Creative Family Fun

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Holidays

Simple Ideas for Holiday Family Fun

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Merry Christmas! Posting has been slow around here lately as I’ve been enjoying the holiday season.

I love this time of year so much and want to spend plenty of time enjoying the simple pleasures of Christmas

But, I did want to post one last time before I signed off for Christmas and New Years. I encourage you to do the same.

Spend time with your family. Enjoy the season.

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Here are 10 simple ways to spend time together as a family over the holidays.

Gather round and go through your Christmas cards together. Tell stories about your family and friends to help your children get to know them better.

Put the kids in their pj’s (you can wear some too) and drive around to look at Christmas lights.

Settle in with mugs of hot chocolate and a pile of Christmas books. Have a family read-aloud night.

Sing carols together. Have your little musicians accompany the family with some homemade jingle bell shakers. (You can find the instructions here at Daria Music.)

Bundle up and go for a winter evening walk. Look at all the holiday decorations in your neighborhood. Use the time to appreciate the sights and sounds of nature.

Bake Christmas cookies. Pick out a fun new recipe, buy the ingredients, and spend time in the kitchen together.

Have a board game night. Pick a few favorite games and spend the evening playing. Younger children can team up with a parent or older sibling if needed.

Brainstorm your New Year’s resolutions together. Or, just talk about your hopes and plans for the new year. Is there anything you can do together as a family?

Spend an evening doing family interviews. Consider making it a family tradition.

Play charades! It’s an old-fashioned game that has stood that test of time. And it’s no wonder, it’s fun to play.

What are some of your favorite holiday family activities?

Christmas Cards for Faraway Family & Friends

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I’m so happy to be participating in the Creative Christmas Countdown this year. Each day until the 24th, all of my favorite bloggers will be sharing a fun & simple Christmas activity. Be sure to check the official Creative Christmas Countdown page for all the previous activities and you can keep up with the rest of the countdown.

We have a lot of family and friends that live far away. Unfortunately we never get to see everyone we love during the holiday season, so this year we’re going to send some love their way.

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We started with the camera. I took several pictures of the girls blowing kisses. I had hopes of getting the girls together in a picture, but sometimes that can be an impossible task!

Once I had a couple of pictures I loved, I used PicMonkey to add the text. PicMonkey is a free, easy-to-use, web-based picture editing program. You just upload your picture, edit, and then save to your computer. Easy-peasy.

I printed the pictures out and trimmed them to fit inside my blank cards.

I cut some pieces 8-1/2×11″ card stock in half and then folded them to make the cards.

We glued down the photos and got to work decorating the outside of the cards. We used stickers and markers, but anything would work.

Now, we’re all set to send a bit of Christmas cheer for all of our faraway friends and family! We’ll be sending our love in our own special way.

I hope you’re enjoying the Creative Christmas Countdown! Don’t forget to follow along and catch up with all of the other fun & simple ideas that have been shared already.

Creative Family Fun Nights: Frosty the Snowman

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One of our favorite Christmas movies is Frosty the Snowman, so I thought it would be fun to create a family night based around Frosty. You can fill your night with crafts, books, movies, and a special treat all based on that lovable Snowman.

Today I’m sharing microwave puff paint snowmen, snowman hot chocolate, and a few snowman book suggestions. I hope this will help you have your own Frosty the Snowman family night.

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Microwave Puff Paint Snowmen

White and black puff paint (I used the recipe found on Teach Preschool)
Paint brushes
Card stock or cardboard
Microwave

I made up a batch of the puff paint that I found on Teach Preschool. Deborah’s recipe makes a lot, so if you’re doing this for your family, you will want to halve the recipe.

I only made white and black, but you can make any color you want by using food coloring.

I also cut my card stock in half so it would go in the microwave easier.

Our plan was to paint a few snowman masterpieces.

The girls loved playing with the goopy paint. It was fun to paint a little sloppy and to experiment with dripping the paint (the paint is really thick!).

Once we were done, we popped the pictures in the microwave one by one. It was fun to watch the paint harden and puff while in the microwave.

