Scented sachets
It took concentration but the kids loved filling the bags for their Grandparents’ Christmas gifts.
As I’ve mentioned before, I usually get my kids to make presents for their grandparents each Christmas. It can be difficult finding things to make as I want it to be something the grandparents can keep and enjoy rather than just a scrap of paper with a scribble on it, and ideally it will be something at least a little bit useful!
So one year they made scented sachets as gifts.
Steps to scented sachets…
- I pulled out various bits of material I already had and let each child choose fabric to use.
- For the chosen fabrics, I cut a rectangle of about 18cm x 5cm# and used a sewing machine to create them into bags* – some with a lace trim
- we then walked around the garden together, collecting stuffing for the bags – we used home grown lavender, gum leaves, native mint leaves and miscellaneous leaves. Yes, you’d probably get better long term results from dried plant matter but I wanted the kids to be involved in the whole process and didn’t mind if these sachets didn’t last more than a few months.
- the children then had a lovely time filling their bags with the scented plant material
- I hand stitched the opening of the bags
- The kids lovingly wrapped their gifts and put them under the Christmas tree.
For older children, you could get them more involved in making the bags, too.
# Some I cut in 10cm x 9 cm pieces if that fitted my material better
* To make the bags, simply fold the fabric in half with the right sides touching and sew along most of the open edges, leaving a small opening to add the filling. To trim with lace, simply pin the lace between the two pieces of fabric (so the pretty part is hidden from view as you pin and sew) and sew as per the plain bags.
There was an old bloke who swallowed a present – Christmas book review
There was an old bloke who swallowed a present %22%20transform%3D%22translate(.6%20.6)%20scale(1.17188)%22%20fill-opacity%3D%22.5%22%3E%3Cellipse%20fill%3D%22%23252b29%22%20cx%3D%2219%22%20cy%3D%2299%22%20rx%3D%2242%22%20ry%3D%22247%22%2F%3E%3Cellipse%20fill%3D%22%2378676d%22%20rx%3D%221%22%20ry%3D%221%22%20transform%3D%22rotate(109.2%2053.8%20106)%20scale(133.47409%20107.90785)%22%2F%3E%3Cpath%20fill%3D%22%23a93b60%22%20d%3D%22M102.5%2010.6l82.2%2025.1-15.2%2049.7-82.2-25.1z%22%2F%3E%3Cellipse%20fill%3D%22%23272c2b%22%20cx%3D%22141%22%20cy%3D%22241%22%20rx%3D%22247%22%20ry%3D%2218%22%2F%3E%3C%2Fg%3E%3C%2Fsvg%3E "Old_bloke_swallowed_present | love santa")
by P. Crumble
illustrated by Louis Shea
Scholastic Australia, Lindfield, 2014
Age group: preschool and above
Format: hard cover, 24 pages
This is a fun book I recommend as a Christmas gift or to read in the lead up to Christmas.
The story
Based on the long standing story of “there was an old woman who swallowed a fly”, this book is about a man who swallowed a present (now that’s not pleasant!) and a series of other festive things such as a card, gingerbread man and a choir!
My review
It is a colourful book with beautiful pictures of the old man (who resembles a certain jolly white-haired man known as Santa) swallowing his treats and within his stomach as the various creatures interact (such as the gingerbread man who reads the card!)
I think this book would suit many age groups as it is colourful, has rhymes, is funny and works on a familiar story that will appeal to children and adults alike.
Personally, I would prefer to avoid the snowman and even the gingerbread man as they just aren’t Christmassy images to me, but they work and are fun (and a snowman is obviously a good choice for cooling something down! He also reminds me of Olaf from Frozen so that has to be a win for many children). And of course it is not sold as a Christmas book as such, but that is the overall impression rather than it being a birthday present.
Would I recommend it? For a fun read, I say go ahead and get this one!
I saw santa!
Back in the day when I was say 5 or 6 years old, I saw Santa on Christmas day.
I remember we stayed on the ground floor of a big apartment and we had a fake fireplace. I wondered how Santa got in to bring us our presents. Then I sat at the window thinking he is magic, he can do anything and he has brought me awesome presents today!
Right then I looked into the sky and say the him and the reindeer flying across the horizon and I just felt all warm inside. Now that I am older I know more, but I still swear that is what I saw.
A genuine endorsement for real letters
Unfortunately, there are some sad people who spam others for enjoyment or to make money in unscrupulous ways.
