Santa Christmas Countdown

My mother-in-law made these with my kids over the weekend and I wanted to share it with you all! It takes so little--lined paper, red construction paper, and white construction paper. Add some scissors and glue. Then you just number the paper lines! Cut one line off each day.

Fingerprint Christmas Lights

Meet the Dubiens is one of my favorite blogs.  I loved this post where she created fingerprint lights and decided it was just perfect for our Christmas cards.  J could be fully involved and love every minute of it (he did... of course I don't often bring out the finger paints so he was just thrilled).
And the best yet is they were free!  Or at least we already had all the materials necessary: cardstock blank cards, black sharpie, finger paints.

I drew the wire and small black squares to signifiy each light.  The J took over the fun part.  I was a little worried that he would decide to mix all the paint together which would mean we'd have a bunch of brown Christmas lights (not very festive!).  So I just gave him one color at a time and let him paint a few cards with that color before moving on.  That was just way too tedious and unnecessary.  He ended up doing just fine when I gave him all the colors at once. 

And here's our final product (ugh. can't get the photo to turn!)

I later added "Light has come into the world" (John 3:19) to the front of the cards, printed a picture to go inside and sent them on their way. We loved them!
Don't forget to check out the original at Meet the Dubiens.


Becca also blogs at Fun and Engaging Activities for Toddlers.

Top 5 Pinterest Christmas Finds

Now this is a hard task. There is no shortage of fun Christmas ideas out there. Here are my current five favorite for Christmas to give you some more ideas!

Nativity Pre-K Pack
from Over the Big Moon

This is a free printable that has several activities to do with a Nativity theme. Love this! We have used several of these pages so far.

Gingerbread Reindeer Cookies
from CakeCentral

This is super cute. These are gingerbread cutouts that are upside down and decorated as Rudolf!

M&M Wreath

from Toddler Approved

This is on our list for this week. A great activity for working sorting, fine motor, and colors at the same time.

Footprint Christmas Tree

from Craft Rookie

Is this not adorable?

Play Felt Tree & Ornaments

by Johnny in a Dress

This is seriously an amazing idea. I love, love, love it. You could so easily make something similar for various holidays, too. Giant egg to decorate for Easter, Felt tree to decorate by season, turkey with various feathers...lots of possibilities.

You can find me on Pinterest here: https://pinterest.com/valplowman/

You can follow my Learning Ideas board here: https://pinterest.com/valplowman/learning-ideas/

And my Christmas board here: https://pinterest.com/valplowman/christmas/

Christmas Wreath Ornament

Kaitlyn brought this home from preschool last week and it was one of those things where I thought, "Why have I never thought of that?"

Supplies

• green foam
• red ribbon for bow
• string for hanging
• glue
• desired decorations
• scissors

Prep

1. Gather supplies
2. Cut out wreath (you can use straight scissors, but decorative scrapbooking scissors will add some character)

Activity

Have your child decorate as desired! A simple and cute ornament!

Gingerbread Alphabet

We just finished up a fun week of Gingerbread activities. This was our alphabet activity. I got this idea from here: http://www.pre-kpages.com/gingerbread/. She had a free download of the pages, but it only had letters A-F, so I quickly made some of my own. You can download them here.

To prep this activity, I created the pages, printed them, then laminated pages and letters so they will hold up from year to year.

For my older children (4 and 6), I simply gave the child all of the gingerbread men pages and all of the letters (upper and lowercase) at the same time and told them to match them up. They put the upper and lowercase letters on the same man. This is something that helps them work on letter recognition and keeps them occupied for a good chunk of time. They don't need any assistance from you.

For my 2.5 year old, we did things differently. We did one sheet at a time. I gave her the upper and lowercase letters for the letters on that sheet. She could do the uppercase all by herself, so if you want a younger child to do this activity independently, you might want to just do uppercase letters. She needed help with the lowercase letters.

The way I helped her understand grouping the letters together even if they looked different is I told her the man on the page is the "daddy letter," the uppercase letter was the "mommy letter," and the lowercase letter was a "baby letter." This worked for her because she is obsessed with babies. It helped her grasp that the letters can go together even if they don't look the exact same.

I had her hold a letter up and tell me what letter it was, then match it. She could get all uppercase, and knew some lowercase, but didn't know them all. It was a great exercise in getting her to think about lowercase letters.

For younger toddlers, I would recommend doing just uppercase. For a pre-toddler or baby, you might hold the letter up and say what it is and then put it on the page or have your child put it on the page if possible.

Christmas Book List 2011

That's Not My Reindeer by Fionna Watt

We love these books of "That's not my..." They are really fun touch and feel books. This is a great Christmas book for the little ones.

This one is currently unavailable on Amazon, so I can't link to it for you.  Hopefully you can find it at the library or at a different bookstore.









