Wrapping presents
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…
Different shapes and colours – the wrapping adds to the excitement of Christmas 🙂
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?
Give the ingredients…
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!
When do you wrap presents?
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?
How cool is chalk Santa?
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.
Simple gifts
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?
Online, Australian Advent Calendar
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.
Get your tongue around…
… 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!
Watch Santa’s Preparations
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?
Where to host Christmas?
I’ve never spent Christmas Day anywhere but at a relative’s home. I understand that a restaurant appeals to some people, but it has never come up for our family gatherings and I’ve been happy with that.
This year, my in laws are due to host it (it swaps between two houses usually) but for health reasons they are less able to do so. So we were going to host it but we have some space issues (plus quite a few things on our plate) and my partner suggested we hire the local hall instead.
I’m torn between the two options and would love to hear other people’s opinions please…
Home
- convenient & can’t forget anything
- need to do lots of tidying etc
- places for babies to sleep (especially mine!)
Hall
- have to pay to hire it
- have to pack stuff (cutlery, tablecloths, decorations, etc)
- lots of space (indoors and out) & parking
- multiple toilets
- will have to clean everything up that night – including taking rubbish with us
- no dishwasher
Either way, I’ll have to do lots of cooking and kids will need supervision outside.
Has anybody hosted Christmas but in another venue? How did it go?
Writing to Santa
Santa loves getting letters from children around the world, and they come in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours – some even come with pictures. Santa is very generous and clever enough to read all sorts of writing and languages, but I thought some tips might make it easier to write as well as easier for Santa to read.
Dressing for Christmas makes letter writing even more fun!
Letter writing tips
When writing to Santa
- remember to start with Santa’s name – maybe Dear Santa or Hello Santa
- ask for things nicely – even Santa gives more when people use please and thank you
- finish with your name – Santa has too many children on his lists to know who wrote it without your name on it!
- let Santa know you’ll leave him a snack
- ask Mum or Dad to make a copy of your letter as you might like to read it again when you’re grown up or someone might make a beautiful scrapbooking page with your letter and Santa’s answer
- use your best writing and maybe get Mum or Dad to draw some lines for you to write on
- have fun! You can write in red or green, or use lots of colours – it’s Christmas after all!
- think about writing something that isn’t about presents you want – maybe ask Santa how he is, tell him about your Christmas plans, thank him for last year’s gifts, ask what his favourite colour or book is, or tell him a joke (Santa does love to laugh!)
If you have a little brother or sister, maybe you could write a letter for them, too.
And on behalf of Santa, thank you for writing to him!
PS We have a free template you can use to help write a Santa letter 🙂
Tips on ordering Santa letters
Santa is such a busy man, especially leading up to Christmas, that he sometimes gets other people to help him. I feel very lucky and honoured to help Santa write his letters for Australian children.
So I can do the best job ever for Santa and for his children, here are some ideas on how to best tell me about your special child(ren).
- only use capital letters for things that need them – names and places need capitals but most toys don’t
- write to the child rather than about them (you were kind to Mary, trying hard with your writing, playing nicely with John and Betty, and so on)
- use a nickname if you want – Santa isn’t formal!
- list presents the child really does want (and you’re happy for them to have! Santa DOES pay attention to requests remember) rather than what you want for them
- think about the whole year but remember young children won’t remember as much from months ago
- order a different background design than last year – it’s more fun and brightens up the scrapbook or wherever the child keeps their letters
- asking for the same letter wording for siblings may make the letters feel less personal, so let Santa write something different for each of them
Remember, Santa letters are about fun and acknowledging children’s achievements and improvements so make sure you have fun and enjoy the process, too!
Chocolate Christmas Trees
Takes about 50 miniutes ot make, but they look so cool!
Ingrediants:
250 g plain sweet biscuits
2 tbsp cocoa
1 cup desicated coconut
150 – 200g white chocolate for decoration.
150g dark chocolate pieces, hundreds & thousands, or choc sprinkles for decoration as well.
Method:
combine buicuit crumbs with cocoa!
Now add your cocoanut and sweet condensed milk.
Put cling wrap on them and put in fridge for 20-25 minutes
than shape them into fir tree shapes (cones really)
Now drissle melted white choclate all over(as your tinsel) and decorate with your delicous hundreads and thousands or choclate sprinkles (as your other decorations on your tree).
if you have some star stickers or icing shapes, put one on each tree to finish it off.
Ummmmmmmmmm,a quick,yummy and fun activity to do with your kids – maybe give as presents, too. The trees, not the kids!)
BROWSE BY CATEGORY
- About Love Santa
- Baby’s first Christmas
- Children’s craft
- Christmas activities
- Christmas books
- Christmas cooking
- Christmas crafts
- Christmas gifts
- Christmas humour
- Christmas Lights/Decorations
- Christmas Memories
- Christmas spirit
- Christmas today
- Easter
- Green Christmas
- Happy kindness
- International Christmas
- Santa letters
- Santa Memories
- Santa’s snacks
- Christmas elf fun
- Uncategorized
Start your Christmas kit gifts
Â
Â
Order Cut Off Dates
Please note that Love Santa letters need to be ordered before December 18Â to be delivered before Christmas!
Order now to be sure of delivery before Christmas. Keep an eye on our blog for final ordering days as we get close to Christmas Eve.
Â
Privacy Policy
Under no circumstances, not even under threat of having to fill in for Santa on Christmas Eve, will your details of any kind be given, sold or lent to any other party.