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Welcome to the Love Santa Blog

We share lots of Christmas related ideas, recipes and crafts in the Love Santa blog. You are welcome to comment or submit your own Christmas stories, too.

Advent calendars are up to day 13!

Dec 13, 2016 |

collection of images from the Lego 2016 advent calendars

We’re now past half way through our advent calendars and Christmas is definitely feeling closer now…

Tonight, we discovered some chairs and a plate of cupcakes for Emma and Naomi, and a man with a remote control device in Lego City.

Collage of day 13 Lego advent calendars

Remember you can read the introduction to our Lego advent reviews or catch up on day 12. And if you’re interested in using a Lego advent calendar after reading our reviews, I don’t think it’s too late – the kids will just have the fun of opening lots in one go, or maybe make it two a day until you catch up. Especially as some places may have reduced the price a lot by now…

What’s cooking on day twelve in Lego calendars?

Dec 13, 2016 |

collection of images from the Lego 2016 advent calendars

Oops – I’m a bit late with last night’s advent calendar review so apologies for that 🙂

Anyone hungry? The Friends calendar provided my daughter with an array of cooking utensils – plate, knives and forks, along with a hand mixer, frying pan and spatula. Emma was quickly whipping up dinner for Naomi and the two ice-hockey players from Lego City 🙂

Lego cooking utensils and people

Emma using Lego cooking utensils to provide dinner for friends

Over in Lego City, we’ve got a bit more Christmassy light to enjoy… An old fashioned lamp post (not the same as the one we got in last year’s calendar as this one has two lights and a circular wreath) decorated with a Christmas wreath is pretty and welcoming.

Lego Lamp post with a green wreath

Lamps and a Christmas wreath to decorate the Lego City

Which would you prefer to have discovered behind flap twelve – the cooking things or the lamp post and wreath?

If you missed days ten and eleven nine, they are still available – in fact, every day of our Lego Advent Calendar reviews from 2015 and 2016 are online for you to catch up on at any time!

Foam Christmas decorations

Dec 13, 2016 | ,

My children have made Christmas decorations for the boys in their classes this year, having already made hair ties for the girls.

child-made decorations in Christmas card envelopes

Foam decorations made by my children for their classmates

We used a craft kit of foam decorations which they decorated and popped into an envelope with a Christmas card.

The kids loved colouring in the ornaments, to the point that my son even coloured along the edges of some!

children working on foam ornaments

My children enjoyed making these ornaments (excuse the marked table they were working on!)

Foam decoration kit

The kids were excited and got into the decorating before I got photos taken so I only have shots of the kit in part!

foam Christmas ornament craft kit

Foam ornament kit from Art Star

The kit made things very simple and the kids enjoyed making the decorations.

The kit contains 12 foam Christmas ornaments (three each of four designs), lengths of golden string, four small textas and some glitter glue. The packet states ’embellishments included’ and there were two tubes of glue so I thought there was something else to glue onto the ornaments – it took a little while to understand it was glitter glue and that was classed as an embellishment.

The biggest issue with the kit is the size of the textas – they were cute being so small but didn’t last well enough for my kids thoroughly colouring in the ornaments and writing messages on the back. In particular, my kids used a lot of red (on Santa’s suit and other decorations) so ended up using their own textas and pens.

But you could certainly use the kit for a quick Christmas activity or as gifts like my children have done.

Days ten & eleven – Lego advent calendars

Dec 11, 2016 |

collection of images from teh Lego 2016 advent calendars

As day ten was Saturday night, I left that review until tonight so day ten and eleven are together 🙂

The Lego City advent calendar produced a girl dressed for ice-hockey on day ten – my son was very excited to see her! The girl was on the side of the box to show the size of Lego pieces so he has been expecting her…

Two Lego characters ready for ice-hocket

Time for a game of ice-hockey…

While my daughter was ecstatic to put together a piano from the Lego Friends calendar – she has been looking forward to the piano as it is on the box (and I hoped it was more than just a prop on the background!). I love the fact there is sheet music and how the keys look real – it is based on a white grill piece as the white keys and the gaps look like black keys are there!

Lego girl at piano

Emma at the piano

Tonight, my daughter was extremely excited to find a purple guitar on a stand – purple is her favourite colour so she loves this guitar. “And it’s even a plug-in guitar, Mummy!” Both children are now planning a Lego band with their combined instruments and musical equipment from this advent calendar.

A purple Lego guitar

A purple Lego guitar

My son was pleased to get a bare tree (back to the winter concept of deciduous trees) with some Christmas lights on it.

