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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.

Lego advent day 9

Dec 9, 2015 | Christmas today

Day nine and Lego Friends is continuing on the performance theme as tonight’s flap revealed a saxophone on a stand (well, on a stand once you assemble the pieces anyway!)

Lego City on the other hand had a Christmassy surprise in store – my son had to build Santa’s chair tonight! It’s pretty cool, once put together, although we did find the instructions a little harder to follow as two small pieces are joined without that being shown in the diagram (something Lego is usually excellent at is instructions, but they have so little space on the flaps that I understand why this was more difficult).

We are having fun with these advent calendars and the kids are playing with the pieces in between opening flaps – it’s nice having lots of bits that are adding up in ways they can make stories out of them.

So how are you enjoying our Lego advent calendar reviews so far? Jump back to the start of our Lego advent reviews or catch up on yesterday’s.

Where’s Santa? – Christmas puzzle & book review

Dec 9, 2015 | Christmas books

Where’s Santa? puzzle & book set

by Louis Shea
Scholastic Australia, Lindfield, 2014

Age group: primary school

A book to be searched for Santa, Elvy and more, plus a 150 piece puzzle of the find Santa at the beach page.

The story

Elvy the mischievous elf took Santa’s sleigh in a misguided plan to start Christmas early. Detective Inspector Scrooge, Santa, Mrs Claus and their pet Fluffy search for Elvy on a beach, at a carnival, in space and in a shopping centre – and readers get to find them all on each page.

My review

This was a fun book and I spent quite a while with my son looking for the specified pictures on each page.

As well as the images you need to find, there are numerous funny pictures to enjoy such as a sheep streaking across a game, an ice cream dropped on a sun baking woman, escaped turkeys and people riding jet propelled candy canes.
back cover of Where's Santa book

The puzzle is the biggest (in terms of number of pieces) my kids have tackled so it took us about 40 minutes to complete it. It’s not an easy puzzle in that there is so much colour and action across the picture that it takes some effort to piece it together – but I love the challenge of finding bits so that is not a negative for me! Alone, I think my seven year old could have done the puzzle, it just would have taken him a lot longer!

Note this set is related to the Where’s Santa in Australia? book.

The completed puzzle, showing Santa and friends at the beach

Lego advent day 8

Dec 8, 2015 | Christmas today

And so we move onto day eight of our Lego advent calendars…
Read the introduction to our Lego advent reviews or catch up on day seven.

Tonight, the Friends calendar gave us the speaker to go with yesterday’s microphone – and it inspired my kids to put on some music through our real speakers! Interestingly, it also became a tent, a ‘low tent’, when my daughter put it on its side – one thing I love about kids playing with Lego is developing their imaginations!

The City calendar gave us an old fashioned street lamp, complete with Christmas decoration (a bit of holly or mistletoe as you prefer to interpret it!)

I am still enjoying the attention to detail and how all these little sets will combine to be something pretty special by Christmas.

Lego advent day 7

Dec 8, 2015 | Christmas today

The children look forward to opening a new flap of their Lego advent calendars each day, and flap number seven last night was no different!

Lego Friends for day seven was a microphone on a stand which Miss five enjoyed putting together.

A microphone for Lego Friends advent day seven

Day seven for Lego City was a man holding a mobile phone and a mug.

Lego City advent calendar day seven

You read the introduction to our Lego advent reviews or catch up on day six.

Kids writing Christmas cards

Dec 7, 2015 | Christmas today

It doesn’t take a lot of expense or effort for children to write Christmas cards to all their classmates, and other friends and family. Whether anything is attached to the card or not, I think it’s a good idea for kids to write out Christmas cards.

Advantages to kids writing Christmas cards (or letters!)

Kids enjoy doing writing cards!
It provides good writing practise for them, whether they write it all themselves or copy words you write for them and even if you write some of it and they write the names.
It can also provide some reading practice as they read the printed content or the list of names you wrote out for them.
Kids don’t all have email (or other electronic) accounts so the argument of ‘we send Christmas emails now instead of cards’ won’t work for youngsters. Besides, cards are way more fun – they’re colourful, come in an envelope you can rip and you can physically hold them! It is also very nice to get something someone has obviously put effort into – kids can appreciate that as much as adults, especially if we remind them of that value.
It helps inspire a love of giving – the kids enjoy giving cards to each other and like making their friends smile. If that can help keep a spirit of generosity in the children, writing cards is a very small price to pay. I also like watching my children choose specific cards for each classmate as that shows thoughtfulness and consideration.
Sitting down to write cards is a nice quiet activity in amongst the hassle and bustle of this time of year. Plus, kids are often very tired and lacking in resilience around now (I know mine are struggling!) so some quiet time is really good for them.
And having the kids sitting quietly for a while can be nice for parents, too! For me, I got a bit of tidying up around them done while they sat writing cards happily at the table.
Colourful Christmas cards make a pretty display on a wall or mantlepiece. After Christmas, they also can be cut up for kids’ craft work – or kept until next Christmas when they can be cut into gift tags, cut down for simpler Christmas postcards, or used in the creation of new Christmas cards.

