Our 2012 Christmas Ornament

Every year the children and I make an ornament during the Advent season. I wrote back in 2009 about our tradition and how much I enjoy it. In the past, I've avoided posting on the ornaments until after Christmas so they can be surprise for the recipients who happen to read the blog...but that usually means I'm posting about Christmas ornaments during Lent or Easter, so this year I decided to post right now before I get distracted. If you think you're on our ornament list and you want to be surprised, close your eyes! (I suppose it would be easier to simply not read this post.)

This year, I gave the children a few choices (all of which required only materials we had on hand) and they selected this Christmas tree. I was afraid it would not be very exciting, but of course Second Daughter figured out a way to glamor them up for us. We made this during our usual art time, so I didn't feel like I was adding anything to our schedule.

The instructions said to use four pieces of card stock (green for the front and back, different colors for the ornaments in the middle). I didn't have a lot of card stock, so we used mostly thin construction paper. It was still difficult for the children to punch the holes through three sheets of paper. First Son (8) could do it. First Daughter (6) could but she got tired at the end. Second Daughter (4) couldn't at all. (Second Son was napping; he was most helpful that way.)

I would make the trees for Second Daughter and then she added the "real" ornaments, culled from whatever struck her fancy in the craft box.

She likes to add glitter to things by trimming our sparkly pipe cleaners. It's effective, but a little messy.

Second Daughter adding sparkle

First Daughter struggling to hole punch

I think it would have been better if I had used card stock or painted cardboard, traced my Christmas tree ornament for them, then let them decorate it however they liked.

No matter how much we might struggle during the ornament creation, they always seem to work in the end. We have lots of ornaments to share with our family and friends! I printed out little pictures of the kids with our names and the year. I like to do that for myself so I can see their little faces and remember when we made each one, but I also think it's nice for teachers who might otherwise not quite remember us.

We generally give our ornaments to aunts and uncles, grandparents, godparents, the families for whom we are godparents, teachers or other volunteers, parish priests, and anyone else who strikes our fancy until we run out. We always keep at least one for our own tree and I dearly love the little collection we have.

You can read my past posts on our ornaments:
- Our 2011 ornament
- Our 2010 ornament (These were one of my favorites!)
- Our 2009 ornament

Find all my Advent and Christmas ideas on my Pinterest board. I pin anything that strikes my fancy, so it's more than just ornament ideas.

Our 2011 Christmas Ornament

Those who frequent this blog know the children and I make a Christmas ornament every year. At first we gave them to grandparents. A few years later, we started giving them to aunts and uncles. Then we added godparents and our parish priest. Last year, we had enough extras for our story hour teachers as well.

I started this Advent tradition when First Son was still young and think it is more fun each year. Those who frequent this blog will also not be surprised to see that I am posting about our 2011 ornament in May (though I notice last year I posted in March). I can't post about it in Advent because people who receive the ornaments read the blog. Then, inevitably, the ornament post gets lost in the post-Christmas deluge of pictures, thank you notes and returning to lessons.

So here we are in May, talking about Christmas ornaments.

I'd always wanted to make salt dough ornaments and last year felt confident enough to give it a try (confident enough Second Son wouldn't scream for hours while I figured out how to make the dough, that is). It wasn't too difficult, really, though I wish I had rolled them out a bit more before baking them. They puffed up more than I was expecting. Monica used the same recipe I did (from Advent, Christmas Epiphany in the Domestic Church), so I copied her idea for the holes in the top and used an old pencil. That worked well, except some of the fancy ribbon I bought was still a bit too big for the holes. Luckily, Kansas Dad drilled those few out for me a bit.

First Son, First Daughter and Second Daughter all made ornaments in 2011. I made the dough, but the children selected the cookie cutters and cut out their own shapes. After I baked them, I let the children paint them with a variety of "holiday" type colors I picked when the paint was on sale. I hadn't realized the sparkle paint was clear or I would have bought white or silver instead. The kids loved painting with it, though.

After the first layer of paint was dry, I let them go back over it with glitter glue to make any designs. I think this second layer looked particularly good on the ornaments and I know the kids loved it, especially First Daughter.

First Daughter and the glitter glue

After they were all dry, I painted over them with a mixture of white glue and water. I looked all over trying to find something to give me a good ratio to use, but couldn't find anything. I finally used half glue and half water. It seemed to work fine, though I suppose we'll really see in a decade or so if they start to get moldy or something.

