Day 2: Making ornaments

Clyde showed up today with a cute little ornament in his lap. He wrote out his Christmas list and put it in the ornament.

I saw the idea of creating an ornament with your child's Christmas list on Pinterest. And I combined it with this idea of decorating a clear glass ornament. I love the Santa's Belly Ornaments from A Crafty B! They are so cute! I bought extra clear ornaments and I might make those, too.

Clyde's ornament says: "Dear Santa, For Christmas I would like, * a sled * elf-sized snowshoes *candy * an elf-pod <3 Clyde"

Clyde's handwriting is a little swirlier than mine. And he always writes his "y"s backwards. :)

He hid in our bookshelf with the glass doors. That made it easy for him to leave instructions for the kids to make their own.

(The kids left him a note yesterday thanking him for the donuts. They gave him some pennies to show their gratefulness. I told them that elves don't need money, but they wanted to do it anyways.)

Clyde was also so sweet as to leave three ornaments and three pieces of paper that are just right for the kids to make their lists on! Such a thoughtful, generous elf!

Even though our tree isn't up yet. This is still a good craft to do. It gets the kids to sit down and write out their Christmas lists, if they haven't already. And it's a cute memory to have in the future! Make sure to include the year on the list somewhere.

The kids were very excited to get started! They got out some paper to write out a practice list before they wrote their final choices on the special paper that Clyde left. It's just the "white" paper from a pack of construction paper, cut into smaller pieces. I cut the sides, but ripped the top and bottom edges to make them look more like parchment.

After the kids write out their lists, roll the paper around a pen or pencil to get the "scroll" look. I had to do it a couple times to get it tight enough. To get it in the ornament, I rolled it around the pen again and slid it off the pen into the ornament. It opens up inside the ornament.


Tomorrow, Day 3, is an easy one: Go on a hike and collect pine cones. The pine cones are for Day 4: Make bird feeders.

Merry Christmas!!!

UPDATE: Here are the finished ornaments! I think they turned out beautifully! I love this new tradition and I think it will be a treasured memory when the kids are older.

Clyde's ornament is the little one on the shelf in the background. We are getting our tree today and they will all go on it.

I happened to have this ribbon that I bought last year. It was so cute that I had to have it! I'm glad I waited until I had the perfect thing to use it for.

Make sure to write their name and the date at the bottom of the list. :)