Genuine vs spam Santa letters
Who could prevent a baby or child this delight?
What’s sadder is that there are even people who would use children’s love of Santa and the magic of Christmas, and the love of adults for those children, to try getting money out of others.
We were very pleased to find that PC mag Australia wrote about this problem and gave two reputable options for Santa letters rather than the scammers – Australia Post (for a non personalised letter) and Love Santa (for personalised letters with additional touches).
Staying safe
As well as sharing our excitement at getting such an unexpected mention, this article inspired me to give some tips on avoiding spam…
- if you’re unsure, do NOT click on any links in emails. Type out the URL yourself so you go to a real site (there are emails that look right but have links that will take you somewhere unexpected)
- don’t just rely on emails – check their website or Google them for reviews and comments. Personally, I don’t trust anyone who advertises by emailing strangers!
- if in doubt, only make payments through trusted sites, such as paypal or a direct deposit from your banking facility. And NEVER give credit card details via email.
- look at the email address – does it come from a domain that seems valid (eg a relevant business name)? does the name in the email match the email address?
- read the website – does it feel genuine (this comes through even more in a blog and articles which are less sales-orientated), do the photos look like real people, are there contact details, and so forth.
Here’s to getting rid of spammers!
Time to recap on Christmas…
What did you find under and around the Christmas Tree?
It’s Boxing Day and that’s a great time to look back at Christmas and remember how great it was and appreciate many things.
Your gifts…
As I asked a few years ago, what did you get for Christmas that …
- showed the most thought and knowledge about you?
- was the most fun?
- was a complete surprise?
- means the most to you?
And what present did you GIVE that gave the most joy?
Your day…
And I’d love to hear about your Christmas celebrations yesterday. Did you start any new traditions or try something different this year?
What made your day special?
Christmas is almost here, but it’s not too late!
With only days to go, do you feel ready for Christmas?
Perhaps you were hoping to arrange a Santa letter for someone special but have just realised Christmas is almost here and you’ve not done it? It’s easy to let it slip with all the things that need doing at this time of year, but it is disappointing for any child to miss out.
Maybe you weren’t sure of the details to let us personalise a letter for the special child(ren) in your life, so kept putting it off until now it feels too late.
Love Santa letters are still available!
Well, you’re in luck! It IS too late to send anything via Australia Post before Christmas and a bit too close for us to write personalised letters at this stage.
However, we have prepared a non-personalised Love Santa letter for Aussie and Kiwi children that you can print off for them – pop it in an envelope in the letter box, hang it from the Christmas tree or have it sticking out of a stocking hung by the chimney, or any other creative presentation you think of!
Last minute Love Santa letters
Professionally written like all our letters, the non-personalised letter also refers to a warm Christmas and the boomers, and of course includes a craft idea and recipe for a Santa snack. We write a new letter every year (but you can still grab the non-personalised letters from 2012 and 2013 as well if you want three different letters – contact us for more than three!)
The more magic we can give children for Christmas, the better! (Did you know that Michael Grose believes Christmas magic is even more important for children than ever in this information age?)
Simply click on the button below to arrange for your downloadable Santa letter, and have a Merry Christmas!
Christmas bonbon jokes, 2014
Following on from jcc481’s suggestion, I am going to compile jokes from this year’s bonbons (or Christmas crackers) 🙂
Christmas bonbons, complete with paper hat and a sheet of jokes…
I don’t promise all will be funny – but it’s a sure bet some will make you groan! However, it will be fun and all will be clean and child-friendly. So here goes…
Jokes from the bonbons…
Which composer do dogs prefer?
Poochini
What do call two thieves?
A pair of knickers
What do clouds wear?
Thunderwear
What do you call a man with a spade in his head?
Doug
What do you call a man without a spade in his head?
Douglas
What do you call a penguin in the Sahara Desert?
Lost
What do hedgehogs have for lunch?
Prickled onions
How does Jack Frost get to work?
By icicle
Why did the tomato blush?
It saw the salad dressing
Why do cows lie down in the rain?
To keep each udder dry
What do you call a fish with no eyes?
A fsh
How did my friend drown in a bowl of muesli?
He was pulled in by a strong currant.
How many animals of each species did Moses take into the ark?
None, but Noah took two of each!
How is a banana peel on the footpath like music?
If you don’t C Sharp you will B flat
* I will add more after more bonbons on Thursday!
Your turn…
There’s only so many bonbons I come across so to make a large collection of jokes, I need help! I’d love you to add any other bonbon jokes you’ve come across this year to the list by putting them in the comments below.
