Looking across the street at our neighbours wonderful light displays makes our house look a little inferior.  I really don’t mind because our decorations are a labour of love.  Almost everything is homemade and those that are not have been bought very cheaply from charity shops or dollar stores.  We may not set the street alight but the decorations are for the children and have had the children’s full involvement.

We have a cherry tree outside our front door and have been gradually adding decorations to it. They are not as beautiful as many of those you may see on Pinterest but they are all the children’s own work.

Here are some of the things we have been doing over the past month.

1.Lolly/Popsicle Stick Snowflakes.

2. Snowmen

Join polysterene balls together with cocktail sticks and decorate with push pins or sticky tape.  This activity took on a life of its own as my daughter’s let their imaginations run wild.

3. Decorate old Cd’s

4. Ice ornaments

5. Pine cone reindeer

6. Gingerbread Cookies

7. Wreath

We bought a cheap tinsel wreath in dollar store and re-threaded it with items we had collected from the garden.

8. Hula hoop weaving

Using old Christmas decorations and our spiderweb we had made for Hallowe’en.

9. Snowflakes

I’d recommend using thin paper with young children as they found them hard to cut.  In nursery we used to use kitchen paper, thin packing paper works well too.

10. Salt dough decorations

 

11. Recycling Christmas Cards

 

My favourite.  I left out a basket of old Christmas cards, scissors, tape and glue sticks and this is what the girls came up with.  We also used them to make gift tags for family presents.

12. Table Centre

Using items we collected in the autumn, scented with oil, dusted with fake snow and adding a few finishing touches.