To plan winter craft fun, first have a family discussion when everyone has time to join in. Talk about the coming holidays your family and church or community will celebrate. You may want to draw up a simple plan or calendar, highlighting the holidays and scheduling activities to get ready for them.
Learning About Holidays is Fun
Get your family to research the holidays you celebrate, their history and importance to community and family. This is a great opportunity to get out family photos, and involve distant family members and friends. Your children could research what Christmas was like for their grandparents, using conversations with them, books and online research. They could make scrapbooks about your community's holidays, or family memories. You can paste in photos, clippings, and articles, and add a short essay from each family member on what the holiday means to them.
Planning Gifts and Decorations
Together, collect items to create handcrafted gifts and decorations, with personal meaning beyond anything you can buy. Set aside a storage area - maybe a box at the bottom of a dry, cool closet or in the garage – and make a list of what you might use. Look for everyday items that can be recycled, and natural items you can collect.
For example:
- Outworn cotton textiles in bright prints can make pompoms, banners, or patchwork decorations. Cut circles, hem them and gather the centres, then string together for a garland.
- Transform discarded packaging into gift boxes with paint and glue.
- Stamp or draw designs on brown paper or leftover wallpaper to make giftwrap.
- Save colorful magazines to make paper chains, then recycle them.
Take a walk at least once a week to collect natural materials. Press fallen leaves between sheets of absorbent paper under heavy books. After 3 or 4 weeks they'll be dry enough to make greetings cards, pictures and garlands. Chestnuts and pine cones can be collected and painted, or left in their natural beauty, to add to decorations. Twigs can be spray-painted and used for decoration, or to display cards and photographs clipped on with brightly coloured paperclips.
Let Everyone Help to Budget and Plan
It's good for children to think about the cost of holidays and how they can affect the family budget. Talk to your children about the cost of your plans. Encourage them to think of ways the family can afford the celebrations you want. Maybe they can help you to deliver holiday greetings by hand, saving postage and getting quality time with you as you walk round the neighbourhood, or help to plan menus and shopping so you can afford to squirrel away extra treats for the holiday.
Think of Others
Holidays let us celebrate our own happiness with our loved ones, but they also give us a wonderful opportunity to reflect on the needs and dreams of others. Encourage your children to start a holiday savings fund and put away a little pocket money, or money earned from chores, every week. You can choose a family charity, or each child can choose a charity to donate to, then make your donations just before the holiday and know that your joy is shared with others.
