Letter to Parents: Focus on Giving - Crafts Your Kids Can Give as Gifts

Of our four children who are walking and talking, our 7 and 10 year olds realize that Christmas is not only about receiving gifts. They realize that the season also centers around the idea of giving. Our two 4-year-olds, however, want everything that they see.

In an attempt to shift the focus from receiving to giving, we tried to make giving fun for them and cost-effective for us. So, we started searching for gift ideas that we could make.

Here are some of the ideas we found and tried:

I. Paperweight:

1. The website we found this idea on suggested using postage stamps to cover a rock. This is a great idea and sounds like it would be very cute. It is also a great idea for younger children. However, we decided to try a few alternatives. You can use anything heavy for your paperweight. An old book you do not want, a discarded box that jewelery was purchased in (filled with sand, dirt, plaster, clay, or anything to make it heavy), an expired can of tuna, whatever you can find that is the right size and weight will work. Then use your imagination and decorate, disguise, and change your item to make a one-of-a-kind gift.

• Here are a few ideas:
• 
  If you are using a box or can, wrap it. You can do this with plain printer paper, construction paper, brown paper, or scrapbook paper.
  -Next Decorate your paper. If you’ve used plain paper, you can draw on it, paint on it, use stickers, or cut out pictures from magazines or family photos.
  -If you used a patterned scrapbook paper, you can jump straight to embellishments. You can add glitter, ribbon, rickrack, tags, layers of graphic shapes in a variety of colored papers, buttons, sculpey or model magic clay, etc.
  -If you’ve only used paper products, you can seal your creation with a gloss sealer, modge podge, or white glue. If you are using embellishments of other materials, sealing should happen prior to adding these.
  -If you are using a rock, but do not wish to decopage it with postage stamps, photos, or images, you could simply paint it. These can be quite beautiful and make wonderful keepsakes.
  -If your child is too small to sign their creation, a hand or fingerprint in paint is a great way to let them mark the peice. You can always take a Sharpie and write in their name and the date created.
  2. Box of Love: We found this idea also, on another website. I have not altered the idea tremendously, but my kids loved it so much, I thought I should share it with you. You take any small box; wood, paper mache, discarded jewelry box, etc. Wrap and decorate it. Then attach the following poem:
  This is a very special gift
  That you can never see.
  The reason it’s so special,
  Is its just for you from me.
  Whenever you are happy,
  Or even feeling blue,
  You only have to hold this gift
  And know I think of you.
  You never can unwrap it,
  Please leave the ribbon tied.
  Just hold the box close to your heart,
  It’s filled with love inside.
  We took some small wooden boxes we’d bought for fun at Michael’s. The kids opened the boxes, said a bunch of "I love you’s." Gave several kisses, and hugged the inside of the box. Then they closed them tight, so all the love would not get out. Then we painted our boxes with Acrylic Paints. They had a blast. Then we tied a ribbon and the poem to each box.. They were so excited!!!
  3. Cookie Cutter Ornaments - Here’s what you do. Mix 2 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt, and 2/3 cup of water together in a bowl with your hands until it is the consistency of stiff pie dough. Add water as needed to reach the right consistency. Set the mixture aside overnight. The next day, roll the dough out and use christmas shaped cookie cutters to cut out shapes in your dough. Insert a paperclip or ornament hook into the dough for your hanger. Then lay these out on wax paper and allow to dry for several days. Once they are dry, you can decorate them. Felt tip pens, markers, water colors, and craft paints all work beautifully. The ornaments can be embellished with glitter, stones, buttons, ribbon, etc. You can also use a smaller cutter and cut a hole in the middle and glue a picture onto your ornament. As with any project, your imagination is the only limit to what you can create and do. (We will have all five kids for Christmas. I will be preparing this ahead of time for the kids to do. Once the project is complete, I’ll post a picture of our ornaments for you.) You can group the ornaments into sets of 6, 10, or 12, wrap them or put them in a decorated paper mache craft box and give them to family and freinds as a personalized gift.
  I hope you’ve enjoyed these ideas, for more you may want to reference

Children's Book Review: The Biggest, Best Snowman

Written by Margery Cuyler
Illustrated by Will Hillenbrand

This charming story is about Little Nell, who lives in a big, big world. Little Nell is told that she is too little, but she and her friends see things differently. By the end of the story, the reader sees that no one is too little, and that with the help of friends anything is possible. This beautifully illustrated book also shows us that if we believe we are capable of more than others do, all we need to do is keep trying and eventually, the rest of the world will see in us what we see.