PLEASE make sure only family friendly jokes are included…
Managing Christmas expectations
In business and in marketing discussions, ‘managing expectations’ is important and quite common.
The point is to let people know what to expect so they are content with things. For example, if people know it will take two weeks to have something delivered, they’ll be happy with to arriving in 12 days.But 12 days would be irritating if you expected it in 3 days.
What about Christmas expectations?
The size of a gift can raise expectations…
Managing expectations is not a term I’ve really thought about in relation to Christmas (or other gift times of year), but it makes sense to think about it.
Have you ever had expectations about Christmas that were not met or (happy days!) exceeded?
High expectations fail
I remember once that I was given some hints that I would get an iPad for Christmas, and I was quite pleased about the idea. And quite disappointed when I didn’t get one on Christmas Day. Had I not heard those hints, the lack of iPad wouldn’t have bothered me at all so it was false expectations that caused the disappointment.
It’s a bit like the child getting a huge gift, only to discover that there is a box inside a box inside a box… The child would be a mix of emotions – excitement over a large gift, disappointment over it not being so big, excitement over lots of layers to unwrap and the surprise of finding whatever was in the middle. My Dad did that to me once – the final gift was very small, but as it was a key to a car it was also a very big gift!
Low expectations succeed
Via jcc81’s comment in a recent post, I heard of a great way to set low expectations, and thus provide excitement on Christmas Day. Imagine children watching you wrap some junk for them and seeing those gifts under the tree for days and weeks… Only to discover some other gifts were placed under the tree on Christmas morning!
Managing Christmas gift expectations
So letting children know in advance that they may not get everything they want, not even everything they wrote to ask Santa for, is a good way to keep them happy with what they get on Christmas morning.
I think that is a good lesson for them anyway – there should be more to Christmas than the gifts. They need to learn that they can’t always get what they want.
Have you ever really thought about managing Christmas expectations?
Tiny Christmas pudding gifts ~ recipe
I’ve been busy so left it a little late to plan the gifts for prep/kinder teachers the children wanted to make. So I looked back through the Love Santa recipes and found Anna’s tiny Christmas puddings 🙂
These will be easy enough to make quickly, I figured, and the kids could be involved in every step – and enjoy the final decorating phase. So this is what our final gifts to the kinder teachers looked like:
Tiny Christmas puddings ready to be wrapped in cellophane
Making tiny Christmas puds
And this is what we did to make them…
I bought a fruit cake from the supermarket that we have enjoyed many times – it’s just a homebrand cake but it is moist and not too heavy. I’m not a huge fan of the dark traditional Christmas cakes as I find them too heavy and dry, but you could certainly use one if you, like my husband, do like them.
Ingredients
Prepared fruit cake – bought or home made!
yoghurt
icing sugar
red & green jelly babies
red & green smarties
Quantities will depend on how many puddings you want to make 🙂 I used about half a cup of icing sugar and 1.5 tablespoons of yoghurt and most of a purchased 1 kg fruit cake.
Small packets of jelly babies and/or smarties should be enough as long as there is enough red and green ones in there!
Instructions…
Cut the cake – slice off about 3cm piece
Slice off a generous piece of cake
Cut the slice into smaller pieces. Roll each piece into a ball – actually, you’ll need to form the shape as it will fall apart if you try rolling it.
Not very glamourous at this stage – balls of fruit cake
Put the cake balls into the fridge for a while – I left them there overnight. This helps them firm up a little so they are easier to work with.
As the balls were fiddlier and less stable than I expected, I also tried do big pieces to effectively make small cakes for my son’s teachers. These were also easier for little fingers to decorate (and quicker to prepare!).
Small Christmas cakes, decorated and gift wrapped
Slice up the jelly babies – making small red circles and long, thin green strips. Cut the green smarties in half.
Whole or sliced, jelly babies and smarties are colourful
Mix the yoghurt and icing sugar to a reasonably thick mixture.
Spoon some icing over the cake balls.
Decorate the tiny puddings with the red and green lollies. I created a holly effect but my son just had fun making the cakes colourful!
My son enjoyed adding lots of colour to the small Christmas cakes!
Kinders writing to Santa
After enjoying it so much last year with my son, I offered to help my daughter’s kinder with Santa letter writing this year. The children are four or five and heading towards starting school next year.
