Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Christmas. Show all posts
Sunday, 30 December 2012
School Market Stall
V. blurry but this was our stall as manned by R for the photo. We even managed to turn a respectable overall profit so that all products completed or otherwise now at home owe me absolutely nothing. Roll on the next one!
Monday, 12 November 2012
Handmade Christmas Decorations
Following rave reviews for the decorations R and I have made so far we decided to put them on Folksy to see if others like them as much as we do! Of course this means we now have an online shop - very exciting!
Here is what we have made so far
Handmade Christmas decorations for sale
Here is what we have made so far
Handmade Christmas decorations for sale
Tuesday, 13 December 2011
Christmas clip cards and preschool pack
As a fan of clipcards for teaching B numbers and using fine motor skills at the same time I couldn't resist this set from the Christmas Symbols pack from 2Teaching Mommies. As always there are other activities in the download as well and all for free. The duo have also created other seasonal units with a similar range of preschool printables.
As you can see from the picture I laminated the cards and punched holes in the border at the top so they could be stored together on a split ring - add paper clips, bulldog clips or clothes pegs for a good busy bag activity.
Wednesday, 22 December 2010
Christmas Activities
Snowbound this week as the UK has the worst weather for over a century.
Having flown in from Amsterdam last week we found ourselves stuck in a house with very little in the way of food or craft stuff but here is what we have managed so far....
Luckily I stocked up on cheap craft kits when I got the chance and stashed them away
Having flown in from Amsterdam last week we found ourselves stuck in a house with very little in the way of food or craft stuff but here is what we have managed so far....
Luckily I stocked up on cheap craft kits when I got the chance and stashed them away
we did
sticker mosiacs (sort of painting by numbers using stickers)
scrape art postcards
heat fuse bead ornaments
foam and sequin decorations
we also used the foam templates to draw around then paint
B's ended up totally brown where he mixed all the paint together - then he decided the templates needed to be decorated as well.
paper chains
and Christmas cookies
Heres wishing you all a merry Christmas!
Sunday, 14 November 2010
Christmas Traditions: Sinterklaas
One of the interesting things about being an internationally based family is seeing how other countries celebrate our own familiar festivals. One such festival is Christmas. In the UK Christmas Day is the major feast day Father Christmas or Santa Claus delivers presents to children on Christmas Eve (24th December) and they are placed under the Christmas Tree (or in a stocking hung on the foot of the bed). This is I suspect largely the same as the US and most of the rest of the world; however in the Netherlands (where my children are now at school) it is slightly different.
In the Netherlands Christmas Day itself is a rather more muted occasion and children celebrate earlier on December 6th at Sinterklaas.
Sinterklaas celebrates the patron saint of Amsterdam, St. Nicholas; and as the similarity in the name suggests is thought to be the basis for Santa Claus. On Sinterklaas Eve (5th December) children put their shoes next to the fireplace with some carrots or hay inside. During the night Sinterklaas and his assistant Black Peter arrive from Spain in a steam boat and he travels round the country on his grey horse leaving presents in the childrens shoes. Traditionally all the family members get a chocolate in the shape of their initial together with a poem.
What all this means practically is that the shops are now full of people buying presents ready for Sinterklaas Day in the way we usually find in mid December in the UK. We were told by Dutch friends and colleagues that if we wanted to get the chocolate letters we had better do it by the 15th of November or they would be sold out! Toy shops and shopping centres are selling out of this years "must have" toys now and panic is setting in for those parents who can't get the only thing that their little darling wants due to the potent mixture of peer pressure and advertising. We spent the entire day yesterday scouring the shops for "Paul Frank" stuff which is the only thing R's classmate put down on her Secret Santa Wishlist. Not a good thing to do with three children and a husband on a Saturday.
Normally of course we are also in the middle of our own shopping panic but this year we are able to sit back and laugh about the whole thing (aside from yesterday!). The shops will all be stocked up again in between Sinterklaas and Christmas Day and we get a more relaxed time because everyone else has already pushed the boat out in early December.
So there you are- just when you thought you knew Santa Claus; he comes from Spain not the North Pole; he comes in a steam boat not a sleigh; he rides a horse and doesn't have reindeer; he has a human helper not elves and he comes on December the 5th not the 24th to do his deliveries; so close but yet so different. I wonder how many other countries celebrate Christmas in a different way?
