Having a wreath hanging on your door or veranda is a common tradition in many Australian homes. Have you thought of hanging a homemade wreath?

Here is how my daughter made one a few years ago (she was about 6 at the time and had help) …

1.  bend a metal coathanger into a circle
2. cut the hook part of the coathanger off (unless you prefer to use it for hanging) and make sure sharp edges are hidden/filed
3. cut plastic shopping bags into long strips – the more strips you use, the better the final result but 3 bags would be the minimum
4. tie the strips onto the circle (double the strip and pull the lengths through the loop is the easiest way)
5. spray paint the wreath
6. once dry, tie on some Christmas baubles (or plastic holly , etc)
7. use some pretty ribbon to create a large bow at the top, with enough left over to use as a tie for the wreath
8. hang it on your door – or give to someone else for their door

And Squiggle Mum has instructions for three lovely wreaths you and/or your young children can make.

Do you have another way to make a wreath you could share with us?

Do you hang a Christmas wreath on your front door? Or somewhere else?

 A wreath is both pretty and cheerful, and I find them quite welcoming as well. There is such a variety of wreaths that see as you view homes – from the elaborate ones in shopping centres, to stylish ones, green traditional ones and colourful ones.

What type do you prefer?

If you are interested in hanging a wreath but don’t have one, why not make one yourself? Or get the kids to make one…

Following on from Santa’s Elf ‘s question this morning, when do you wrap presents, I want to know what people use to wrap gifts…

For many years, we’ve collected wrappings each year and recycled them the following year where possible (kids tend to rip them apart so not everything is reusable!) It’s interesting that a number of people used to give us funny looks about collecting and keeping the paper, but with more ‘green’ sentiment around now, people seem to accept it.

Reusing the paper does save us money, but our real incentive is to save some trees and reduce pollution in the printing and transporting of wrapping paper.

A few times we’ve also used alternatives to paper for wrapping – like when giving some picinic items, we wrapepd them in a light tablecloth and when we use a tea-towell to wrap kitchen tea of house warming gifts.

And young children bring home a wealth of wrapping paper when they do paintings at kinder and childcare! We enver used their favourite artworks, but they were very proud to see presents wrapped in their paper so it was win win all round!

Does being green come into your Christmas wrapping or do you like the pretty, sparkly pile of presents?

We’ve found a fun gift idea that is fairly inexpensive but gives me an activity with my kids and a nice gift all in one!

Simply put together the items (ingredients) to make something, along with instructions, and give it as a kit.

For food things, we find simple recipes (like muffins or biscuits) and put all the pre-measured dry ingredients into a glass jar. My kids enjoy measuring and we do it in colour layers so the jar also looks interesting. Tie it with some fabric or ribbon, add the recipe and you have a lovely gift. And I think it’s better than giving the muffins or biscuits as the person can enjoy them later (who needs a lot of biscuits the day or so after Christmas??)

For crafty things, I put everything in a shoe box (decorated by the kids usually) or tuile bag. This has a lot of scope – it can be generic items (paints, brushes, paper, etc) or specific items with instructions to make a particular thing (e.g. a cheap photo frame with some paints, brush and glitter.)

Anybody got specific ideas or recipes we could try this year? I’m always after something different even if in the same theme!

I’ve heard many people say they’re up late on Christmas Eve wrapping loads of presents, so I’m curious – when do you wrap your presents?

Do you make an event of it – getting the family together, having some nibbles and drinks and music as you work – or is it just something that gets done?

 Imagine posting a letter to Santa and looking down into his workshop below! 

 At least you’d know he got your letter very soon – although reading it may take him a little logner as he gets LOTS of letters every day.

I came across this picture in an email and fell in love with it. It is really a chalk drawing on the footpath – there is no hole in the ground to see Santa, and we all knows Santa lives in the north pole anyway – but I love the thought and the drawing itself is amazing!  

 * I would love to attribute this to the right person but I only know the creator as ‘The Chalk Guy’. If anyone has his name, or a link to his site if he has one, please let me know.

Like many people, we’re trying to keep Christmas under control this year, financially speaking. I’d love to say money isn’t important, but we have a limited supply of it so we have to limit our gift giving accordingly. Our choice is to be as creative as we can so we still give gifts to please our loved ones.

Anyway, here’s a couple of our gift ideas in case they help others who are struggling with what to give this year:

• buy cheap items and let the kids decorate them for grandparents, aunts, uncles, etc. For example, cheap photo frames, plant pots, candles and storage jars make unique and special gifts with some time and little money
• buy a few bits and pieces and put them in a nice bag – it tends to be cheaper than buying the pretty hampers you see in big stores
• buy some beads and elastic and let the kids make necklaces, etc for the girls in your family (and boys if they would like it!)
• cut, sand and paint some offcuts of wood – an instant set of building blocks any toddler will appreciate knocking over! Put them in a bucket or bag and you’re done – much more environmentally friendly than plastic blocks, too
• cut some cardboard into gift cards and fold in half. Get the kids or someone artistic to decorate the cards for multiple occasions and you have a set of cards to give as a gift – remember that people pay $15 or more for a few nice cards to store away

Not only are we saving money, we’re also having fun making things and teaching our kids it is the giving with love that counts, not the price tags. I bet we aren’t the only ones being creative and we’d love to hear other people’s ideas, too – please?

I just came across an advent calendar on an Australian site so I thought I’d share it because it’s such a good idea!

They share gift tags, colouring pages and so on day by day to keep little people occupied in the build up to Santa’s arrival.

Today’s item isn’t ready yet, but there are some cute images on day 2 and gift tags on day 6.

… some Christmas tonguetwisters!

Can you say these 3 or 5 times really fast? And still be understood!

Santa’s sister Samantha sits sedately in the shiny sleigh.

Cathy craves Christmas cake covered in custard.

Elves enjoy entertaining and emptying elegant envelopes.

Penny’s pleased with piles of presents.

Have fun!

Want to keep tabs on where Santa is in his preparations for his big trip around the world?

NORAD tracks his progress throughout December so why not see what’s happening for yourself?