It’s time to get ready for the holidays! Fall is like a countdown to all that is festive and fun! Whether it’s a long hike on a Sunday morning or spending an afternoon doing a creative art project, let’s keep those minds and hands busy and those brain waves flowing.
Here are some ideas for bringing out the artist in your children!
You’ll need:
White paper (card stock works best)
Paint
Pencil
Cotton swabs
Draw around your child’s hand and forearm for the tree trunk, and then have them paint this brown. Use cotton swabs to paint on leaves as shown.
These would also be adorable place cards with one finger as the trunk and then the colored dots on a small folded card for each place setting at the Thanksgiving table.
Plan a day outdoors, or around the neighborhood. Look for items that you’ll only find in the autumn. Take photos of the things you’ve discovered and share them with the group when the hunt ends. Make it a game with your family, or take a few families and try to find the items before the others do!
Here are some ideas for the list:
Fall wreaths
Cornucopias
Mums
Sunflowers
Pumpkins
Corn stalks
Mushrooms
Animal tracks
Feathers
Pinecones
Spiders
Cut shapes from tissue or construction paper in all the different fall colors.
Paste them into a large drawing of a pumpkin with glue or a glue stick for a colorful decoration for your home.
Kids have been making yellow, green, and red apple prints for years to resemble all kinds of apples. Have you ever thought of using them as a template for pumpkins? Look at these examples of apple stamps made into jack-o-lanterns!
Find two pieces of wood or plastic pipe and dress it in old clothes, and add a cloth bag stuffed with filler and painted with a “stitchy” grin to make the head! Pumpkins also make great scarecrow heads.
Slip some straw in the arms and neck, place a hat on the head, and have a silent guardian in your yard to greet visitors this fall! If you can’t get your scarecrow into the ground, try a large pot filled with sand or a bale of hay to anchor your stuffed creation!
No sooner has Thanksgiving come and gone than the Christmas holiday season will begin! While the adults break out the decorations for the house on the first day of December (or before!), the kids can gather the materials and supplies for crafts.
Everything from cardboard, sticks, stickers, pipe cleaners, paper plates, colored paper, and googly eyes can be used to make projects to decorate their space. Kids love spending time with their family and friends doing fun activities.
Here are some fun ideas for your family this holiday season.
This is a great craft, but also a great and inexpensive gift for classmates at Christmas.
Help your little ones cut out trees in a shape like this or just a plain triangle from green construction paper or printed craft paper. Assist them in accordion folding the paper horizontally, using a hole punch to put a hole through the center of the folds. Add a yellow cardboard or construction paper star on top.
Place a festive pencil or straw through the holes to make a trunk. You can put the “trunk” into a block of foam and add multiple trees for a forest. Your child can also give the trees with their festive pencil or straw trunks as small gifts!
This is a great way to keep the kiddos from saying, “How much longer ‘til Christmas?”
Plenty of commercially made Advent calendars are available, but it would be fun to help them make one for you to fill!
This one is just a simple foam core board or thick paper with 24 cups attached in the shape of a tree. Each cup is covered with a red or green napkin or piece of tissue paper and held in place with a rubber band. Numbers on the covers count down until the big day!
The star on top can be made of yellow paper and pasted or drawn with markers or crayons.
The cups can contain candy, small toys, coins, easy-to-do crafts, or inspirational sayings for the child to find daily. Use your imagination and your child’s favorites for ideas!
Then, half the fun is punching through the tissue paper to get to each day's surprise!
How about hosting a night for all of your family or your child’s friends? This is an inexpensive way to spend an evening. The kids can watch the movie, reaching to grab some popcorn or cookies.
The parents can catch up, all while sipping some cider or cocoa.
This is the stuff you’ll remember forever, and when you think of it, it always brings a smile and a sense of nostalgia. It’s an “almost free” event!
These creative pinecone and bow decorations are something you could hang and leave all winter long! They bring a touch of nature to any room, and the craft is something your kids can make in minutes.
You can buy some jute twine and pine cones at most craft stores - or take a day trip to the mountains to collect the pine cones! Then, use your creative talents to make beautiful bows of your favorite holiday ribbon. Gather these supplies together and help your child tie on the twine and the bows. It’s as simple as that!
People need assistance more during the holidays than at any other time. That’s why we gather to celebrate the year we’ve had and the one to come and lend a hand to the less fortunate.
Get your family together and volunteer. This does not have to be serving at a free soup kitchen or reading to the senior population at a retirement home, although these are great ideas. Discuss what your family would like to participate in this year to give back and share what blessings you’ve been given.
Share your talents, give funds, help out a neighbor on a Saturday afternoon, take a meal to a shut-in, or dog sit for a relative going out of town.
Many areas have toy donation spots where you can leave new toys. Food banks are great places to give money or make food contributions. Many companies play Secret Santa to a family in need or have an Angel Tree to buy necessities for one. This helps you feel like you are a part of a greater good as everyone banding together has a reach farther than you have alone.
Capturing the meaning of the holiday season while having fun with family and friends makes life worth living. The quality time spent with loved ones during this time sticks with us forever and creates memories that can’t be replaced or taken away.
From all of us at Jungle Roots - We hope you enjoy the holidays and make every minute count!
