Holiday Crafts and Traditions for Little Ones

Now that the holidays are approaching with lightening speed, I am racking my brain to remember different family traditions for the holidays, so that I can continue them with Paul. What are some holiday crafts or traditions that you plan to teach your child this year?

I want to begin teaching Paul about the religious (and non-religious aspects) of the holiday season. To help me do this, the first thing I always turn to are books. So far, I've purchased 'The First Christmas' which is a board book about the birth of Jesus in very simple language. The second book was 'The Night Before Christmas' b/c I want DH to read that as a bedtime story on Christmas Eve, just like my Dad always did for us. I'm also planning to pick up 'The Giving Tree.'

I am trying to find some simple crafts that I can make for or with Paul. Does anyone know where I can get ideas for toddler crafts - he's only 18 mos. - so, nothing too advanced.
Thanks!

The Christmas traditions that I remember and plan to pass down to our children are:
-My mom would put a holiday show schedule on the frig and we would all sit together and have christmas cookies and watch them.
-My mom would play Christmas music and we would decorate our Christmas tree. We each had a few 'special' ornaments that were given to us as babies by family/friends. Only I was allowed to place my special ornaments on the tree, and the same goes for my siblings. And my mom gave us each a few special items that we could decorate our rooms with. I had a paper angel that went in my bedroom window every year. She would make us hot choclate too, with mini-marshmallows.
-My mom had a small non-breakable nativity set that we were always allowed to play with. We could move the figures around and she never worried about them breaking. BUT the baby Jesus was put in the manger on Christmas Eve just before we went to bed. It was a really special moment as she explained to us that it was almost his birthday. I gave my nephew a stuffed nativity when he was 2 so he could also 'play' and learn about the nativity.
-Christmas cookie decoration day. She used Pillsbury slice and bake and we would put them into snowman or santas and put sprinkles on them. We really had a nice time all together.
-My mom always gave us new PJs on Christmas Eve so that our photos in the morning would be extra cute. Once I asked my mom why everyone else gave us good gifts for Christmas and she only gave us PJs
-As we got older, we were allowed to pick out 1 stocking gift and open it before waking her and my dad up. It was a fun thing to do with just me and siblings.

Craft Ideas:
I have one of these that Gregory made me when he was about 3 or 4 and I cherish it.
Trace his hand print on red and green construction paper. Cut the middle out of a paper plate and then cut the hand prints. Place the hand prints around the paper plate rim and put a bow at the top. It is a hand-print wreath. Also,date it on the back.

Claud Advent calendars are great. we of course used to get the chocolate ones - where you get a chocolate treat each day. I saw one made from a cloth hanging shoe holder with the numbers on each pocket with a little treat in each that you get the morning of that day.

We also had Cookie Day - like Michele - we still do that as grown adult sisters...when we were little it was icing cookies - shapes of angels and stuff that we decorated. Quite a mess but well worth it!

Styrofoam balls dipped in glue and glitter make pretty toddler made ornaments!

We also used to collect pine cones and paste googly eyes on them and yarn hair and they used to go in our village under the tree. If you spray it with a little spray paint, or dip it in glitter that's good too.

Learning about the First Christmas, my mom had a Mary, Joseph and Jesus hummel set. We collected fir branches from outside and pine cones and outdoor things that looked pretty - berries, etc. and decorated the hutch - she put little votives in there also - so pretty and very memorable. Somehow we knew that was like 'special contemplative time'

OH! And My favorite is the Christmas Sing. My whole mom's side of the family does this together, but you can just start with your little family now and let it grow - or invite over family and friends with other children. My family meets on this one street where they all used to live, with a bonfire and sing all the carols. Somebody hands out packets with all the words, there is hot chocolate, etc. It's amazing.

Have fun! I love this holiday - I have a million traditions around it!!!

i have been thinking about this. my most memorable Christmas tradition as a child was making a gingerbread house. mom saves the 1/2 gallon cardboard milk containers for use as the base (you cut off some of the top). we used graham crackers as the building material and some stiff eye whites w/cream of tartar as the glue (i distinctly remember as a child waiting for the eye whites to stiffen - my brother and i thought it took sooooo long). you buy different types of candy to decorate with.

if you're near a trader joe's - they sell a really cool gingerbread house kit - all the pieces are pre-baked and then even give you some candy to decorate with!!!

ooh GOOD ONE. the gingerbread house was MAJOR. And so detailed! You can make a great one and it's pretty easy..I don't remember milk cartons being involved...I remember my mom putting together the four pieces though with the white stuff.

If I can get more info I will - my sister does it now with her kids. I am sure you can find info on line as well!

ah!!! Wish you had been around when I was little!!!!

