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Christmas

Felt Bird Ornament: Christmas Sewing for Kids

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Have you seen all those themed Christmas trees? They’re beautiful and often very clever. I’m always blown away when I see some of the themed trees.

My tree won’t ever be on display in a store window, but it does have a theme. My very favorite theme of all.

Memories.

It’s full of memories. I hang ornaments that both my husband and I received as a child, ornaments that my kids’ grandparents give them every year, and many lovely homemade ornaments. Those homemade ornaments are the best ones of all. And this year, we’re going to add a Felt Bird Ornament (or two) to the tree.

 
Make this simple felt bird ornament inspired by the book The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola. It's a simple sewing project for kids.

When you look at our tree, you can see the how my girls’ skills improved over the years, from paper and glue to salt dough creations. This year, we’re showing off a new skill – sewing.

My girls were delighted to get out their sewing kits and stitch up simple bird ornaments for our tree.

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

The Birds of Bethlehem

I discovered a lovely Christmas book this year, The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola. It’s the story of the Nativity told from the point of view of the birds of Bethlehem who saw all that happened. My older girls (ages 7 and 9) enjoyed the story, but it’s also one that preschoolers and even toddlers would enjoy.

I was completely enchanted by all the bird illustrations. They were simple and translated well to a simple sewing project. Keep reading to find out how we made our Felt Bird Ornament.

Make this simple felt bird ornament inspired by the book The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola. It's a simple sewing project for kids.

Supplies Needed (for each bird ornament):

1 sheet of felt (approximately 9″ x 12″)
Bird pattern (click here to download pattern)
Scissors
Straight pins
Needle
White thread
Fiberfill

Prepare your pattern

Before you begin, print out the bird pattern. You can click here to download and print. It’s hand-drawn and inspired by all the bird illustrations in the book.

Fold your felt sheet in half and pin the cut-out pattern to your felt with straight pins.

Cut around your pattern. Because of the folded felt, you’ll have two birds.

Make this simple felt bird ornament inspired by the book The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola. It's a simple sewing project for kids.

How to make your felt bird ornament

Thread your needle with your white thread. We used white thread for a contrast and so you could see the pretty stitches.

Note: I doubled the thread so you could see it better. Basically, put the needle in the middle of your length of thread. Take both ends of the thread and knot them together. Now you’ve got a double-thickness of thread.

Put the two bird pieces back to back and start sewing the two pieces together. We used a simple whip stitch to combine the two pieces. This is a very easy stitch for kids to try. Basically, you push the needle up through the back, come up through the front. Then bring the thread from front to back and push the needle up through the back again.

Click here for a detailed explanation of a whip stitch.

Make this simple felt bird ornament inspired by the book The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola. It's a simple sewing project for kids.

Sew all around the bird. Keep an opening from the beginning of the tail to the base of the neck for your stuffing. (See photo above.)

Do not tie a knot or cut your thread yet.

Make this simple felt bird ornament inspired by the book The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola. It's a simple sewing project for kids.

Use your fiberfill to stuff your bird.

Make sure to push some of your stuffing up into the head and into the tail. We left part of our tail flat to look more bird-like.

Make this simple felt bird ornament inspired by the book The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola. It's a simple sewing project for kids.

Once your bird is stuffed, use the leftover thread to sew the hole together. Continue on using a whip stitch until you’ve sewn all the way across your hole. Tie a knot and cut your extra thread.

Use another length of thread and your needle to sew through the top of your bird and form a loop for hanging on the tree. You’re all done.

It’s time to hang your ornament on your tree.

We’ve got our Birds of Bethlehem felt bird ornaments hanging on our memory tree now. Not only do they tell the story of the Nativity, but they also bring back memories of our afternoon sewing.

Make this simple felt bird ornament inspired by the book The Birds of Bethlehem by Tomie dePaola. It's a simple sewing project for kids.

Our Felt Bird Ornaments are part of a lovely blog hop – 10 bloggers, 10 books, and 10 fun Christmas activities. Check out all the other participants below.