I printed out pictures of the kids along with their ages and the year on cardstock to slip onto the ribbons. I think it's nice to see how old they were when hanging them on the tree and it makes a nice addition for the gifts.

A close up of one of my favorites

As usual, I didn't note on the ornaments which kids painted them. These, in fact, are most likely all a combination since there were a number of different days involved and I didn't keep them separate. They are indeed a family creation. I think I let each child choose one to keep on our tree, but can't remember if I wrote their names on them as I have in years past. (We packed the ornaments up quite a while ago now.)

We have had such a wonderful time creating ornaments every year, especially as the children grow and can do more. I'm already keeping track of ideas for 2012 and future years. If you're interested, you can follow my Pinterest board on Advent. It includes more than just ornaments, but that's where the ornaments I find and like will end up.

What I Loved About Last Week (14 Ed.)

1. Early this week, Grammy treated us to the movies: The Muppet Movie. It was surprisingly good. The 8 year old, 5 year old and 3 year old loved it. The one year old loved running up the aisle and diving into rows near the front, hiding from me. Luckily there were only a few other people there and they seemed very forgiving. (He was quiet, but it had to be distracting.) I've never gotten that much exercise watching a movie before.

After the movie, we did some charity shopping. The girls went with Grammy and picked some gifts for a little girl whose name I picked. The boys went with me and Kansas Dad. The girls did a great job focusing on their goal, but First Son was terribly distracted by the Lego aisle. He only makes it to a store two or three times a year, so I'm not sure he realized there was such a thing as the Lego aisle. It was cute and I didn't chastise him too much; he did help pick a few things and he didn't ask us to buy anything for him. (He has a substantial amount of money now that his birthday has passed, but he's not allowed to spend it until after Christmas since he'd just buy many of the things he's going to receive as a gift.)

2. Second Son has two new teeth! They're just peeking through, his second two on the top. Everyone say a quick prayer that means he'll be a nicer toddler over the holidays than he has been this week. (Now he has eight teeth, which seems a bit low for 17 months, but we'll hope that just gives him less time to get cavities, right?)

3. We finally set up our Christmas tree. I had intended to have it up before the third Sunday of Advent. The older two were so excited to get out the ornaments. They each remembered some of them, asking for them before I even found them in the box. We hung all our homemade ornaments as well. I love those!

4. I received my first teacher gift. One of our families brought something for each of the Catechesis teachers. It's funny because I don't even think of myself as one of the "teachers" since the other two ladies present nearly all of the lessons. What's the policy on thank you notes for thank you gifts: required, acceptable or too much? One girl in Catechesis wrote me a thank you note and another colored a picture for me, too. How cool is that?

5. Story hour Christmas party - watching a Christmas bear version of Duck Duck Goose. Second Son running around the gym.

6.  We started handing out our annual Christmas ornaments, though I can't tell you what we made this year - yet. Some of the recipients read the blog. We made a lot this year so there are plenty to go around for all the family members, teachers and pastors. The more years we do this, the more I love them. I'm already considering some ideas for next year. For the first time this year, we had enough for each child to pick one to keep for our tree. I think we'll try to do that every year. I wrote their names on them and they can take them when they grow up and have their own trees (though then mine will be very sad, won't it?); at the very least, it relieved some of the unhappiness we had last year when First Son wanted to keep all of his ornaments.

7. Kansas Dad and I went to a party on Friday night without kids! Thanks to Grammy for giving up her Friday night for us. The kids, of course, would rather have her than us any night, especially when frozen pizza is involved, so they were thrilled.

8. We made a peanut butter cookie man for Kansas Dad's birthday. He he! I received this Gingerbread Boy Kit a few years ago. No one here on the Range cares that much for gingerbread, but we love this pan. I made our favorite peanut butter cookie dough and pressed about two-thirds of it into the pan then baked it up. Delicious! The kids love decorating it. (They often ask when we're going to make a cookie-man, but since it involves eating a lot of cookie, it's a special treat.)

9. The Nutcracker - I loved it. The kids had differing reactions. Though it took a whole afternoon during a busy month, I hope very much we can make this performance an annual tradition.

