Disclaimer: Oriental Trading sent me the products in this post to review. All opinions are 100% mine.
When I was a kid, my mom’s friend would send each of us a special Hallmark ornament for Christmas. I have 18 of these ornaments, and I still can’t believe the flood of memories that rush back whenever I get them out.
Well, now I have my own children and I want them to have special memories of the ornaments we put on our tree. So we’re making our own. 🙂
This is the first year we decided to make ornaments, and I’m glad we are starting this tradition while they are so young. Oh, the excitement they had when I told them we would be making ornaments!
Beautiful Ornament Crafts from Oriental Trading
I’m not a crafty mom at all, so I was delighted when I found out that Oriental Trading had plenty of ornament craft kits that were easy enough for me and my girls to put together. I chose a Candy Cane Antler Reindeer, a Metal Jingle Bell Wreath, a Handprint Snowflake Picture Frame (but we decided to do it without the pictures), and a Hershey’s Kisses Angels Craft idea that was featured on the site. I also ordered some Large Clear Photo Ornaments, and I will be featuring those in a post next week. {P.S. a lot of the ornaments I chose are now out of stock, but there are still plenty to choose from. Just do a bit of browsing!}
I wanted to get started on the ornament-making as soon as the Christmas season started, so I got the ornament kits ready on the weekend after Thanksgiving. My oldest had a blast helping me put the kits in individual Christmas Serving Trays while her younger siblings were napping.
Right after nap time that day, we got to work. We started with the wreaths, and, while they both needed my help with each bell that they were stringing on the chenille stem, it was a fun time. They could hardly believe we were actually making something!
After about 30 minutes, I could tell they were getting a little restless, so we put the ornaments away until the next day. For about a week, we would get the ornaments out again right after snack time and spend a little time on another ornament. It was really something they looked forward to doing.
What I Learned While Making Ornaments with My Toddlers
I learned several lessons while making these ornaments with my girls. I want to remember them for next year and share them with you in case you’ve decided you want to make ornaments with your kids.
- Before you tell your kids you will be making ornaments, make the ornaments yourself to find out if your kids will be able to make them. It’s also nice to have a “display” ornament they can reference.
- Give them their own supplies, but make sure nothing is too small that it could cause a choking hazard.
- If your kids are really young, be sure you are there to help them make their ornaments.
- Turn on Christmas music while you make the ornaments {
here’s a fun playlistof kids Christmas songs on YouTube} (YouTube won’t let me link to playlist anymore) - Stick to ornaments that are easy to make and spend short periods of time making them (with toddlers, anyway).
If you want to make easy and really cute ornaments with your kids, I know you’ll find some great ornament craft kits through Oriental Trading.
Why I Let My Toddlers Decorate the Christmas Tree
Last year, I decided to let my girls decorate the tree. I put a few ornaments here and there, but most of the decorating was all on them. Since I know how much joy it brings them to put the ornaments on the tree, I let them do it again this year.
2015
And I sat back and relaxed! 🙂
In all seriousness, though, I’m so glad I don’t care much about decorating the tree. I am perfectly content to let my toddlers go to town and decorate our Christmas tree. It may not be “Pinterest-worthy,” but it screams love, peace, and joy to me.
I don’t want to spend my Christmas season yelling and pestering. That’s all that would happen if I decorated the tree myself. And there’s no way I’m going to spend my evenings rearranging ornaments just to make sure the tree looks perfect.
Because I allow my toddlers free reign, they get to have a real hands-on Christmas and hopefully all the wonderful memories that come with it. The sense of touch is a strong one, and I hope they always remember how much fun they had putting up the tree and hanging the ornaments as a family.
2016
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