making sure that something is just right.
The scene was houses and trees in the snow with Santa flying past on his sleigh with presents. Sounds easy doesn’t it. Most of it was except the sleigh. I kid you not, Josh literally tried to put this sleigh together for maybe two hours. It just kept coming apart and popping open. Eventually I stepped in and we had to get the glue out!
With the sleigh done Josh could carry on with the houses and trees and decorate them. The final task was to put Santa on his sleigh and connect the reindeers with a pipe cleaner. I am impressed with Josh’s effort. What do you think?
Sunday afternoon Gingerbread house making.
Josh had been asking every day to make the gingerbread house. And I sort of assumed everything was pre-made in the box and all he had to do was decorate it. Not quite, we had to make to make the bits of house from scratch and then decorate.
This was a creation that was going to take hours! Firstly, Josh melted the sugar and the butter together. The sugar came in the box, we had to supply the butter. When it had completely dissolved he added the dry mixture of flour and ginger. He then missed it all together to form the biscuit dough. It was sticking together so we added water to ensure there was no biscuit crumbling.
When Josh was happy with the consistency we rolled out the mixture and cut out 4 pieces of house. 2 triangles and 2 squares with a window cut out. We loved the window creation, which was crushed boiled sweets placed into the window gap.
The biscuits were then baked and left to cool before the formation of the house and the decoration. The biscuits only took 20 minutes to cook, but we left them for a good 30 minutes to cool. Next was decoration stage. Josh asked can I do anything I want, I said of course, let your creativity take over, so he did. And here was the result!!
What Christmas crafts do you love doing with your children?
I received the Christmas hamper as a gift from Jet2 holidays.