1st Day Inspired by Family-The Legend of the Christmas Cookie book & Easy Reindeer Cookies
2nd Day Teaching Mama  The Legend of the Candy Cane book & Easy & Cute Candy Cane ornament
3rd Day Beautiful Messy Motherhood A Carol for Christmas book & Write Your Own Christmas Carol Idea
4th Day Meaningful Mama The Crippled Lamb book & Handprint Nativity Craft
5th Day Happy Home Fairy -M is for Manger book & another lovely and different (from the one above) Nativity Handprint Craft
6th Day Simple Home Blessings Who is Coming to Our House book & Christmas Garland craft
7th Day The Chaos and the Clutter
8th Day Creative Family Fun The Birds of Bethlehem felt bird ornaments. (You’re here now!)
9th Day True Aim Education
10th Day Sunshine Whispers

Gift Ideas for Kids Who Love to Create

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My oldest daughter is a maker. She love to draw, craft, sew, and bake.

I love to buy her gifts that support this interest. Gifts that promote creativity or that can teach a new skill. I want to give a gift that may be the beginning of a lifetime hobby.

Here are some great gift ideas for creative kids in your life. Light that spark of creativity.

What kids of gift do you get for kids who love to create? Your creative kids will love one of the ideas in this gift guide.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate Links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

What kids of gift do you get for kids who love to create? Your creative kids will love one of the ideas in this gift guide.

Gift to Help Them Create:

Get them a set of fun markers like Mr. Sketch Scented Markers.

Or their own Sharpie collection.

Or maybe they would like a nice set of colored pencils for creating.

Creative kids need a place to create. A simple sketchbook is great for this.

Or maybe they want to create pictures on these mini scratch art sheets.

Give them a new art supplies to experiment with. Chalkboard markers would be fun.

So would a pack of sculpting clay and some sculpting tools to work with.

What kids of gift do you get for kids who love to create? Your creative kids will love one of the ideas in this gift guide.

Gifts to Teach Them a New Skill:

Teach them to sew while they make a simple sock kitty.

Or they can sew up a set of cute woodland animals.

They can learn about weaving while working with a new wooden weaving loom.

Learn the art of origami with a My First Origami kit.

We love Klutz Kits and always have fun with them. This Felted Friends kit is a fun one which teaches the craft of felting.

Or learn how to work with clay by making mini Clay Charms with this set.

What gifts are you going to get your creative kids this year?

What kids of gift do you get for kids who love to create? Your creative kids will love one of the ideas in this gift guide.
You can find even more links to great gift guides at this post, 50+ Gift Guides for Toddlers, Kids, and Teens. You’ll find something for everyone on your list!
 

Gingerbread Man Paper Doll Decorations

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Did you ever make a chain of paper dolls? My girls have been making paper dolls for weeks now and I’m finding them all over the house. I decided to capitalize on their interest and added a Christmas twist. We made gingerbread man paper dolls. It was so much fun and the process was so easy!
Disclaimer: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details.

 

Supplies Needed:
Brown wrapping paper
Pencil
Gingerbread man cookie cutter
Scissors
Sharpies (markers or crayons would also work)
In all of our paper doll experiments, we learned that the longer the piece of paper, the better chain of paper dolls you will get. Since you only get a few paper dolls out of a regular sheet of paper, I tried to think outside the box. What could we use? Luckily I remember the roll of brown wrapping paper we had. It was perfect! I used our cookie cutter to measure out the height of the strips that we needed, then cut a few long strips of paper.

 

Fold your long strip of paper accordion-style. Once folded, you’ll want it to be exactly (or close to) the width of your cookie cutter. Trace around your gingerbread man on the top of your folded paper.
Keeping the paper folded, cut around your traced lines. Remember, the arms need to stay connected so do not cut around the hands.

 

Once you’ve cut out your gingerbread men, unfold them. I was able to get a chain of seven gingerbread men. If you want to make a longer chain, just tape a few chains together at the hands.

 

Once you have them cut out, it’s time to grab the Sharpies and decorate! We spent a fun afternoon creating our gingerbread men. You can make an entire chain that looks like cookies or you can let your imagination run wild. The girls made entire gingerbread man families. They were all dressed differently and each one had a name. Needless to say, their gingerbread men never became decorations. The girls were too busy playing with them! So much fun!