10. While I was doing the dishes this week, the girls stripped the Christmas tree of all its ornaments. When I asked, dejectedly, what they thought they were doing, they replied they were playing "earthquake." It was really funny. But also a bit distressing. We've already broken two ornaments this year and all the more fragile ornaments I'd put near the top are now scattered about, many low enough for Second Son to reach. (I made the girls put them all back, so now the tree is decidedly bottom-heavy.)

11. Ok, this is such a little thing, but I bought the third wise man for my Nativity set. I've been watching for it for years and it's always been outrageously expensive, but I found one on ebay and just bought it. I felt weird about it all day, which just goes to show how infrequently I buy something for myself. Now I can consider my set complete and I'm foolishly happy about it.

12. Kansas Dad's birthday was last weekend and I think he had a good one. I'm not one to get all gushy on the blog, but there's no doubt in my mind that Kansas Dad is the best thing to ever happen to me (outside of Jesus-was-born-died-and-rose-again-for-me, of course). I thank God for him every day and wish him much love and many blessings in the coming year.


We're celebrating Christmas with Kansas Dad's parents tonight to accommodate holiday travels. There are lessons to do, cookies to bake, presents to wrap and all sorts of other things like an eye doctor appointment and First Son's baptism anniversary.

(Sorry for the lack of pictures this week; I don't want to take the time to get any off the camera.)

Our 2010 Christmas Ornament

We're in the midst of Lent now, but I finally had a few moments to go through some pictures and found the ones of our annual Christmas ornament for 2010. This year, I happened across a book at the library. First Son was so excited by it that I let him choose the ornament for the year -- cinnamon gingerbread men.

I traced the men (yes, all men; I didn't even think of making some of them women until I wrote this post) onto cardboard. I save the rectangles of cardboard in our Amazon boxes. They always come in handy. Kansas Dad had to help cut them out for me because my hand ached too much before I finished.

I let the kids "paint" them with glue and sprinkle cinnamon on top. The book instructed us to let them dry completely before shaking off the extra cinnamon, but I shook a few while the glue was still wet and think they turned out much smoother.

I didn't get a great picture of the kids decorating them, but we had a blast. In fact, I think this was one of the best ornaments yet. They were so creative! I dumped out a box of fabric, yarn, sequins, stickers, ribbons, and bits of interesting papers for them to rifle through and they were cutting and pasting all on their own. They wore themselves out before we finished enough for us, our parish priest, grandparents, aunts, uncles and (this year, for the first time) godparents, so I had to finish one or two myself. It was definitely the best ornament experience yet, though.

Here's my favorite one by Second Daughter. I think she only made two.

First Daughter loved this activity. Here are a couple of the ones she made.

First Son became so attached to his gingerbread men, he didn't want to give any away! (We only keep one.) Among others, he made a Sumo wrestler (with a red nose).

I did an online search for cinnamon ornaments and most of the results involved making a dough with cinnamon and applesauce. Sounds interesting for a future year.

This particular ornament was very economical to make. I did buy the sequins because they looked fun and we didn't have any, but everything else was from our stock of craft supplies. The cinnamon was probably the most expensive item, but you only need a few sprinkles of it for each little gingerbread man.

Christmas Ornaments Kids Can Make by Kathy Ross is the book we found at the library. I liked this ornament, but I'm not sure we'd select any of the others.

Our 2009 Christmas Ornament

Now that Christmas is finally over (we had our last celebration on January 7th), I can share the ornaments we made this year. I wanted to try something new, and perhaps challenging for the kids, so we made beaded snowflakes. I also suggested "wreaths" that could include jingle bells.

I made the snowflakes with the pipe cleaners and then let the kids put the beads on however they liked.

They loved it. First Daughter even asked to work on them a few extra times. They both, however, ran out of steam before we had the seven we needed for all the aunts and uncles and grandparents. I had to "finish" a few of them myself.

Here's an example of the final product. I wish I had taken the time to make little tags with a little picture and the year. I'm going to make more of an effort to mark them in the future so it's easier to remember as we're all putting them on our trees.

I tried to keep one I worked on for us so the others could have more "authentic" ones. You can find some online instructions here and here.

My sister and I were talking over Christmas about ornaments. She and her daughter made some paper ornaments that were just beautiful, but they didn't hold up to wrapping and travel very well. One of the nice things about making something new every year is that we don't have to be crushed if some of them don't survive or don't turn out very well. There are lots of years past and lots of years to come!