Our pictures only took about 20 seconds each in our high-powered microwave. Watch your pictures carefully, you can tell it’s done when your card stock starts curling up on the end.

You can see the fun three-dimensional effect you can get once they’re done!

Oh, and one other tip, make sure and wash out your paint brushes immediately after painting. At that point, they’re very easy to clean. But, if you wait, the paint will harden on the brushes making it terribly hard to clean.

Snowman Books:

We read one of my old Little Golden Books, Frosty the Snowman. I know this book is not available unless you happen across one in a thrift store. You can try this updated version. I haven’t read it to know if the two books are the same. But, don’t worry, if you don’t have a book about Frosty, any book about snowmen would work. Here are a few suggestions:

In addition to the books, watching the original Frosty the Snowman would be a great way to end the evening.

Snowman Hot Chocolate
We couldn’t have a Frosty the Snowman night without a special treat, so I whipped up these simple mugs of snowman hot chocolate. I simply used instant hot chocolate with plenty of whipped cream squirted on the top. To make the face, I used miniature chocolate chips. It was that easy and everyone loved them!

If you want another special treat, check out these snowman pancakes that Glittering Muffins made.

Now it’s time to plan a fun family night to celebrate the season. What snowman activities would you add?

DIY Scratch Art Christmas Ornaments

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Every year, we make tons of homemade ornaments for our Christmas tree.

One of the projects we made this year were these fun scratch art ornaments.

I had to do a lot more prep ahead of time for this project, but the results were worthwhile.

The girls loved making their own designs to hang on the tree.

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To begin, I cut a selection of circles from white card stock.

I used a couple of different sized circle punches to make life easier on me. (This is one of the circle punches I used)

If you don’t have punches, just use some drinking glasses as a stencil.

Next, I used our oil pastels to make colorful designs on the circles.

You can also use crayons, though you will want to color darkly.

I prefer using the oil pastels because they go on so much thicker than crayons.

Finally, you’ll want to color over your designs with a thick coat of black.

When you’re done, it’s time to scratch!

We used a toothpick to gently scratch our designs on the ornaments.

Some were well planned out and others were random and fun.

When all were done, we punched a hole in the top, strung some string through the hole and hung them on our tree.

Scratch art is fun and you don’t have to buy a specialized kit to experience it.

Not only were these a fun afternoon project, but they would also be an easy and inexpensive stocking stuffer. Just bundle a few pre-made ornaments with a couple of toothpicks for scratching in a pretty package.

What a fun thing to find in a Christmas stocking!

If you’re looking for more kids Christmas crafts, please follow my Kid’s Christmas Ideas Pinterest board:

10 Kid-Made Christmas Cards

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This year, we paring down our Christmas card list and sending out some handmade fun. I’m planning on letting the girls get in on the fun and make the cards themselves.

While searching for ideas, I found these 10 fabulous kid-made card ideas.

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Use your kid’s fingerprints to make wreaths like these adorable cards shared on Hands On: As We Grow.

You can also turn those cute little fingerprints into Rudolph. Make and Takes show you how.

Blog Me Mom used salt and glitter to make some sparkly hand print holiday cards.

Mudpies & Sunshine shows you how use paper strips and cork stamps to make beautiful Christmas trees.

Last year, we turned tissue paper collages into Christmas trees for some special holiday greetings.

Mermaids’ Makings shows you how to use corrugated cardboard as Christmas tree stamps. They turned out so beautiful!

You’ve got two choices to check out at CraftoArt Creativity My Passion, folded Christmas tree cards and folded Santa Hat cards.

Red Ted Art turned photos of the kids into adorable Rudolph cards. You have to check these out!

At Home with Ali created beautiful cards with paper snowflakes and watercolors. They are stunning.

Finally, Dilly-Dali Art shares 6 ideas for homemade Christmas cards. Yep, I said six! You’ll find paper strip ornaments, glue yarn snowflakes, and 4 more fantastic ideas. She even shows you how to make your own envelopes to put all of those cards in.

So, you tell me, which cards should we make and send out for family and friends?