 

I’ve teamed up with a great group of bloggers to bring you a lot of fun Christmas decoration ideas. Please check out all the links below for some more great ideas.
Crystal Snowballs at Rainy Day Mum
Jolly Kid Made Salt Dough Ornament Garland from Crafty Mama in ME
Fine Motor Egg Carton Snowman Craft from Sugar Aunts
Kid Made Pom Pom Garland from Spark & Pook
How to Make a Simple Jingle Bells Christmas Ornament from Peakle Pie
Bubble Wrap Holly Wreaths from Crafty Kids at Home
Nativity Lantern from Sun Hats and Wellie Boots
DIY Gift Wrap – Potato Print Penguins from Mum in the Madhouse
Glitter Glue Gingerbread Man Decoration from Adventure of Adam
Gingerbread House Photo Frame Ornament from Teach Me Mommy
Tissue Paper Christmas Wreath from 3 Dinosaurs
Kids Art into Christmas Decoration from Non Toy Gifts
Pom Pom Santa Hat Decoration from The Gingerbread House
The Little Blue Truck Handmade Christmas Card Holder from My Bright Firefly
Make a Snowman Decoration Using Recycled Lids from The Creative Pair

 

Printable Family Activities Advent Calendar

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Every single year by the time mid-November rolls around, I think about making an advent calendar.

I’ll do a search on Pinterest, find tons of great ideas, start making a list… and then I get caught up in the busyness of life.

It never happens. It just seems like so much work.

This year is going to be different. I’m going to plan and I’m going to do it.

Not only that, I’m going to share it with you.

My goal is simple: 24 easy family activities we can do between now and Christmas. A few nights will require more work than other nights, but most will be simple like reading Christmas books in front of the Christmas tree, baking cookies, or making fudge. Let’s set up our Family Activities Advent Calendar.

Enjoy the holiday season doing fun things with your family with this printable Family Activities Advent Calendar that is fully customizable for your family.

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate links. Please see my disclosure for more details.

Enjoy the holiday season doing fun things with your family with this printable Family Activities Advent Calendar that is fully customizable for your family.

If you’re like me and have been putting off doing an advent calendar because of all the work involved, then I’ve got a special treat for you. I made a list of simple activities and created pretty printable cards that you can use in your own advent calendar.

You’ll find 36 activities and 12 blank cards. I know we all have different Christmas traditions, so you can use the blank ones for all the special things you do every year with your family.

If you keep reading to the end of this post, you can download and print your own set of cards.

Enjoy the holiday season doing fun things with your family with this printable Family Activities Advent Calendar that is fully customizable for your family.

Let’s talk planning.

Once I finally sat down to plan, I discovered it wasn’t that time consuming or difficult.

Start with a calendar and jot down everything that is already planned. Do you attend your church’s Christmas Eve service? If so, that will be the activity you do on the 24th. (Hint: that’s already on one of the pre-made cards!) Jot down Christmas concerts, family parties, and community events. You’ve already got some of your days planned.

Next, write down all the things you typically do each year. We always bake cookies together, make homemade Christmas ornaments, and watch some of our favorite Christmas movies.

Finally, choose some additional activities so that you have a total of 24.

Schedule these activities over the month of December. Try to keep more time-consuming activities for weekends and days where you aren’t too busy. Keep the simpler activities for the busier days.

Once your planning is done, it’s time to package up your Family Activities Advent Calendar.

Enjoy the holiday season doing fun things with your family with this printable Family Activities Advent Calendar that is fully customizable for your family.

Now it’s time to package up your family activities advent calendar to display.

You can find tons of inspiration on Pinterest and can adapt many of the ideas with these printable cards.

Also, if you check the list out at the bottom of this post, you’ll find some other ideas for advent calendars.

I saw so many ideas, but none of them worked for me. I don’t have a lot of wall space and wanted something small, but still festive. So, I combined a few ideas to make an advent calendar basket.

Here’s how I put our Family Activities Advent Calendar together.

I purchased simple brown paper bags and mini clothespins. I found both in the party supply section of a local store. (I’ve included Amazon links for your convenience.) I also used red and green cardstock for my labels.

Create 24 circles from your red and green cardstock. I used my circle punch to do this quickly. If you don’t have a circle punch, get creative. And if you don’t want to get creative, squares always work! Write the number 1-24 on your labels.

Enjoy the holiday season doing fun things with your family with this printable Family Activities Advent Calendar that is fully customizable for your family.

Print your advent activities on white cardstock and cut out the ones you want to use. Use the blank squares for your own activities.

Put your cards in each of the bags. (I’m also including a strip of this advent reading plan I found over at Not Consumed in each of our bags.) Fold the top down and clip it closed with a mini clothespin. Add your number card so you do the right activity on the right day. I found a pretty basket to pile the bags in. If you have the wall space, you can hang them on twine with the clothespins.

