Christmas Activities....Please Post ideas

[bright sparks]

Howdy folks,

I plan to start my Xmas activities Monday next week so I am compiling my list of things to do along with a shopping list to "shop for" in my craft corner in my basement. Anything else I need will require a trip to the dollar store and at a push to Micheals with a coupon of course. I thought it would be great to get a thread going where we could all share an idea. I love Xmas and usually do lots with the kiddies but this year I have a 2 1/2 yr old and the rest are 14 mths and younger so crafting is not really going to be a big part of my plans. The 2 yr old is picked up a good 30-45 minutes later than the rest so I plan to do some end of day crafts/activities with him so he gets to make some keepsake decorations.

This is a link to a great countdown to christmas. Only my older one will really get something out of it but I thought I'd do it as it would tie in nicely with the xmas decorations and the 2 year old can help me make it this week. Here is the link...great for older kids...3yrs+

http://www.spelloutloud.com/advent-c...mas-craft.html

For my little ones to be included I am going to put a sensory bin together similar to the one posted on Totally Tots here

http://totallytots.blogspot.ca/2011/...christmas.html

The little ones can have fun exploring and playing with the contents and my older one can play decorating a little tree. Obviously with sensory bins and little ones I have to be careful with the contents and that they are safe. I will also have a treasure basket with a Xmas theme which will be completely safe for the babies.

I have lots of Xmas books so I am going to wrap enough up for each daycare day up until Xmas.

Finally I have a felt Xmas tree from scholastic and each day a new felt ornament can be place on it. Last Year my group was 3 year olds and I did big cardboard cut out green trees for each of them and everyday they picked an item from the goody bag( dex from the dollar store) and they stuck them on and took them home on their last day. It was so much fun

I'd love to hear other peoples plans and maybe some pix and links. Thanks

[5 Little Monkeys]

I have 20 month olds, 28 month old and an almost 4 year old. They all do the same art and when we do crafts they all do the same. The younger ones need a bit of a help but they have all done art with me from a young age so they are used too it and do quite well!

I made a felt tree last year and it was a hit so I'm hoping it's a hit this year too. I might make a snowman this year with different scarves, noses, eyes etc and see how well that goes.

We will do lots of red and green art with markers, crayons, pom poms, paint, chalk, feathers. We do lots of stickers too. We will also melt down red and green crayons in the muffin tray and make our own round crayons. They all like to paint but if I'm lazy and don't want a huge mess, I will put paper and marbles dipped in paint in a pringles container and they love shaking it and then seeing the design when I pull the paper out. I buy the cheap wooden ornaments at dollar tree and they paint those for their parents.

I will fill the sensory bin with red and green items, as well as red and green macaroni, rice and one day it will be red water and another day it will be green. We will do pudding art with pistachio pudding and maybe red jello too.

We are almost finished our parent gift from them (a calendar) and we will finish that soon.

[AcornsFalling]

This is a great thread. I am new so don't have a lot of ideas but I'm excited to hear yours!

[torontokids]

I want to do the felt tree this year. How do you attach it to the wall? Also, I have all poster etc hung higher so the little ones can't grab/rip them/any tips on how to prevent this aside from continual redirection?

[Fun&care]

I will have some small Xmas trees I bought for 2$ each at loblaws and bought some small toddler friendly ornaments for the kids to play and decorate with. As far as crafts we are making an egg carton Christmas tree that we will all paint and decorate together and hang in our playroom, then next week we do stockings with which the kids can glue cotton onto and hang those with the tree. After that I think we will do a wreath. I haven't decided what we will be doing for our keepsake ornament yet...and then the last week of Christmas will be baking and decorating cookies and having a pj day and watching a Xmas movie.

[5 Little Monkeys]

FELT TREE....My playroom and nap room are attached and I keep the nap room door shut. I hung my tree on there last year with tape. It does come off from time to time but it's not a huge issue. I allow the kids to rearrange the ornaments and they will play this quite a bit. I have posters on my walls too and they know they aren't allowed to touch those unless we are doing circle time and they come up to them and point to what is their favourite.

If a door isn't an option and you don't want to use tape, you could use painters tape too. I use that a lot.

[playfelt]

If you have really little ones, lay the felt tree down on the carpet and let them play with it that way.