(The part I forgot to mention about this craft is my mom cursing up a holy storm trying to get the pieces to stand up while we were pushing our fingers into the white icing!!!)


In fact Claud..that is the part I left out of ALL my traditions. In fact, through all the yearly holiday crafts, my mom made up a new Christmas Curse word to go along with it! how's THAT for a tradition!??!?! Crafts with toddlers is memorable...and challenging!!!!!!

Jenny - LMAO!!

All these ideas are so great! The one thing we always did was that every year we would get an ornament and Mom would put our name and the year on it...when we were bigger we got to pick out one on our own. When I got married, Mom gave me all my ornaments for my own tree - my DH thinks its so cool that I have ornaments that are over 30 years old!! Every year when I pull them out I have great memories of buying them and decorating the tree with my family. I plan to do this for Ryan so someday when he has his own family he can take all of his ornaments with him...

listening to holiday songs...sometimes on 8 track tapes!...while cooking or making holiday cookies..
Every year for the past 6 years my best friend and I try to have ONE cookie baking day together...it got harder as she had her 2nd child..and now me with my first..will have to see how it works this season.

remembering how my dad would lay out all the branches for the Tree...tips were color coded...and how we'd have to figure how to put it up every year!

eating the great Fish dinners on the Eve..with lots of cousins around

Paul may be a little too young for this, but you might want to give it a try anyway. When we were little, every year we made these little cookie cutter ornaments with this homemade dough that my mom used to make. You make the dough, roll it out like you were making sugar cookies, and cut out shapes with cookie cutters. Poke a little hole at the top, bake them, and when they're cool, paint them, add a ribbon, and hang them on the tree. We have a whole collection of them, from when I was 3, and my sister was one, all the way up until I was about 16?. It's really cute to see how much better they got over the years. In the beginning they were a mess, but cute to hang nonetheless.
Here's a recipe for the dough that I found online. Not sure if it's exactly the one we used to make, but I know we made it with flour and salt, so this should be pretty close.

You will need

1 cup salt
2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup water

for decoration:
acrylic paint
paintbrush
pencil
toothpick
clear acrylic sealer

IMPORTANT NOTE: This recipe for salt dough makes a lot of ornaments. If you only plan on making a few, cut this recipe into fourths or in half.

What you do

Preheat oven to 250 F. Mix together, salt, flour, and water until a dough is formed. Knead the dough on a floured surface until the mixture is elastic and smooth. If dough is too sticky, sprinkle with flour, continue to do so until stickiness is gone. BE CAREFUL. Do not add too much flour, this will dry out the dough and will cause it to crack before you get a chance to bake it.

Bake ornament(s) on cookie sheet for approximately 2 hours. Remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

Christmas Chocolate Advent Calendar was something i remember and paul is old enough to help you open each day.

And the Charlie Brown Christmas special of course.

Speaking of Charlie Brown... we just watched It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown last night. So many memories.

My mom and I always watched the traditional Christmas movies 'It's a Wonderful Life' -- my abosolute favorite!!! and 'Miracle on 34th Street' and 'A Christmas Carol' -- I now have these on video/dvd so I can watch them whenever I want.

We start the season with watching the Thanksgiving Day parade while preparing T-day dinner. We used to always go shopping on Friday after Thanksgiving.

Getting the Christmas Tree was always one of my favorite things to do -- I would get so upset when I went to college and my parents would get the tree without me And now my DH and i have a tradition of going to a tree farm and picking out and cutting down on tree every year.

Every year my mom has a christmas party and many of the guests bring an ornament as a gift and then the tree is decorated at the party. After 20 years of this party my mom has quite a collection of ornaments!

So many traditions! I love reading all of your traditions.

And yes the Advent Calendar -- that is a German Tradition and since my family is German I always had one growing up. We also used to open our presents on Christmas Eve (another German tradition) and when I was small I would go to bed and 'Santa' would visit -- my grandfather would say 'ho, ho, ho' and ring this bell and then they would come and wake me up and say that Santa had visited and brought gifts. Of course I could never go to sleep on Christmas Eve -- Whenever I heard 'Santa' I would shut my eyes really tight b/c I didn't want Santa to think I was bad and not bring me any presents.

Sorry so long!

Thanks everyone...these are really wonderful traditions and memories you all have shared!

I am loving the idea that Michele mentioned about the new PJ's on Christmas Eve - that's a great idea Thanks to Michele's Mom on that one!

And, I *adore* the idea of giving Paul a new ornament every year with his name and date. I will definitely be adopting this idea, since I already got him a 'first Christmas' ornament last year....I'll just keep on going! Thanks to Lee's Mom for this one!