Secret Santa Gifts that Kids Can Make themselves

My son's Year 2 teacher this year decided the class would do a Secret Santa, but with a twist. The kids had to make their gifts. There was to be a boys gift and a girls gift. Boys make for boys, girls make for girls and then it would be lucky dip on the last day of school.

The lucky dip bit threw me a bit - it was hard to know what to make when you didn't know who would be getting it. So I figured the way to a man's heart is through his stomach so let's bake something.

It was also a project I knew my son could be involved in. So we baked some simple vanilla cookies and before baking studded them with red and green M&M's. We then baked them, and once cooled pack them in a plastic bag tied with ribbon. It was an easy and effective gift that the recipient loved! We also packed up the leftover ones and gave them out to all the boys' cousins.

Next I'll show you some simple Teacher's Gifts.

Easy Christmas Gifts that kids can make for their friends

Every year my kids love to write Christmas Cards to all the friends in their class. Most kids also include a candy cane or chocolate santa in with their cards. This year with two boys at school we need 52 gifts to make sure every child in each class got one.

So I decided to do something a bit different. My son had learnt at school how to make his own sherbet. So we set about making green and red sherbet. If you need a sherbet recipe click here.

We then packaged the sherbet into tiny clip seal plastic bags and included a green or red lollipop for dipping! We tied the whole lot together in a plastic bag with ribbon and attached a mailing label to each one.

On the mailing labels we decorated one side with washi tape and the other side I print out little messages to stick on each one. The message read:

Here's some Yummy Elf Dust,

To spread the Christmas Cheer,

And say thank you for being my friend,

Throughout our first Prep year.

(or other variation "throughout our Year 2 year")

Love from Charlie.

This was a really simple gift, but was much more personal than store bought cards and candy canes.

Next time I'll show you an easy Secret Santa gift.

Lorax themed 5th Birthday Party - A Burlap Picnic in the Park

As I said April is birthday month in our house, so I thought I would share with you some of the highlights of my 5 year olds Lorax themed birthday party.

We had the party in the park after school. Before the children arrived we set up some tables for food and party bag goodies. We also set up a large picnic rug for the kids to enjoy their afternoon tea on. As usual Burlap abounds in our house, so we recycled the Burlap we used for the smash cake back drop the week before, and laid it down as the picnic area. Then created a table runner out of another length of printed burlap with a crazy red chevron print which looked like a graphic from a Dr Seuss Book! We also hung tissue paper pompoms from the tree over the picnic area.

Last minute St Patricks Day gift for the boys from a Leprechaun!

This is a great last minute St Patricks Day gift that is quick and easy to make.

My boys are now 7 and 5 and I thought this year it would be nice for them to celebrate a bit of their heritage with St Patricks Day. They are also old enough to start to understand where they come from and the concept of generations past. So I thought why not surprise them this year with a gift from a Leprechaun to get into the St Pats spirit!

Strawberry Basket the Prefect table centrepiece

Strawberry Burlap Basket

 The boys have been begging me to go to the local Strawberry Farm to pick their own strawberries. We went last year and they had such a great time, they have been waiting patiently for strawberry season to start. 

For full instructions on how to make your own Burlap Basket press

How to Grow a Sack of Potatoes

- Literally!    Even if you live in a tiny apartment.

If you've ever grown your own potatoes you would be familiar with the great potato hunt that occurs at the end of each crop! For those of you that haven't, I'll explain. Potato's grow as a plant that comes out of the ground, whilst under the ground the potatoes are forming. The potatoes are ready when the plant dies off. The problem is you then have to find the potatoes by randomly digging through the ground around the plant. This is relatively easy for a potato farmer with a tractor but not so easy for the home gardener.

But I have a Burlap solution of course!

Growing your own potato plant inside a burlap sack makes the process of retrieving your loot of potatoes really easy because you know that all your potatoes will be contained within the sack. It is a great project for kids, and non gardeners as well, as it is very straightforward and low maintenance. Plus it looks fabulous in any garden or deck and also makes the perfect apartment garden.

For full instructions on how to grow your own sack of potatoes press >