Christmas lights on a Lego tree

Christmas lights on a tree

Back to day nine…

Day nine

Dec 9, 2016 |

collection of images from teh Lego 2016 advent calendars

It’s Friday and we’ve done nine advent calendar flaps now – Christmas Eve is getting closer!

Keeping with the ice-hockey player from day eight, Lego City produced a stand (for want of a better word – I don’t know much about ice-hockey!) for holding ice-skates, pucks, etc beside the ice.

Lego ice-hockey player next to a tand on the ice

Lego City day nine – Ice-hockey equipment for our Lego player

Unfortunately, my daughter was not so happy with the ninth flap of the Friends calendar – in fact there were tears because it wasn’t anything Christmassy and advent calendars should be about Christmas Mummy!”

two Leog girls with microphones and a turntable

Two microphones and a turntable were behind flap nine for Emma and Naomi

I thought the turntable and microphone set was quite cute, but I agree it is not related to Christmas as such (but I never expected every day to be directly Christmas related). I guess it is hard because ice skating, fires and hot chocolate and the like are not part of our Christmas celebrations in any way – hopefully Lego will do a warmer weather focussed advent calendar next year (it’s not only Australia that is in summer!)

aerial view of Lego girls, microhones and turntable

A turntable is an interesting choice in this digital age!

Back to day eight…

A bit of applause for Mrs Claus – Christmas book review

Dec 8, 2016 |

A bit of applause for Mrs Clauscover of the Christmas book A Bit of Applause for Mrs Claus

by Susie Schick-Pierce, Jeannie Schick-Jacobowitz, Muffin Drake-Policastro
illustrated by Wendy Wallin-Malinow
Naperville, Sourcebooks Jabberwocky, 2012.

Age group: 3-5 year olds, plus earlier readers

There are many, many books and stories about Santa, but not so many about Mrs Claus. So this book seemed to have a different angle worth looking into, especially as she is getting some positive recognition through applause!

The story

It’s Christmas Eve. Only, Santa is sick so Mrs Claus has to take over so the children don’t miss out on Christmas. It is a Christmas book showing why there should be a bit of applause for Mrs Claus!

My book review

Many parents will understand how Mrs Claus feels with the number of jobs still to be done on Christmas Eve as she has a very busy night. She has to wrap gifts, cook snacks, harness up the reindeer and finish decorating all the trees. Mrs Claus even has to write a pile of letters to children to on behalf of Santa!

The book is colourful and cheery. It has a clear layout and font which helps young children read it.Inner page of

[Spoiler alert!] While the story focuses on Mrs Claus, the story doesn’t damage anyone’s expectations or hopes as Santa gets better in time to do the Christmas Eve run.

Do I recommend this book? Yes, this is a nice addition to any collection of Christmas books.

A bit of applause for Mrs Claus - Christmas book review

We’re up to day seven of advent calendars!

Dec 7, 2016 |

Day seven and the kids had to open the calendars early today as we went to a Christmas celebration.

Do you tend to open the calendars at the same time each day, or just when you think of it? It feels right to us to do it a little before bed time so it is really counting down the sleeps until Santa arrives, but the principle applies whenever you open the flaps!

At first, my daughter was surprised to find a fireplace in the Lego Friends calendar, but then she realised you have to have a fireplace to have a chimney for Santa to come down, plus the calendar setting was cold so a fire would keep Emma and Naomi warm. The tiny instructions didn’t help with getting the fireplace together – it was beyond my six year old and I ended up making it for her.

A Lego fire under a wreath

A warm fire burning beneath and Christmas wreath

Lego City calendar, on the other hand, gave us a green wreath on a …fence? mantelpiece? building top? What do you think the wreath is attached to?

Lego City Christmas wreath

Lego City Christmas wreath

If you have missed them, you can start on day one of our advent calendar reviews, or go back to day six.

Christmas hair ties

Dec 7, 2016 | , ,

My children enjoy making a small gift to put with a Christmas card for their classmates.

In the last couple of years, they have each made something different. But this year they are both making one gift for the girls and one for the boys.

Christmas hair ties

The girls will be getting a Christmas hair tie made by my children.

Four Christmas hair ties

Four Christmas hair ties

We started with a packet of hair ties and some rolls of Christmas ribbon. Actually, what I used was like a hollow string rather than a ribbon, but any Christmas ribbon will look pretty 🙂

green hair ties and Christmas ribbon cut into strips

Hair ties and ribbon are all you need!

I cut the ribbon into lengths of approximately 20 cm.