So far, my kids have enjoyed writing cards to their classmates so much, they have written more – to me, to my husband, to other school friends…

Do your kids write cards for their group of friends or classmates, or perhaps even family members?

Lego advent day 6

Dec 6, 2015 | Christmas today

So, moving onto day 6 of the Christmas count down! Remember you can read the introduction to our Lego advent reviews or catch up on day five.

As we had a family Christmas function this evening, we had to do the calendar quickly tonight, but that doesn’t make it any less fun or exciting for the kids 🙂

Lego City provided a toy snow plough, complete with key for winding it! In fact, there were two keys as most days we have had at least one spare piece of Lego in the box – the usual extra provided by Lego.

Lego Friends turned up some skiing equipment – skis, helmet and goggles, stocks and spares. They were immediately put on one the Lego girls already opened up, with the hair* popped into today’s box in the meantime.

*Lego people can’t have hair and a hat/helmet at the same time, just in case removing the hair seems a little strange to you 🙂

Lego advent day 5

Dec 5, 2015 | Christmas today

The Lego advent calendars are going well with the children enjoying them and actually managing to leave the Lego with the calendars to complete the sets. The previous reviews are still online – you can read about day four.

Tonight, the Friends Lego was another person and the City Lego was a blue and white toy plane.

I can’t say yet if there is an equivalent cost to this calendar to buying the same amount of Lego elsewhere, but it is certainly providing value in children’s enjoyment and better content than any advent calendar we’ve tried before.

Day five and there are two girls, a snowman and sleigh.

Lego City on day five – a plane

A Christmassy salad

Dec 5, 2015 | Christmas cooking

This is a colourful salad that really suits a Christmas lunch or would be great alongside a BBQ any time this summer!

Salad dressing

ingredients

1/4 cup lime juice*
1 tablespoon of grated lime zest*
1 large spring onion
1/4 cup virgin olive oil
4 or 5 drops of sesame oil
2 or 3 mint leaves

* depending on their size, 3 or 4 limes will be needed

method

Put lime zest and juice in a bowl
whisk in finely chopped spring onion and mint leaves
whisk in both oils
cover and refrigerate (for up to 4 hours) until needed
bring dressing out of fridge for about 15 minutes before serving and then whisk before use

Christmassy salad

Ingredients

350g snow peas, trimmed
kernels from 2 ears of corn (or 1 1/2 cups of tinned kernels, well drained)
1 red capsicum, seeded
2 Lebanese cucumbers
350g cherry tomatoes
3 spring onions
1 red chilli
1/2 bunch coriander leaves
1 avocado

Making the salad

prepare vegetables and add to salad bowl
1. cut snow peas into pieces about 2 or 3 cm long
2. dice the capsicum
3. quarter the cucumber lengthwise then chop into wedges
4. half the tomatoes
5. thinly slice the spring onions
6. slice chili into very fine circles
7. roughly chop half the coriander
toss the salad
add half the dressing and toss
add more dressing until the vegetables are coated, but not so there is a wet layer at the bottom of the bowl. Toss salad gently
peel the avocado, remove its stone and then dice the flesh
roughly chop remaining coriander
spread avocado and coriander over the salad
serve and enjoy!

I think this would go beautifully with satay prawns or BBQ chicken… what will you try it with?

Lego advent day 4

Dec 4, 2015 | Christmas today

We’re continuing our Lego advent calendar review and are up to flap number four today…

Lego City day four of the advent calendar

Day four and Lego City has a coffee stand

Day four in Lego Friends advent calendar

A Lego Friends snowman!

Inside today’s boxes, the kids found the pieces to create a snowman and what I’m calling a drinks stand (which goes well alongside yesterday’s pie stand!) It’s all lots of fun!

Read the introduction to our Lego advent reviews or catch up on days two and three.

Where’s Santa? In Australia – Christmas book review

Dec 4, 2015 | Christmas books

Where’s Santa? In Australia

by Louis Shea
Scholastic Australia, Lindfield, 2015

Age group: primary school

Santa travels around Australia, providing a page for each state for us to search for Santa and other characters.

The story

It’s almost Christmas and Santa drops in to visit his cousin Barry in Australia. Unfortunately, Bluey the dog ‘catches’ Rudolph’s red nose magic and shares it around. The animals fly off around Australia, dragging Barry’s grandkids with him. Santa and Barry therefore try to find the kids, while the readers get to look for all of them in the pictures.

My review

We had a lot of fun with this book – the two seven year olds spent at least half an hour searching pages for the listed characters, while the two five year olds lasted for about half that. And all four of those kids have been back to the book more than once to find more things.