As a side note, these could be a very inexpensive project. I bought most of the supplies when the Christmas things were on sale at the local hobby shop. I had to pay full price for the pony beads, though, so I think the total ran close to $7. Of course, I have enough left over to make about 35 more of them. (Perhaps someone wants to make pipe cleaner beaded snowflakes next year and wants to pick up some supplies on the cheap...)

Ornaments of Christmas Past

For those interested few, here are some pictures of the ornaments we've made in the past.

An Ornamental Tradition

Brandy has started an interesting discussion on the place for crafts. You can read some here, here and here. I had already started this post when she started writing, but I like how home-made Christmas ornaments fit into the realm of lasting treasures, unlike so many of the other things my kids love to make and I hate to throw away (but can't imagine where I'd store).

From the beginning, I always wanted to make Christmas ornaments with my kids every year and give them as gifts to grandparents, aunts and uncles. First Son was born two weeks before Christmas and I thought giving birth was quite enough so we didn't try anything the first year. (In fact, I'm pretty sure it was past New Year's Day before Kansas Dad and I were functioning at a level beyond basic survival.)

In 2004, I was only a little more adventurous. We bought three kits like this one. Even with Kansas Dad and I working together, it was a bit difficult to get First Son to cooperate. We finally had to settle for footprints, which just barely fit on the ornament. We saved one and gave one to each of the grandparents. I admit I love this ornament, but I'm a little afraid every year we'll break it and I'll cry.

In 2005, I was sick and tired (being pregnant with First Daughter). First Son was just two and I wasn't feeling well enough to tackle a complicated ornament, so we just ordered some cute ones from Snapfish with his picture and called it done. (Someday, Kansas Dad hopes to have an area for woodworking and would be happy to help the kids make the annual ornament, but that's still at least a few years in the future.)

Finally, in 2006, I came across a suggested ornament in Wondertime that seemed perfect for early-preschooler First Son. They were really easy. We learned that the smaller cookie cutters worked the best and that even at three, First Son had a limited attention span for the task. (I also preferred the smaller pieces of glitter.) After the first one, I smeared the glue on myself and just let him shake the glitter bag. Even so, he wasn't too interested at the end. (It would be much easier now with two of them to split the task.) I printed out pictures of the kids and wrote on the back the year, then hole-punched them and slipped them on the ribbon before tying it up.

Then, 2007 rolled around...and I was once again sick and tired (thanks to Second Daughter). First Son, First Daughter and a full-time job added to my exhaustion. I couldn't think long enough to come up with something fun. So I bought some felt ornaments and let First Son color them when he was home sick one day. It wasn't very creative, but it did entertain him long enough for me to still get some work done that day.

Last year, the kids and I copied an ornament a younger cousin of mine had made with her mom many years ago. I took old puzzle pieces and glued them together upside-down in the shape of Christmas trees. It was much more complicated to get them to stick together than I anticipated, though I probably could have used something more substantial as the glue. (I've since learned Aleene's Tacky Glue is hard to beat for craft projects like this.) I also painted them myself (and used all our green poster paint in the process). Then, I let the kids decorate them with stickers of ornaments and such. I liked how these ornaments turned out, but even spreading them out over a few days the kids were tired of putting on the stickers. Of course, now I would feel more confident giving them the painting portion which they would love. I wish I had a picture of them to share. I didn't follow any specific instructions, but these instructions look great. I wish I had thought of using buttons for the ornaments, though I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have trusted the kids using the tacky glue themselves last year. You can find lots of ideas for other shapes here.

I've already got the idea for this year. I can't tell you, though, because people who will be receiving the ornaments sometimes read the blog. Hopefully I'll remember to take some pictures and let you know how it goes. This is the one real holiday tradition we've started with the children and it's one I see growing so much as they gain skills and confidence in the craftsmanship. In the next few years, I will probably try to pick two different ornaments so First Son can attempt something more complicated. I think it's also important that we keep one of the ornaments for ourselves each year. I love hanging them on our tree and remembering the little hands that made them.

By the way, in case you're wondering about the relative quiet here on the Range, Second Daughter has been sick. Just a cold and a cough, but it's the kind that has this Mama propped nearly upright in bed all night with a toddler on her chest. Kansas Dad picked up a humidifier for our room that made a big difference last night. Sometimes she would consent to sleep next to me. It's not too fun but hopefully it won't last too much longer.