Christmas Archives | The Mama Workshop

12/03/2017

Little Blue Truck’s Christmas Craft

We made a Little Blue Truck’s Christmas Craft to go along with the book. My kiddos have been having so much fun delivering trees. Make it too!

December is my favorite month of the year. I love the decorations and the activities. I love the hot cocoa and lights. It’s so cheery.

We started our advent activities yesterday. I made some cards, printed them out, laminated them and cut them to size. We are drawing one card a day and doing that activity. If you’d like a set, you can get them as a thank you for signing up for my newsletter: FREE Christmas Advent Activity Cards.

One of the activities is to read Christmas books. So, today we’re reading Little Blue Truck’s Christmas (aff).

I love that the book has counting in it. I can teach my son to count and how to do some subtraction. It’s an easy read. So, my son can retell the story to me too! By kindergarten, children will be asked to retell the main points of a story.

If you haven’t noticed yet (tehe), my friend Beth (from Days with Grey) and I have been teaming up each month to provide a book and a craft/activity that you can do with your kiddos to help prepare them for story retelling.

They absolutely don’t have to master the skill now. But, introducing them to the idea is a great way for them to have a great kindergarten year.

You can see a couple of our past Book Box Story Retells here: Room on The Broom, Dragons Love Tacos, The Watermelon Seed.

But, back to Little Blue Truck’s Christmas. If your kiddos love trucks, farm animals and lights, they’re going to love this book. The very last tree lights up. My kiddos just love it (so much so they kept turning to that page)!

I thought counting trees and a cardboard truck craft would go along with the book. We set out our toy farm animals and delivered a tree to each animal while I read the book to them. I hope you enjoy doing the craft too!

11/30/2017

DIY Grinch Christmas Ornament

We had so much fun making this DIY Grinch Christmas Ornament and reading the book! I love when we can use supplies we already have. Have fun making one too!

It really is the most wonderful time of the year. So, don’t be a Grinch. Haha! But, really.

We try to be those holly jolly people that smile and say Merry Christmas to everyone. Some people make it really tough. But, it really is about loving the people around you and sharing cheer. So, we’re choosing not to be the old Grinch.

My kiddos really love How the Grinch Stole Christmas. They love how he ends up being good and learning that Christmas doesn’t come from a store. And that he gets to enjoy Christmas.

So, we decided to make a Grinch Christmas Ornament to go along with the book. The kiddos enjoyed making it.

We didn’t have to go out and buy things to make it either. We used what we had. Hopefully, you have all the stuff to make it too.

11/25/2017

Nature-Inspired DIY Christmas Tree Ornament

My kiddos had fun gathering some leaves and twigs to make this nature-inspired DIY Christmas tree ornament. My daughter may or may not have painted herself. LOL

Now that Thanksgiving is over, it’s time to turn the pumpkins in for Christmas decorations. Eek! This year really flew by.

I have been trying to get us in the Christmas spirit by listening to carols and singing along to them, drinking hot chocolate and watching Polar Express. I think it’s helping a little bit. But, I am not quite there.

So, my son suggested we make a craft.

That is exactly what we did. We made a Christmas Tree Ornament using things we found outside. It’s simple, cute and the kiddos loved finger painting on them.

11/29/2016

Keeping the Magic of Santa Alive

“There’s no such thing as Santa.” Those words burned in my ears and trickled down into my heart. I cried. I refused to believe what my neighborhood friend just told me. My 8-year-old heart couldn’t take the pain.

I yelled at her with tears rolling down my face, “there is a Santa!” Then, I ran home to tell my mom. I wanted so badly for my mom to tell me that what I just heard wasn’t true (that he did exist). Maybe she was taken off guard. Maybe she wasn’t prepared. Maybe she thought I was ready. But, she confirmed what my friend had told me that day.

I looked at her in disbelief. My life was changed forever. The magic of Santa was gone.

I ran to my room and decided, no matter what people told me, I was still going to believe.

Fast forward 22 years later, I’m now a mom of two little kids (a 3 year old and a 1 year old). So, of course they believe; and, I’m going to keep it that way as long as I can.

Why? I want them to be little as long as they can. I don’t want them to have to grow up too quickly. Taking away their imagination at such a young age takes away creativity. We need creativity. Great entrepreneurs need creativity to come up with innovative ways to start a new company. Artists need creativity to make masterpieces. Authors need creativity to write. And so on.

Yesterday, I heard a different view. He shared that we should tell the truth right away. That if we lie now about Santa, what else will our children think we’re lying about later. So, this made me think.