Llama Llama Holiday Drama by Anna Dewdney

This is another series we love at our house. This little llama is always full of passion. His mama is always patient about teaching him how to be, so it is a funny story that teaches the children correct behavior and reminds mom to always be patient.







There Was An Old Lady Who Swallowed A Bell! by Lucille Colandro

We fully enjoy this series also (notice a theme to these book recommendations...). These are silly stories where the lady swallows several different objects that she...regurgitates? in some way to produce a product. It is fun to look at how the small parts contributed to the whole picture.








Merry Christmas, Splat (Splat the Cat) by Rob Scotton

And yet another fun series. Splat the cat is a fun cat who is also funny. He is always messing up somehow :) In this book, he helps mom and dad out--in typical "helping" way.










Who Was Born This Special Day? by Eve Bunting

This one is not part of a series. I do have others that are fun, but this story is Kaitlyn's absolute favorite already this season, so I had to pass it along. This one is not silly and not fun--it is sweet. It goes through the animals and asks them if they were born this special day. They all explain when they were born. Finally it comes to the Christ child. This is a sweet Christmas book.

Christmas Round-Up 2011

Are you ready for Christmas? I feel like I am still mentally preparing for Halloween! Where did time go?!!???

Christmas Books and Recommendations

Get our 2009 Christmas Book Recommendations

Christmas Book List 2010

Our book recommendations for 2010!

Triangle Star Ornament

This activity creates a fun ornament for your tree while working on shapes, fine motor skills, and colors. 

Time Capsules

This is a fun way to remember all of the fun you had this year as a family. See also:

Time Capsule

A fun tradition to do each year.

Christmas Traditions Around the World

Learn about different Christmas traditions from around the world.

Rr is for Reindeer

Super cute activity for the letter R and reindeer week.

Pinecone Christmas Trees

If your kids are like mine, glitter is a favorite. This activity has glitter!

Present Wrapping

Get some fine motor practice in with present wrapping.

A Christmas Sort

I call Raegan the queen of sorting activities, and she does not disappoint with this one :)

Christmas Lamb

The shepherds are a humble part of the Christmas story. You can talk about them as you make these sweet lambs.

Gingerbread Fun

Gingerbread is a fun theme for a week during December! 

Tree Decorating: A Fine Motor Activity

December seems to be full of natural fine motor practice. Take advantage of it all!

Straw Bed for Jesus

Help your children focus on the reason for the season.

Making the Holidays Memorable

Ideas for getting the most out of your holidays.

Christmas Symbols Poem

A poem for reminding us what all of our decorations symbolize.

Christmas Symbols and Meanings

A list of all of the Christmas Symbols and what they mean.

Gingerbread Tips

Making gingerbread items can turn into no fun for everyone if you don't do it right. Find tips for making this a fun tradition rather than a point of contention.

Candy Train

Make a yummy candy train.

Snowmen Ornaments

A darling keepsake ornament to make with your children.

Homemade Ornaments

More ideas for homemade ornaments.

Reindeer Week

Enough reindeer activities to more than fill a week up. They will leave you with your head spinning.

More Reindeer Activities

Just in case your head was not spinning fast enough, we added a few more reindeer activities.

Christmas Tree Art

A great fine motor activity that results in a very cute decoration.

Christmas Tree Rice Krispy Treats

Yummy, festive treats.

Christmas Book List 2010

Here are the Christmas books to add to our list for 2010! Click here for last year's list.

How Santa Lost His Job by Stephen Krensky

Last year, Raegan shared How Santa Got His Job with you. The logical next step is how he lost it! This is a fun story about Santa's quirks and how he lost his job that one year.

Russell's Christmas Magic by Rob Scotton

My kids love Russell the Sheep, so when I saw Russell's Christmas Magic, I knew it would be a hit with them, too. Russell helps save Christmas!

The Something Wonderful: A Christmas Story by Karen Hill

In this story, the animals in THE stable get all busy and preoccupied with the upcoming something wonderful that was about to happen. They really busy themselves. A little lamb finally pulls them back to being kind and focusing on being ready in the right way. A great story for reminding us to prepare the right way for the something wonderful.

Santa's First Flight by Sam Beeson

This is a really fun story about the evolution of Santa. His first year, people were not so keen on the idea of a stranger showing up and sliding down their chimneys, but they warm up to the idea.

MOOSELTOE [ First edition ] by Margie Palatini

This is definitely a favorite story around here at Christmas time. A funny Christmas story.

Humphrey's First Christmas by Carol Heyer

This is one of those stories that brings tears to my eyes each time I read it. It is interesting for the kids so they stay engaged, but it also has a great moral about the way we should all be. Humphrey has a mighty change of heart. 

I Spy Christmas: A Book of Picture Riddles

These are great learning books.