On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me ....
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.... a gorgeous guest post from Maggy Woodley
Oh my, how I LOVE LOVE LOVE this time of year. And I don’t just love Christmas and the “big day” itself, but all the things around it that lead up to Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I too am shocked and disgruntled by the commercial aspect of Christmas, but this is why our family Advent traditions are so important to me. I want to make Christmas not about the gifts, but about the MAGIC.
So, there are a number of things that I love to do with my kids at this time of year….
These are the things I like to do. Every family is different and of course have their own traditions!
Traditional Cookies
We like to bake. In Austria it is tradition to bake 8 or different Christmas cookies in the run up to and during Advent. I like to make up small bags full of different cookies and give them as gifts to neighbours, friends and family! Our favourite are:
Edible Ornamentsfollow (the kids LOVE decorating these)
Linzer Augenfollow (just delicious)
Husaren Krampfenfollow (great for small hands to help form balls and make dips)
Vanilla Kipferlfollow (I always have to make double portions)
Advent Calendars
Well we all know about advent calendars, such a lovely way to count down to the big day. I used to love opening all the little windows and visually seeing how close Christmas was getting. I love making our own Advent Calendar and have stacks of ideas for you over on Red Ted Art. But I think the best thing is to keep it simple and do little things like “let’s eat popcorn” or “let’s read our favourite Christmas picture book”.
Advent Wreath and Candles
We have an Advent Wreath or 4 Church Candles. I can’t always get hold of a wreath and yes, I know that I should make one… but there are so many other things to make, that I don’t mind it too much if we have 4 nice candles with pine cones and dried orange slices lined up on the mantle piece.
Then on the 1st Advent, we assemble. We light the candle. We listen to Christmas songs and we start munching on the first set of Christmas cookies! If there is time a board game is played too! On the 2nd of Advent, we repeat the process, but light 2 candles – the 1st one and a new one and so one. This means the 1st candle will be a little smaller as the rest at Christmas and has that special “advent feel”.
And that is the basis of our “advent”.
Back to my point at the beginning of the post about the “commercial-ness” of Christmas. I would love to leave you with an alternative Christmas Gift idea – The Gift of Creativity! The idea is to create “Basic” and “Jazzed up” Craft Kits that you can put together yourself – and then, if you wish, add a copy of Red Ted Art the book and you will have a fabulously creative gift – both original and different! What do you think? You don’t need much in a basic craft kit, especially if you add recycled materials and finds from nature…. I love to add pinecones, stones and recycled fabric to our basic craft kit to get the kids think creatively about things they can find and reuse.
About the Author: Maggy Woodley, a mum of two and prolific blogger. She loves everything about crafts and loves nothing better to recycle and forage for craft materials –making crafts economical and fun. Maggy also writes at Life at The Zoo about cooking with kids, gardening and sciency “stuff” and Theatre Books and Movies for well, theatre, book and movies! Red Ted Art, is also now being translated into German, Spanish and Russian for more people to enjoy!
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