Each December I start thinking about traditions, and mostly how I would like to come up with some really great ones that my family will cherish forever.We didn't have too many growing up and I always thought it would make Christmas that much more fun if we did. We insisted of course on the common and fun tradition of opening a present on Christmas Eve! We also usually got a new pair of pajamas. My dad did take us each Christmas Eve on a drive to see some of the beautiful Christmas lights around the city which was probably the most important "tradition" that we did each year.
Now that I have my own little family, it is time to begin the memory making. I've had a little bit of a struggle to think of the "perfect" traditions, so I figured that the best way was to take advantage of every fun event, craft, party and idea that came our way and the rest would fall into place! One of those "fall into place" things actually happened the other day as I was sitting on the floor making some ornaments to take to a party. My little girl saw me cutting and gluing and wanted to make her own ornaments. She and I had so much fun doing this together and I got so excited that I had finally found a tradition we can do each year! Since we haven't had our ornament collection going for too long our sparse tree could definitely benefit from this. The great thing about this tradition is that you can do one, or just a few, special ones to save each year or you can give your tree a new theme every Christmas!
The ornaments we did this year, to kick off our new tradition, were these fun little balls made out of paper circles. These are perfect for a house with little kids because they can actually be played with and if they get destroyed nobody gets hurt!
To make these ornaments you will need:
paper of your choice (it can be card stock or normal weight)
a circle hole punch or a good circle pattern and a pencil
craft glue (Elmer's works great)
yarn or string
beads or bells for decoration (optional)
First take your circles and fold them in half. You will want at least 6 per ornament.
Take your string of choice, fold it in half making the loop at the top. Tie a knot in the bottom. This is where you can add a bead or a bell if you want to.
Glue each piece together, half to half.
Before gluing the last pieces together, add some glue to the center and stick your string in the middle.
Now finish by gluing the last two pieces together and hang to dry.
Since these can be made pretty quickly we did a whole bunch so our tree wouldn't feel so naked!
This was so fun to do together, and kids love getting to work with scissors, paper and glue so you can't go wrong with this idea (at least with the young ones)! We are still working on new ideas and traditions so I would love to hear yours!
These are so cute! I need to make them for the lower half of my tree since all my ornaments keep scooting up to the upper half due to some tiny hands. Great post.
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