Enjoy the holiday season doing fun things with your family with this printable Family Activities Advent Calendar that is fully customizable for your family.

Are you going to make an advent calendar this year? I hope you do! I’m excited to start ours and hopefully make this a new holiday tradition. Keep it simple, keep it fun, and don’t forget to print out your cards below so you can set up your own Family Activities Advent Calendar.

 
Enjoy the holiday season doing fun things with your family with this printable Family Activities Advent Calendar that is fully customizable for your family.

For even more ideas, check out all the other participants in the Countdown to Christmas blog hop:

Printable Advent Calendar – The Creative Pair

15 Fun Christmas Play Dough Ideas

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What are the sights and sounds you associate with Christmas?

Christmas trees, sugar cookies, gingerbread, and candy canes all come to mind.

A fun way to experience these sights and sounds are with play dough. Play dough is fun any time of the year. But, when Christmas starts getting nearer, it’s time to get out the bling, the sparkles, the Christmas scents, and the festive colors.

Whether you’re looking to make pretend cookies or decorate a play dough tree, I’ve got you covered.

Keep reading for 15 fun Christmas play dough ideas.

Have some holiday sensory fun with these fun Christmas play dough ideas. You'll enjoy all the scents, colors, and sparkle of the holiday season. #Christmas #sensoryplay #CreativeFamilyFun

Disclosure: This post contains Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details. 

Have some holiday sensory fun with these fun Christmas play dough ideas. You'll enjoy all the scents, colors, and sparkle of the holiday season.

Play Dough Inspired by Christmas Treats

Cranberry is such a festive scent for the holidays. Capture it with this Cranberry No-Cook Playdough from Natural Beach Living

I bet this smells so good! Hot Chocolate Play Dough from Fireflies and Mud Pies with a side of marshmallow play dough.

Gingerbread Play Dough from Imagination Tree would be the perfect play dough for making a batch of pretend play gingerbread men.

Have some holiday sensory fun with these fun Christmas play dough ideas. You'll enjoy all the scents, colors, and sparkle of the holiday season.

A pile of cookie cutters and this Sugar Cookie Play Dough from Frogs Snails and Puppy Dog Tails is all you need for a quiet afternoon of fun.

Cinnamon is one of my favorite scents and I know I’d love this Cinnamon Play Dough from Mamas Like Me.

Dye one half of this Candy Cane Play Dough from Growing a Jeweled Rose red and keep the other half white for some festive Christmas fun.

Have some holiday sensory fun with these fun Christmas play dough ideas. You'll enjoy all the scents, colors, and sparkle of the holiday season.

Play Dough Inspired by Nature

Make a snowy landscape with this White Sparkle Snow Dough from The Imagination Tree.

I bet this Pine Christmas Play Dough from Krystal’s Kitsch smells just like a fresh-cut Christmas tree!

Playdough to Plato has recipes for pine, minty, and hot chocolate play dough in the Winter Play Dough Mix. I want a batch of all three!

Have some holiday sensory fun with these fun Christmas play dough ideas. You'll enjoy all the scents, colors, and sparkle of the holiday season.

Even More Christmas Play Dough Fun

Playdough to Plato has even more festive scents in this play dough post: sugar cookies, egg nog, orange clove, and chocolate.

Add some fun additions to your play dough to set up this Peppermint play dough invitation to play from Fantastic Fun and Learning.

You may not have snow outside, but you can build a snowman with this fun set up from Buggy and Buddy.

Have some holiday sensory fun with these fun Christmas play dough ideas. You'll enjoy all the scents, colors, and sparkle of the holiday season.

Decorate pretend play cookies all day long with this play dough Christmas cookie activity tray from Happy Hooligans.

Kids love to decorate the tree, so I know they’d have a blast decorating a play dough Christmas tree over and over again in this invitation to play from Mama Papa Bubba.

Print out these fun play dough mats from Totschooling and laminate them. You’ll be able to use them over and over again.

Have some holiday sensory fun with these fun Christmas play dough ideas. You'll enjoy all the scents, colors, and sparkle of the holiday season.

I don’t know about you, but I’m ready to go have fun with my kids. So get out the sparkles and the Christmas scents. Make a batch of Christmas play dough and enjoy the sights and sounds of the season.

You May Also Enjoy One of These Christmas Activities

Paper Plate Christmas Tree

Salt Dough Candy Canes

Stained Glass Stars

Scented Gingerbread Man Ornaments