puppets Archives - Momma On The MoveMomma On The Move

Over the past month the little ‘elves’ have been busy at our house making their Christmas crafts. Experimenting with googley eyes, glitter and cotton balls, they have created some wonderful wintery and Christmas crafts to add to the decor of our home.

Matthew’s Christmas Reindeer

Since Christmas is a holiday that most of us begin celebrating early in December (and for some even sooner in November -or the die hards right after Halloween :); it allows us lots of time to get ready and enjoy the season. Whether it be through games, activities, Christmas shopping and events or crafts, there is lots to do.

Luke and Chloe have really been enjoying making crafts this year and our nanny has created some wonderful crafts for them to make that use their developing skills and aid in their development of motor skills and creativity.

Chloe is very diligent and careful when she makes her crafts and though Luke is careful too, he tends to be a little ‘freer’ with his creations. One of the first crafts they made was a Santa Claus handprint, with googley eyes and sparkles that can be strung to hang on the tree as a Christmas ornament.

Another one was a snowman on a glittery snowy background complete with hat and scarf. They enjoyed them both and were very easy for them to do.

Santa Handprint Ornament

red foam sheet

white foam sheet

googley eyes

gold and red glitter glue

scissors

string

Trace child’s hand on red foam sheet and again on white foam sheet. Cut both pieces out (depending on the age of the child adult may need to cut out the handprints). Cut the white handprint in half and place on bottom half of red handprint to create beard. Cut out a white strip long enough to go across the top of the red hand between the thumb and the rest of the hand to make fur on hat. Cut out small circle for pom pom on hat and place at the end of the red thumb. Glue on googley eyes. Cut out small mouth out of red foam, Decorate with red and gold glitter glue. Put a string through the top of the red foam hand to hang on tree.

Wintery Snowman

black, orange, green and white construction paper

silver glitter glue

pom poms

ribbon

glue

scissors

Cut one sheet of black construction paper in half. Cut 3 circles, the same size out of the white construction paper. Cut a small square out of the green construction paper (for hat). Glue the white circles sitting one on top of the other to build snowman on one of the halves of black construction paper. Glue on googley eyes on top circle to make face, add orange triangle from construction paper for nose. Use glitter glue to draw mouth. Use pieces of ribbon to make scarf for snowman and for brim on hat. Glue on. Use silver glitter glue on background of snowman (on black construction paper) to create ‘snow’. Add child’s name, if desired on right hand side of snowman.

Chloe gluing her bear puppet

When we went to Heritage Park for their Once Upon a Christmas event they had some great crafts there too. Matthew made a clothespin reindeer and the twins each made a puppet out of an old Christmas card. This was a really simple idea where they traced a pattern onto an old Christmas card (they chose a bear), then we cut it out and glued it onto a popsicle stick. Not only is this a great use for old Christmas cards but Luke and Chloe loved it! They picked the card they wanted to use and after I helped with the cutting, they glued on the stick. Chloe got a little over zealous and decided to eat the glue, not sure why kids do that, I never did – but she finished her craft in the end.

There are a plethora of creative ideas out there for Christmas crafts for all ages such as paperplate snowmen, handprint wreaths and reindeer puppets. The ideas are endless and it is easy to create your own crafts as well. Here are some of my favorite links for more Christmas crafts and ideas.

Make your own snowglobe

Pipecleaner Snowflakes

Enchanted Learning

DLTK crafts

Enjoy and happy crafting as you enjoy this holiday season!

One of the things that I love about Christmas is all the activities and events that surround the holiday. There are craft fairs, carol sings, Christmas parties and many community events that you can choose to participate in to celebrate the season. There is something for everyone, depending on what you like to do.

One of my favorite events is Heritage Park’s Once Upon a Christmas, that runs every weekend starting late November for the 4 weeks prior to Christmas. This is a wonderful family event that includes all kinds of activities for kids and adults alike. They offer kids crafts, visits with Santa, carolers, plays, wagon rides, mazes and a ‘Kids Only’ Store where parents are not allowed to enter with their children. This year they added firepits placed throughout the park, which are great places to cozy up and have a chat and warm up by the fire.

There is so much to do there that it is easy to spend the day. The challenge is that most of it is outside so you have to be to dress for the weather and be prepared to be outside. So for me I always choose a mild weekend to go with the kids. It is much more enjoyable for everyone and we can stay longer and enjoy what the park has to offer.

As this turned out to be a mild weekend, I decided to pack up the kids Sunday morning and head out. Though it was a bit of a challenge to get us all out the door (and I would have prefered to have left half an hour earlier than we did), we made it there with a packed lunch, hot chocolate and gingerbread cookies, dressed and ready to go.

Luke and Chloe love Heritage Park so I had no trouble convincing them to go, in fact they chatted about it the day before hoping to see the “choo choo train”, which only runs in the summertime, but I told them we would ‘check’. Matthew enjoys the park as well and though he had mixed feelings about going easily went out the door.

I always hit the wagon rides first, as the line for that tends to get long as the day goes on. Plus Chloe loves horseys, so was looking forward to it. Chloe was beaming and smiling and pointing things out, while Luke was just taking it all in.

Matthew's Christmas Reindeer

We ventured to the kids crafts where Matthew made a clothespin reindeer and Luke and Chloe made little puppets out of old Christmas cards and popsicle sticks. This area is really well set up, as there is a selection of craft ‘kits’ that the kids can choose from to make their craft and there are lots of volunteers on hand to help the kids out. For the younger children they have coloring sheets and the puppets as options.

Matthew really wanted to hit the Kids Only Store as he went for the first time last year and really enjoyed the freedom of shopping on his own and spending some money 🙂 We also saw Santa and went to the petting zoo.

Luke petting the sheep

The highlight for me though was definitely the Christmas Model Railway, housed in the pool hall. It is one of those as soon as you walk in you go “Wow”; as it really is a Christmas wonderland. There are at least 3 or 4 trains going around this beautiful Christmas scene, villages and houses, lights and trees. I love it because I have always loved trains, and the magical Christmas scenes. I have no idea why I love trains so much, but I think they are cool, especially the model railways that go around and around all by themselves. Which is interesting cause that’s all it does is go around and around- but I could watch it for hours. The railway was really well done; on loan from some private collectors, it was a beautiful site.

The Christmas Railway

We chowed down on peanut butter sandwiches and carrot sticks on a bench outside Gunn’s Dairy Barn and enjoyed homemade hot chocolate, made with fresh almond milk (very easy to make your own), cacao, and spices, as well as homemade gingerbread cookies (sugar and dairy free of course). It was a bright sunny day with clear blue skies, a perfect wintery day, with the air of Christmas all around.

After walking and exploring we headed home, tired but satiated and satisfied with our Christmas adventures. Who knows where we’ll go next?