Christmas is one of the busiest times of the year. There are huge demands on your time and resources. Learning to delegate some of your Christmas tasks will make the holidays more enjoyable and give you more time to do what you want. Decorating can be a time-consuming and tedious task. Handing over part of that job to your children will make them feel involved in the holiday and give them something to do.
Kids are really quite capable of helping decorate for the holidays. By remembering that some of their imperfections bring a certain charm to the holiday, letting them help you with decorating will become something that you enjoy and look forward to, rather than a hassle.
Even the tiniest tots can pitch in and help. The family Christmas tree doesn't have to be perfect. Let them do the bottom branches. If you insist on a perfect tree, put another in the family room and let your children decorate their own tree.
Making ornaments is good place to start. Finger-painting on freezer paper is good messy fun. Use the non-glossy side. What to use for paints? A little bit of liquid laundry starch mixed with food dye, or powdered tempera paint is an inexpensive solution. When the paper dries, trace cookie cutters for ornaments or package tags. Or use the paper to wrap gifts. Grand parents especially love this kind of wrapping paper.
With the cookie cutters out, make Christmas sugar cookies with real sugar cookie dough or make a batch of salt dough clay. Paint before baking with food dye mixed in raw egg yolk and a clean paintbrush. Put a hole in the top with the end of the straw. Then bake and hang with a ribbon for another easy tree decoration.
Old cards are a rich resource for decorating craft projects. Trace and cut circles out to use for gift tags. Punch with holes and add a ribbon. Use card cut circles for more Christmas ornaments. Bend the edges around a smaller centered cardboard triangle and then glue the edges together back to back to make another kind of ornament.
Snowflakes cut from paper are an easy project for older children to make. Putting them in charge of the little ones, will keep everyone occupied. Fold the paper in half the long way, and then into thirds with a point at the center. Make a curvy cut around the edge. Then cut out triangles and other geometric shapes along the folded edges. It's always a surprise to unfold the cut snowflake and see what an easy, but beautiful snowflake you have made. Hang from the ceiling with mono-filament line, or tape with clear tape on the windows.
Another way to decorate with snowflakes is to find a simple snowflake rubber stamp or carve one with an eraser or potato. Dip in white paint and cover solid colored paper for more gift-wrap or stamp directly on the windows. A little goes a long way to make a winter wonderland.
When everyone is involved, Christmas becomes the relationship ideal many strive for. Make sure that you use your kids as much as possible. Keeping them busy decorating will help keep boredom away and make them feel an important part of the festivities.
Source : Ezinearticles
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