Holiday Crafts & Christmas Traditions

I can't believe our session has already come to an end. This one seemed to FLY by for me, and that's even considering we took a week off for Veteran's Day... I can't believe it! We had a great, last morning spending time with the ladies at our tables, hearing praise of what God has done in our lives during this session, and hearing from many of our moms and mentor moms about different way to incorporate some traditions and family time during this Christmas season.

Our very own Shanda Stansberry shared 5 crafts with us that are easy enough to have our kids make (even for us with little ones - with our help) and give as gifts this Christmas season. I love how crafty she is and how easy she makes it all look!! I'm excited to try out a couple of them myself! Here's a glimpse and some short, brief instructions I managed to get during her presentation:

1. Storage Box - Pick up a photo box at Michael's or any other craft store. You can decorate the top of it by making photocopies of pictures or by going to a hardware store and picking up the paint sample papers for your kids to cut out and make pictures/designs. Glue them on and then decoupage "Mod Podge" over the top of it to seal it in. Then put your kid's handprint with a little message or date or whatever else the occasion might be for the recipient to treasure and hold on to for years to come.

2. Greeting Cards - Shanda picked up a pack of 25 white cards with envelopes from Michaels for just a few dollars. She has her kids decorate the cards with their fingerprints and hand prints to make a certain themed design and then puts a few of them together with ribbon to give as a gift. Cute idea and I'm sure the grandparents LOVE this one! She'll put a little thumbprint on the back and write "Thumbprint by ____" or "Made by ___" and also have the kids decorate the flap of the envelope to coordinate with the card. Michael's carries little ink dots that are perfect for doing the little fingerprints too.

3. Bath Salts - Find a jar at Michaels or another craft store and put a vellum stick on the front of it. Fill jar with salt recipe (below) and you can even add a little tag saying something along the lines of "Add 1-2 teaspoons to your bath and relax"
Recipe:
1 C Epson salt
1 C Kosher/Sea salt
Mix together and add food coloring
Spray in perfume or add essential oils
Set out on a paper towel to try overnight.

4. Ouch Box - What a great idea to give to the grandparents to keep at their house! Shanda got her plastic container at the dollar store (or you can even use the storage box listed above) and her kids decorated the front of it with the paint pens and stickers. She then put all kinds of stuff inside that grandparents don't usually have at their house all of the time: bandaids, tylenol, bug spray, benedryl, dum dum suckers, thermometer, etc.

5. Prayer Journal - Get a plain journal (again Shanda picked one up from the dollar store) and decorate the front of it with stickers or markers or whatever. Inside she cut out pictures and put the small picture on the top, right corner of each page for that to be their prayer page. Great family idea too!!

TRADITIONS:

Here are just a few of the traditions that were mentioned as mic was passed around to our wonderful mentor moms and also a few of our fellow moms as well:
Shanda: Adding your kids hand prints to your homemade tree skirt each year. On Christmas morning the kids open up stockings, eat breakfast, read the Christmas story and then, once all of that is done, they open gifts, 1 at a time - it's not a free for all!
Jane: No presents or tree until late Christmas Eve - oh the anticipation!
Marilyn: Christmas ornament each year with the date on it - Great to save the child's collection for when he/she gets married!! Also waiting until the Thanksgiving dinner and dishes were done to play any sort of Christmas music!! I agree with Marilyn that we're so bombarded with the Christmas season before Halloween is even here yet - good to cherish and remember what the real meaning of Thanksgiving is before moving on to the next one.
Nancy - As kids get older and start to open presents and sneak them from under the tree, give each kid a reindeer name so they don't know which ones are there's. Allowing the kids to open 1 gift on Christmas Eve and it's always PJ's. Picking out 1 Christmas card from the basket that they've received so far and praying for that family before dinner.
Jan - I love the way Jan talked about the real meaning of a tradition for those of us who don't think we're great and crafty at coming up with all sorts of creative things. She reminded us that "Whatever you do, keep doing it. Those are the things kids remember." So true!
Ruthie - Making and decorating sugar cookies one day during the Christmas season. Watching "It's a Wonderful Life" at some point during the season also!
Phyllis - Always having her traditional Christmas Eve fondue dinner. Making a birthday cake for Jesus. Playing the same "record" or CD every year.
Jackie - Playing games as a family after dinner. They love to play Charades and make up the cards themselves to pertain to a certain theme and make it age appropriate for the little ones. Also making up questions and putting them in a basket to go over when everyone is stuffed from dinner and sitting around the table (Most embarrasing moment? When did you give your life to Jesus? Favorite movie? Show? etc)
Hailey - Hailey started the Advent tradition in her house last year and it was a hit! You can read the details about how it all works on her blog here.
Bridgette - Having a white elephant gift exchange with the family. Saying a popcorn prayer before the meal. Santa gifts are only in Santa paper, with a Santa tag and bow and everything - there isn't Santa anywhere else under the tree.
Melissa - The adults playing Yhatzee (or any other game) and the kids having to wait until they were a certain age to join in - anticipation!!
Misty - The kids only getting 1 gift from Santa and it always came late at night on Christmas Eve. Sometimes they had to search for the Santa gift (in another room, outside, etc.) Misty also reminded us that sometimes you'll try traditions and they won't work out, and that's fine! - we'll just leave it at that!

And something to remember ladies...
"Tradition lives because young people come along who catch
it's romance and add new glories to it."
- Michael Novak

Be sure to check your emails and be on the lookout for Evites on fun events happening during our winter break!! Hope to see all of you throughout the break!!