Snowflake Cookie Wreath Source: catholicmom.com Rondi Hillstrom Davis and Janell Sewall Oakes Materials: 1 16-ounce package of ready-made sugar cookie dough 1 cup flour Royal icing (recipe provided) Decorative sugars Snowflake cookie cutters Wax paper Sturdy cardboard White glue Wire Red ribbon Directions: 1. For the base cut 2 wreath shapes from a piece of sturdy cardboard and glue them together for additional support. Tie a hanging wire around the wreath. 2. Place the ready-made dough in a large bowl and bring to room temperature. Add the additional flour and knead until smooth. This will make the dough denser and sturdier for mounting your cookies. 3. Between two pieces of waxed paper, roll the dough to ¼ inch thickness. Chill flat for 15 minutes. 4. Cut out snowflake shapes using the cookie cutters and place them on an ungreased cookie sheet. 5. Bake in a 350º oven for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden. Let the cookies cool completely. 6. Decorate the cookies with the Royal icing and decorative sugar. 7. Place the remaining Royal icing into a zip top bag and seal. Snip the corner off the bag and squeeze. Use the icing as glue to adhere the cookies to the wreath. Arrange the cookies around the cardboard base, overlapping slightly. 8. Let the wreath dry for several hours before hanging. Finish with a bow. Royal Icing Ingredients: 1 16-ounce box powdered sugar 5 tablespoons meringue powder or ¼ cup pasteurized egg whites 2 tablespoons lemon juice Food coloring (optional)
Directions: 1. Combine the powdered sugar and meringue powder or egg whites in a mixing bowl. Beat on low speed. 2. Add the lemon juice, one drop at a time. (You may not need the entire amount depending on humidity and temperature.) Beat until the mixture is creamy. Do not let it get runny. This will act as your glue. 3. Tint with food coloring (optional). Materials: Pinecones White school glue Glitter Cinnamon Scented Pinecones Source: catholicmom.com Rondi Hillstrom Davis and Janell Sewall Oakes Directions: This is a quick and easy holiday activity to do with kids. Gather several pinecones from your backyard or buy them at your local craft store. Dot the tips with glue and sprinkle with glitter and then cinnamon. Let dry. Place the pinecones in a basket next to the fireplace or use as a holiday centerpiece.
Advent Wreath Craft for Kids November 25, 2010 By Lacy catholicicing.com I ve been crafting Advent wreaths with my preschool co-op, my own children, and, well, pretty much every Catholic child that I come in contact with! As I m sure you can instantly tell, this advent wreath is child sized, and crafted with pink and purple birthday candles. This is a great way to have fun with kids for advent!
These wreaths can be made for about a dollar a piece. The Styrofoam circles I got 2/$1 at the Dollar Tree, along with the wired pine. I cut the center of the circles out ahead of time with a seraded steak knife to make it a wreath shape. (Use caution when you do this please!) You can buy small pre-made Styrofoam wreaths at AC Moore for $1.50 each, but I needed several for my preschool co-op class. I also got enough red berries at the Dollar Tree for all the wreaths for just $1. The birthday candles came from my local grocery store for.99/box. Obviously, you need pink and purple, so you will need 2 boxes. Have the children paint the wreaths green. They love this! I know you could start with floral foam which is already green, but that stuff is super crumbly and will
make a big mess with small kids. It also won t be durable. It doesn t matter if they don t paint it perfectly, but try toencourage them to paint the inside and outside of the circle as well asthe top. As you can see, we used foam brushes. I think foam brushes areespecially handy for small children. After painting, allow to dry. The wired pine we used as kind of a lacing exercise. It s not glued at all, just wound around the wreaths and twisted together at the ends.
We let the kids squeeze on their own glue and stick on the clusters of berries. It s ok if they use a lot of glue it will dry eventually! Because the regular Styrofoam is stiffer than floral foam, you can t stick the candles right in. First, poke the holes with a Philips head screw driver, and have the kids insert the candles themselves.
Here s one that I made where the pine stuff was all glued on top of the wreath with a glue gun. We re going to be using this as my class s advent wreath on our prayer table.
The kids in my class had such a great time making these!
Here s Julian s. He is so proud of it! You can substitute other Christmas greenary for the wired pine. Just attach with glue.
Yes, these are working advent wreaths, so they can be lit. But please use caution and don t burn your children or you teddy bear.
Good Deeds and Sacrifices for Baby Jesus- Make an Empty Manger November 29, 2011 By Lacy catholicicing.com As we all know, Advent is a time of waiting. We are waiting for the coming of our Savior! Lent is also a time of waiting in which we make sacrifices. Did you know that Advent is traditionally a time of sacrifice for Jesus as well? A fun way to incorporate this concept with kids is the empty manger. The manger begins empty at the beginning of Advent. Each time someone in the family does a good deed or makes a sacrifice, he or she gets to place a piece of straw in the manger. You can either have a different manger for each child, or the family can all add their straw to the same manger. Explain that good deeds and sacrifices are the best present we can give to Jesus for his birthday! With each piece of straw added to the manger, Jesus has a softer place to lay for Christmas morning. On Christmas, you add Jesus to the manger while singing Away in a Manger. This is a really fun and meaningful Christmas tradition! We crafted our own manger sets for Baby Jesus this Advent, and I m excited that they should last us for many years to come!
Supplies Needed to Make a Manger Set: Small Wooden box from a craft store (You could substitute a cardboard box, like one from Velveeta Cheese) Brown Paint (acrylic) Paint Brush Old Fashioned clothes pin or peg Sharpie Marker Square piece of felt Shredded paper, Rafia, or Straw Start by painting your wooden box brown. Set it aside to dry.
Draw a face on your clothes pin or wooden peg. We used a sharpie marker. Glue a small square of felt around the Jesus peg doll for his swaddling clothes. When you re finished, store Baby Jesus somewhere safe until Christmas- you don t
need him yet. Keep your hay close by so it s easy to add a piece whenever anyone does a good deed or makes a sacrifice. Every piece of hay will help to make Jesus bed softer for Christmas day!