In the Netherlands Christmas Day itself is a rather more muted occasion and children celebrate earlier on December 6th at Sinterklaas.
Sinterklaas celebrates the patron saint of Amsterdam, St. Nicholas; and as the similarity in the name suggests is thought to be the basis for Santa Claus. On Sinterklaas Eve (5th December) children put their shoes next to the fireplace with some carrots or hay inside. During the night Sinterklaas and his assistant Black Peter arrive from Spain in a steam boat and he travels round the country on his grey horse leaving presents in the childrens shoes. Traditionally all the family members get a chocolate in the shape of their initial together with a poem.
What all this means practically is that the shops are now full of people buying presents ready for Sinterklaas Day in the way we usually find in mid December in the UK. We were told by Dutch friends and colleagues that if we wanted to get the chocolate letters we had better do it by the 15th of November or they would be sold out! Toy shops and shopping centres are selling out of this years "must have" toys now and panic is setting in for those parents who can't get the only thing that their little darling wants due to the potent mixture of peer pressure and advertising. We spent the entire day yesterday scouring the shops for "Paul Frank" stuff which is the only thing R's classmate put down on her Secret Santa Wishlist. Not a good thing to do with three children and a husband on a Saturday.
Normally of course we are also in the middle of our own shopping panic but this year we are able to sit back and laugh about the whole thing (aside from yesterday!). The shops will all be stocked up again in between Sinterklaas and Christmas Day and we get a more relaxed time because everyone else has already pushed the boat out in early December.
So there you are- just when you thought you knew Santa Claus; he comes from Spain not the North Pole; he comes in a steam boat not a sleigh; he rides a horse and doesn't have reindeer; he has a human helper not elves and he comes on December the 5th not the 24th to do his deliveries; so close but yet so different. I wonder how many other countries celebrate Christmas in a different way?
Wednesday, 26 May 2010
Handprint Crafts: Christmas Tree
OK I know this must go down as the earliest mention of Christmas ever. It is not that I am super organised and starting my Christmas preparations before we are even in June - it is because we have been clearing out our cupboards in preparation for moving house.
For Christmas 2009 we did not know whether we would be in Germany or the UK. In the end we decided that we would leave all our Christmas decorations behind in the UK on the basis that we would be there at some point during the holiday and it would save room on the removals van. So far so good. What we didn't count on was that R and A would feel it wasn't a proper Christmas since we weren't putting up decorations. Add to that it was the first Christmas for about 6 years that we didn't "do" the School Nativity Play and somehow Christmas didn't seem to be really happening.
I decided that although we didn't have the time, space or money to have a "proper" Christmas tree we would make our own that could be hung on the wall.
Here it is in all its rather crushed glory.
The leaves are handprints from all three kids on different shades of green paper. We drew round their hands onto thin cardboard first and then used this as a template or it would have got very boring and the tree would probably never have been finished. We decided on a star for the top just like we have at home. A and R helped me stick the leaves to a cardboard tree made from an unwanted box. R decided that it needed some other decorations and so found something suitable from her advent calendar box.
When it was finished we stuck it to the patio doors where it looked brilliant against the snowy garden background.
So there you have it a free Christmas tree for those who have no room for a tree.
For Christmas 2009 we did not know whether we would be in Germany or the UK. In the end we decided that we would leave all our Christmas decorations behind in the UK on the basis that we would be there at some point during the holiday and it would save room on the removals van. So far so good. What we didn't count on was that R and A would feel it wasn't a proper Christmas since we weren't putting up decorations. Add to that it was the first Christmas for about 6 years that we didn't "do" the School Nativity Play and somehow Christmas didn't seem to be really happening.
I decided that although we didn't have the time, space or money to have a "proper" Christmas tree we would make our own that could be hung on the wall.
Here it is in all its rather crushed glory.
The leaves are handprints from all three kids on different shades of green paper. We drew round their hands onto thin cardboard first and then used this as a template or it would have got very boring and the tree would probably never have been finished. We decided on a star for the top just like we have at home. A and R helped me stick the leaves to a cardboard tree made from an unwanted box. R decided that it needed some other decorations and so found something suitable from her advent calendar box.
When it was finished we stuck it to the patio doors where it looked brilliant against the snowy garden background.
So there you have it a free Christmas tree for those who have no room for a tree.
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