Christmas Craft, Gift and Activity Roundup

I know, I know it isn't even Thanksgiving yet. But, since I started my Christmas shopping last weekend and the season is short this year, only 3 1/2 weeks, I thought I would share my past Christmas posts.

I love Christmas and will have more fun activities and crafts this year as well.

Christmas Crafts


DIY Advent Calendar


Christmas Activities


Decorating with a Toddler


Gingerbread House with a Toddler


Wrapping Presents with a Toddler


Christmas Gifts


Confetti Glasses


Dream Banks


Mitten Pocket Sweater


Where You've Been Map


Sweet Dill Pickles


Knit Bunny Hat


DIY Personalized Aprons


Knitted Shawl

Dress Up Clothes

• Cinderella 
• Minnie Mouse
• Princess of Rock
• Olaf
• Elsa

Wrapping Presents with Toddlers

So, this year I have been trying to incorporate my 2 year old in as many Christmas activities as possible. Since decorating the tree and building/decorating the gingerbread house went well, I thought I would try wrapping presents. This one turned out to be more frustrating for both of us rather than a fun activity. She wanted to be part of every aspect of the wrapping experience, cutting, taping, folding, writing on tags and placing the tags on. I only wanted her to assist in taping and placing the tags on. Anyone who can avoid doing this activity with a 2 year old, should. I think I will try again next year when she is 3 years old.

Gingerbread House with Toddlers

I got the idea to build and decorate a gingerbread house with my toddler. I knew right away that I was not going to have time to bake the gingerbread and create the whole thing from scratch. So, what I did was buy a gingerbread house decorating kit with pre-made house pieces. I got mine for about $6 on sale at A.C. Moore, here is one that you can buy from Amazon.com.

 

I enlisted the help of my husband in building the house and it really did take two adults with a toddler to be able to put the house together. Once that was done we had to let it set, which was good because our daughter was starting to lose interest.

The next day my daughter and I decided to decorate the house. I knew it was not going to look like the one on the box, I decided that we would put a door on the front and ice the roof and decorate it. This was perfect because my daughter was able to decorate it on her own after I frosted it.

Result:

We had a great time making this house that only cost us $6. Definitely doing this again next year.

Decorating a Christmas Tree with a Toddler

This year I wanted to include my toddler more into the decorating of the tree. She is older now and I thought that she would have fun with it. My husband set up the tree and strung the lights. I removed all the breakable ornaments from the box and then let her fave at it.

Overall, this went pretty well. She started to get bored about 1/2 hour into it, so me and my husband finished the last few ornaments. I think that anyone who has a toddler should not be afraid to include them in decorating the tree. They love helping and participating in Christmas.

Result:

Christmas Craft: DIY Advent Calendar

After my husband and I got married I wanted to start some Christmas traditions of our own. I saw the idea of creating an ornament advent calendar on a talk show and thought that it would be a cool tradition to start. I decided to design my own version of the one that I saw on TV. I used poster board, thin fabric, card stock, push pins and a black sharpie. We have been doing this tradition now for 6 years and will be for many more, each night we put a new ornament on the tree. We usually have to put the first few on all at once because we don't get our Christmas tree right on the 1st.

Result: