What the craft?!

I'm kicking off my new we-aim-to-inspire theme here on ye olde blog with some inspiration for things to do with your kids this holiday season.  How do you figure out what to do with your kids?  Especially during those long days of Christmas break before Christmas when they are bouncing off walls?  I have three main sources of inspiration for you.

1. Go old school.  Think back to kindergarten.  Or your kid's kindergarten.  It doesn't matter if they are 12 or 15 or 3.  Kindergarten-type crafts are amusing for all ages when it comes to the holidays.  Make a Santa beard out of cotton balls.  Mix up some salt dough and make some ornaments to paint.  Trace your hands for Rudolph's antlers.   Make "gingerbread" houses out of graham crackers and trees out of ice cream cones.  Or this old standard in my house...

We take two sheets of construction paper and cut out a holiday shape from one of them.  We usually cut out some symmetrical shape so that you can just fold that paper in half to cut it out.  Then glue the paper with the cut-out onto the whole sheet and decorate.  Then you also have a shape that you cut out of the first paper that can be decorated and turned into an ornament or even a gift tag (admittedly a LARGE gift tag).   Here is one my son did last year.  We cut the tree shape out of the red paper, glued it to the green paper and then he colored away.  He especially loved being given a glue stick with the instructions "glue all over!"  I love that he misspelled "Christmas" - let your kids do things themselves - it makes a much cuter keepsake!

2.  Blogs!  Not really mine, but other people's.  I found these two thanks to Twitter and these are just such adorable ideas!

• The Book Advent Calendar on Sarah Jane's Blog
• The Book Wreath on Living with Lindsay

3.  Go! Go! Go! Get out of your house and explore your city.  My local newspaper puts out a holiday booklet thingy each year listing the many holiday happenings.  So many of these are free and, frequently, under-appreciated and under-attended.  Especially pick things that are new that year or out of the ordinary.  Who would have thought our local minor league baseball team had a Christmas event?  Not me!  But they did last year and it was adorable!  Ask your neighbors, search the internet, send out a homing pigeon to your local tourism center.  Try at least one new thing this season!