Then we simply tied a piece of ribbon onto each hair tie, making the two lengths equal.

child tying string onto a hair tie

Attaching the ribbon to the hair tie

We then tied the ends into a bow.

child's hands with a finished Christmas ribbon bow

A finished bow…

I say simple, but it was more challenging for my six year old than her brother or me – good fine motor skill practice though!

child adding finished CHristmas hair tie to a pile of hair ties

The resultant pile of Christmas hair ties is very pretty and festive! And hopefully will make  a number of young girls happy when they open their envelopes.

array of CHristmas cards and envelopes with hair ties included

Cards and Christmas hair ties ready to hand out at school

Other children’s craft

If you are looking for other ideas of things children can make as token gifts to classmates and the like, have a look at previous things I’ve made with my kids:

On the sixth day of Christmas…

Dec 6, 2016 |

Our Lego sets gave to us… A snow plough attachment and a little pet!

Just be glad you could hear yourself sing the 12 days of Christmas that rather than me!

So the Lego City advent calendar tonight was an attachment for last night’s machine so that we now have a snow plough and some snow!

A fire fighter driving a snow plough in Lego City.

A fire fighter driving a snow plough in Lego City.

And I think it’s sweet that there are lines on the diorama to match the
snow mobile wheels!

In the Friends calendar, my daughter discovered a small animal and a partial home for it – complete with a water bottle which is very cute.

Lego guinea pig and hut

Lego Friends gave us a cute pet!

Read all the days in the 2016 Lego advent calendars:

Day five of Lego advent calendars

Dec 5, 2016 |

Is your family enjoying the count down of opening an advent calendar each day?

I am certainly enjoying watching my children delight over their calendars each day – and it is fun to see what Lego items are revealed each day.

Day five…

The Lego Friends calendar gave Emma a friend in the form of Naomi.

Lego Naomi in front of advent calendar

Welcome to Naomi!

My son found a motorised sled in the City calendar and very happily put it together.

Lego motorised sled

Lego City allows for getting around in the snow!

As a reminder, on day four we revealed a fire-fighter with a trumpet and a campfire and flowers for Emma.

A Snugglepot and Cuddlepie Christmas – Christmas book review

Dec 5, 2016 |

A Snugglepot and Cuddlepie ChristmasCover of 'A Snugglepot and Cuddlepie Christmas'

by Mark MacLeod
illustrated by Merchant Wise (inspired by May Gibbs’ illustrations)
Scholastic Australia, Gosford, 2013

Age group:

3 to 6 year olds (and anyone loving the Gumnut babies!)

 

I love May Gibbs‘ gumnut babies! They are cute and so very Australian, so a Christmas book about them is very exciting!

And today seems the perfect day to post this review as it is the Gumnuts’ birthday – they are 100 today! The first edition of May Gibbs’ Gumnut Babies was published on 5 December 1916, with Snugglepot and Cuddleipie coming along soon after.

 

The story

Snugglepot can’t wait for Christmas tomorrow but Cuddlepie still has a long list of tasks to complete.

My review

Illustration from "A Snugglepot and Cuddlepie Christmas"This story has a bit of suspense in it (will Mrs Snake succeed in her mischief? What is Cuddlepie rushing off to do?) and ends with a positive message, of course. I like that Snugglepot is given a gift of friendship rather than a physical item, too.

The two gumnuts are quite different characters, with one being more like the adult and one more relatable for children. For instance, Cuddlepie does most of the preparations while Snugglepot pinches raspberries off the cake and searches for his Christmas gift when Cuddlepie is out 🙂 Yet there is no anger or reproach from Cuddlepie towards Snugglepot, giving the feeling of acceptance and understanding of their differences.

As expected for a Gibbs inspired book, the images are colourful, simple and yet detailed. Personally, I was amused by noting the place mats and pillow cases are much bigger than the clothes worn by our gumnut babies! Unfortunately, the discrepancy between the two images of Mrs Snake beside the Christmas tree jumped out at me (the decorations on the tree are not consistent across the images, with the star moving from the top tip to a little lower with different coloured ornaments around it and the frog) but it didn’t detract from the story and I doubt young children would notice.

Cuddlepie sitting and looking at a Christmas list

Cuddlepie reviewing his Christmas list

I loved the little spots of humour in the book – wattle seed  flavour resulting in a four pointed star, Mrs Snake being bopped on the head, and popping drinks in the creek are good examples.

 

Would I recommend it? How can I say no?! I love the gumnut babies and Christmas so it is a great combination, especially on their birthday! I absolutely think this should be in every Australian Christmas book collection.

 

 

 

A Snugglepot and Cuddlepie Christmas - Christmas book review

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