We all enjoyed the amusing pictures themselves – for example, on the Tasmanian page you can see noughts and crosses on a sheep’s flanks, a sheep knitting, wolves in sheep’s clothing and sheep getting salon treatments! And I liked seeing the pages being themed to the state, like apples for Tasmania, opals and underground homes for South Australia, various sports for Victoria and hot air balloons for the ACT.

I liked the fact that there was a story rather than just pages of searching for things. I think the story helped the kids keep interest and find so many items on each page because they were characters in the story (as well as page specific items).

There were also amusing little touches, like naming the kids Kylie and Jason, Bluey the red healer and cousin Barry in his blue singlet calling Santa ‘Clauso’. Add in Santa trying to lose his jar of Saltymite while Barry looks for his favourite blue undies, and there’s plenty to keep you amused! Of course, much of this may need an Aussie sense of humour…

So this book has a lot of fun, a story and helps kids be observant and remember the details of what to find. I think pre-schoolers can enjoy the pictures and story, and teens and adults can have fun with it. Primary aged kids will love it so I thoroughly recommend it 🙂

Lego advent days 2 & 3

Dec 3, 2015 | Christmas today

So we’re onto the second day of our review into Lego advent calendars… But as we rushed the day two opening of flaps, I’m reviewing days two and three together 🙂

So on day two, my daughter put together a little bench which came with ice skates while the City calendar got it’s first person, complete with camera and pretzel!

Lego peices from two days of the advent calendar

Lego City – day two

Lego Friends pieces from day two of advent calendar

Lego Friends – day two

And then on day three, my son had to put together a little stand which holds both a pie and a bucket of ice skates while my daughter loved finding a snowman in the Lego Friends calendar. While both kids are enjoying their sets, it is becoming clearer that Lego City has more to it than the Friends set which is a pity – I would happily have done two City sets except we wanted something different for each of them.

Lego Friends – day three

Lego City – day three

The hard part is already showing to be getting the kids to leave all their advent Lego together so we can see the scene unfold! Part of me wants them to just play and enjoy it, but I think it’s nice to see all the pieces as it is meant to go together. And of course, for doing a review and taking photos, it will be nice to have a finished product at the end!

If you have an advent calendar for your kids, are you trying to keep the pieces together until Christmas, too? Or would you?

All I want for Christmas – festive food, fabulous craft and jolly good ideas

Dec 2, 2015 | Christmas today, Children's craft

Better Homes and Gardens Christmas 2015 magazine Review

Pacific magazines Pty Ltd, Eveleigh, NSW
editor Julia Zaetta

Cover of 'All I want for Christmas' magazine As I’m always interested in Christmas ideas, crafts and recipes, I decided to buy Better Home & Gardens‘ (BHG) Christmas special this year. And in case anyone else isn’t sure whether or not to get it, I am sharing my thoughts about it here. 🙂

Okay, so to cover the basics, it is basically the same as any lifestyle magazine (in that it has articles and recipes) but has Christmas as the sole theme. It is 145 pages long and has some beautiful images and layouts. Being Australian, it is both relevant and approachable (for instance, the recipes are in metric).

Crafts and cooking

For the crafts, there are pages of pictures of beautifully made items with the instructions for making them further on in the magazine. This arrangement is pretty but a little frustrating as you try to link images with instructions and materials to decide if it is something you could make with a five year old. The same approach is used for Christmas meals and treats – the recipes are not beside the main pictures.

I haven’t yet made any of the recipes in the magazine but some in particular look delicious. And they seem as easy to use as most magazine recipes.

However, I have read through a number of crafts in detail and worked on two of them with my five year old daughter. I was quite disappointed at the degree of difficulty in using the instructions as not every step is explained and some knowledge is assumed. The instructions, and the crafts themselves, are not aimed at children – I can see the value in aiming at adults to do a ‘nice’ Christmas items, but I am also aware that kids love making things and that it is a great time for adults to make things with kids. Perfection is not the ultimate outcome to my thinking – it is the doing, the thought and the resultant price that matter. bhg_xmas_magazine_2015_inner

The poinsettia wreath was particularly difficult to follow as it makes use of flowers made in another part of the magazine. Just assessing how much material was required took a while.

The little Santa bags were cute in the magazine and when we made them. Again, the instructions were not as clear as I’d have liked and I had trouble finding all the materials (so adjusted it to suit).

Christmas ideas

Throughout the magazine are various themes for decorating a house for Christmas. This includes ideas of how to add some Christmas touches, things to make, wrapping ideas and tips for setting a beautiful Christmas table.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that there are not many ads in the magazine – mostly just on the covers, plus a list of stockists that is somewhat generic at points.

So if you are after inspiration, just like looking at beautiful Christmas photos, are an experienced crafter after new patterns, or you want some new Christmas recipes, you may just enjoy this magazine. But it certainly isn’t aimed at young families or novice crafters.

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