An array of letters to Santa, written by kinder children
Helping the children write
Working with two or three children at a time, I sat with the kinders to help them. Each child chose a texta (choice of colour is important!) and then copied Santa’s name from where I had written it.
Many of the children went on to write ‘can I please have’, while I wrote it for a few of them. Then they told me what they wanted to ask Santa for and I wrote it down – either for them to copy or directly onto their letter.
Sharing the letters
Children writing their letters to Santa
Once the entire group had written a letter (I went in during two different sessions), they were photocopied.
The children folded the original letters, placed them in an envelope and together they walked to a letterbox and posted their letters. By this time, they had learned how letters are formatted, practised their writing and seen how to mail a letter – it’s a great learning activity as well as being fun.
The kinder teacher placed the copies into the children’s portfolios which were given to parents as a Christmas gift after their concert.
Requests to Santa
While most of the children quickly rattled off a favourite gift idea or two, a few had trouble which surprised me. I hadn’t expected to have to help any child suggest what they wanted!
Not surprisingly, there were a number of requests for Lego, things from Frozen, cars and games. One girl very sweetly added ‘a gift for my little sister’ to her list.
Santa’s reply
In my usual role as Santa’s Letter Elf, I wrote a reply to the kinders, too.
It was fun to include each child in the letter somehow so they could feel it was truly for them when the teacher read it out to the group.
Santa receives a gift
Offering a special picture to Santa
Last night, we attended a Christmas picnic at my daughter’s kinder. It was a lovely night and we had a special visitor towards the end of the evening.
As my daughter had known that Santa was visiting the picnic, she created a gift for him in the afternoon. The gift being a drawing on a piece of cardboard.
Seeing Santa
When Santa arrived, not surprisingly, lots of children ran over to him.
The band was playing ‘Santa is coming to town’ and the children were happily looking at their Christmas hero.
Each child was given an icy pole by Santa, and Santa moved around to greet other children and chat to some adults.
My daughter had her icy pole in hand then grabbed her gift and followed Santa, trying to get his attention. Reaching out her gift, she was able to give it to him.
Santa’s response
Santa was surprised to be given a gift, thanked her warmly and leant down to kiss her cheek.
For the rest of Santa’s visit, her cardboard gift was in his hand. He also carried it up the street when he left, as witnessed by a friend 🙂
Santa waving bells and holding a child’s gift
My very excited daughter has since described Santa’s beard as being like ‘sheep’s fluff’ – soft and cuddly.
Gifts for Santa
My children often talk about giving something to Santa, and have left gifts for him on a number of Christmas Eves. However, it is the first time a gift has been physically handed to Santa.
It was a lovely memory for us and a special way for her to finish kinder – thanks Santa 🙂
Have you or your children ever given a gift to Santa?
Simple Christmas gift
Plain magnets and stickers – an easy and cheap material list!
To solve the issue of what my son could give to his classmates for Christmas, we decided on a card and a small, simple Christmas gift for everyone rather than trying to choose who to give a personal present to.
Christmas gift magnets
I found some magnets and Christmas stickers so our gift idea was found!
Foam stickers give a better result than flat stickers, I think. They are bigger and will look better on the fridge!
If you manage to get stickers and magnets exactly the same size, then all you have to do is stick on the stickers! However, the odds are you won’t be quite so lucky.
Creating Christmas magnets
If the sticker is bigger than the magnet, you can just take off the backing paper and attach the magnet. It will look great from the front and back but (and this is a big but!) the exposed glue surface will attract dirt and dust and soon will become messy.
The red surface of the left Christmas magnet is sticky and will soon be messy – the Christmas tree will stay nicer.
The sticky surface will also make it difficult to put the Christmas magnet into an envelope or gift wrapping. This simple gift would not be simple to remove from the wrapping either!
I traced around the magnet on the back of the sticker and then scored the outline. I actually prepared a pile of them before my son got involved, but older children could possibly score the paper themselves.
Trace around a magnet with the blade of a craft knife or pair of scissors
It was then easy for my son to peel off just that bit of backing paper and attach the magnet, leaving the rest of the backing paper in place.
Peeling off the relevant bit of backing paper and attaching the magnet was managed by four and six year olds.
That’s it – no drying time or finishing touches needed! And because they are small and light, it’s easy to just pop them into an envelope with a Christmas card and you’re done. In half a day, my son had a gift and card done for all his classmates (and writing the cards was definitely the most time consuming task!)
My son proudly laid out his completed Christmas magnet gifts
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