The Most Wonderful Time of the Year

If there is an arts and crafts Super Bowl, I guess it would have to be Hallowe'en, assuming that you are a good person and you make your own costumes and decorations. If that's the truth we are working from, then I guess Christmas time must be the Stanley Cup of craftiness. At least the ice fits with the theme, which helps. I'm yet to knit a sweater, and I haven't outfitted our chimney with hand sewn stockings (maybe someday), but I DO get into the spirit, and I fully support the use of lethal amounts glitter. Here are the things I made at both home and preschool to get the Holiday vibe kicked into high gear.

As the cold started to creep in at playgroup, we busted out the space heaters and gathered around them to read books. I looked around upon the lack of Dickensian holiday cheer, and found it to be more something akin to Anderson's Little Match Girl, what with all the blue-lipped and shivering preschoolers surrounding me. So the kids and I got to work and built a fireplace to house our space heater! Don't worry - we never leave the heat source unattended in it's very flammable housing. Henry seems to like it!

In an attempt to get revved up for the impending slue of holidays (all while remaining as secular as I could manage), i strung these construction paper lights all around the school, and hand drew and cut each one. I was going for a distinctly Seussian style, as the story of the Grinch is one of my favorite winter treats.

Next we took a cue from an episode of Martha Stewart that I had watched years ago, in which she cut and decorated these adorable little towns and trees from cardboard. Here's were arranged in rows and with depth on the table top, as well as being outfitted with battery-powered lights. Ours were a notch or two further down the crafting totem pole... but they look great in the windows, and the kids LOVED dumping on the glitter.