Christmas Blogember-day 7-December activity box

A slightly different take on the Christmas Eve box instead a December entertainment box.
You could combine different items to do in December and put them into one place to do when children get bored or one a day.

Ideas to go in

• Mini craft kits
• Mince for mince pies
• Christmas films
• Gingerbread house/character kit
• Letter writing kit
• Coloured pens/pencils
• Card/paper
• Christmas cookie cutters
• Glitter
• Paper chains
• Elf on the shelf
• Christmas songs cd
• Cookie kits
• Pantomime tickets
• Art and craft kits make your own

Christmas Blogember-Day 6-christmas themed sensory play

Happy 3rd Birthday to my gorgeous niece Mia and Happy Birthday to my Dad.

The big kids are still at school for a while so today I thought I would think of some baby and toddler Christmas sensory play activities.

Shaving foam
Shaving foam is great to use as fake snow!! You could some on a tray and hide toys in it such as happyland or vetch toot toot characters/vechicles.

Sensory bottles
old drinks bottles with food colouring and some glitter/Christmas sprinkle items such as snowflakes are always a winner.  Make sure you secure the lid of the bottle tight. Another good idea is to put some tree beads in the bottle.

Christmas playdough
Read my previous blog on making playdough but use Christmas coloured food colouring and cookie cutters of festive shapes.



Shredded wrapping paper mixed with Christmas items such as baubles providing safe to do so.

Hope this has sparked your creative juices today. Hope you are enjoying my blogember blogs.

Christmas Blogember-Day 5-Communciation with the North Pole

If they haven't already today is the day I feel is Santa letter writing day.  Depending on the age of your children they could write their own or you can get plenty of templates on the internet and Pinterest. 

One of my sisters in law have in recent years arranged for our niece to be sent a letter from father Christmas which is so lovely and I have put the links below at the bottom of the blog.
So get your child to do their letter and "send it off" and arrange for a reply to come back a few days later.

I must mention the Santa video messages that can be done via this link below.
https://www.portablenorthpole.com/en/store/videos
I have seen this be done by parents of a three/four year old and she was absolutely mesmerised and it really works as a good behaviour management tool at this time of year.  I must warn you though to test the videos first to check its displaying the message you want it to as you don't want to upset your child if it says they have been naughty when they haven't!

So much online to look at so go have a look.

http://www.santa.co.uk/letter

https://www.nspcc.org.uk/what-you-can-do/make-a-donation/letter-from-santa/?utm_source=ppc&utm_medium=bing_brand&utm_campaign=201609+lfs&utm_content=bing_brand&ac=174410&gclid=CPH0_rnEntACFeAWGQodez4OyA&gclsrc=ds&gclid=CIO7lJ6FptACFaAYGQodHGMFZA&gclsrc=ds

Christmas Blogember Day4- Preparing christmas eve boxes

Photo from Pinterest

Today is the 4th December which means its the hubbys birthday so special day in our household. Happy Birthday to him xx

Todays topic of conversation is Christmas Eve boxes.  In my day we sometimes had a present on christmas eve (yes we were slightly spoilt) but now parents take this to a whole different level by giving children christmas eve boxes. This does not have to be expensive and can be created by things you already have in the house.

How to make the box
There are some beautiful wooden ones online that you can buy however they are expensive and you can just use a small cardboard box wrapped in wrapping paper or a christmas gift box.


Top things to put in the box

• christmas pyjamers
• christmas book for example The Night before Christmas
• christmas craft kits-There are some good £1 in hobbycraft
• christmas movie
• reindeer food-check out how to make this (usually some dried porriage oats and glitter)
• small christmas baking set for example mini gingerbread house kit-Lidi and BN stores do some great ones

link to pinterest board-

Christmas Blogember day 3-Christmas Markets

Today I'm thinking all things Christmas Markets and show that there are plenty of fantastic ones that don't involve travelling into Europe.  Last Year we went to the Birmingham German market and really enjoyed it.  We also managed to pick up a few bits and bobs and enjoyed a good brawurst and gluwein as well!! There was some rides and a huge wheel and ice rink to entertain the children but in regards to the ice rink I would book in advance as it gets busy.

This year I would really like to go to the Bath Christmas market as I hear that's really good and plenty to see and do.  Ive never been that fussed on the Oxford one as I feel it could be better and have some more stalls.

Links
http://www.oxfordchristmasmarket.co.uk/
https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/frankfurtmarket
http://www.bathchristmasmarket.co.uk/

Christmas Blogember Day 2-elf on the shelf

Providing my elf on the shelf actually arrives I plan to do my own take on this during December. If you have one you might already be in the swing of it.  Working with older children this has not been an activity they could enjoy fully but younger children really enjoy it.
For those of you who don't know you name your cuddly elf and each morning the children find the elf in different spots around the house usually upto naughtiness.
Link to purchasing Elf on the Shelf goodies-https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_sb_ss_c_1_11?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=elf+on+the+shelf&sprefix=elf+on+the+%2Caps%2C278&crid=MFVXRKVY2F23



I have also noticed some of the shops,supermarkets are selling their own versions slightly cheaper so I reccomend having a look around if you don't have one already.

Christmas Blogember day 1-Christmas Tree

December is upon us already hooray and the sounds of advent calendars around the country are being opened by small and big people.  This month in the quest to blog more regularly I will be doing a Christmas blog advent calendar of Christmas ideas and places to go, things to do.

Today I thought I could use putting up the Christmas Tree as today's activity.  We love having the tree up in my family for the whole of December. As a child my mother was slightly controlling about the way the Christmas tree was decorated and only occasionally were we allowed to help.

Here is my tree Christmas 2015.  We normally get a real one but decided to invest in an artificial one to reuse in years to come.  Its very sparkly so doesn't need a theme of baubles/tree décor so we just buy random decorations and will add to this as time goes on.

We will put ours up this weekend and add a few more decorations we got during the year.

Happy blogember all xx