FAMILY TIME WITH BAKER ROSS CHRISTMAS CRAFTS
We’re delighted to be partnering with Baker Ross this year. We were compensated for this Baker Ross Christmas Crafts post.
There’s nothing quite like sitting around the table, Christmas music in the background, twinkly lights on the tree, crafting together at advent.
So besides the fact I love making pretty things; something I inherited from my own mom who knits and bakes and crochets her way into Christmas every year, here are five festive reasons we love crafting at Christmas. Baker Ross sent us the BIGGEST hamper of Christmas kits to get busy with this morning, which after the news that we lost my cousin unexpectedly to Coronavirus yesterday lunchtime following a huge stroke, has been a very welcome distraction. Hug your family close this Christmas.
Christmas Decorations – Family Memories
Handmade Tree decorations go without saying. Unless your heart is made of stone, the proud, loving look that accompanies the presentation and handing over of an ornament or trinket made by your own child to you, attaches itself to that creation and lasts a lifetime. Every year when we pull open the box, the boys hunt for the ones they made, and I have a little cry about years gone by.
This year, Hero was pretty sure that *every* homemade decoration in the box was his own creation. We have cardboard robins, salt dough stars splattered with glitter, trees made with sticks and ribbons, baubles filled with confetti and little wooden elves, all coloured in and smiling from the branches. Homemade is special – homemade holds more memories than you could ever pour into a shop bought one. Homemade tells your beautiful Christmas story each year, over and over, in a never-ending tale.
Homemade Gifts
When I was little, my mom used to tell me that whatever I made for her was worth much more than anything I could spend my pocket money on. I used to look at the things I cobbled together to give her, and then look at the fanciful products paraded on TV and think that she was either telling me a few fibs [my mom never let us say the word lies] or she had worse eyesight than her optician was letting on.
Fast forward a few *cough* years and here I am, parroting the same lines to my own boys when they ask me what I wish for each Christmas or birthday. Gav asks why I never say the same to him. Haha. Anything made by their little hands is the best gift I could receive.
As I get older, I also find that homemade gifts between friends are more unique and so much more treasured – from the exquisite knitted items my mom makes for us [this year chocolate orange covers in the shape of Gnomes…just so I can say “You’ve been GNOMED!” to the boys – long story] to the gift my bestie AK always makes me in her special glass bottles – her toffifee likör. It’s incredible, probably should be banned as it’s so good, and I could never buy anything as special – or find a friend as beautiful either.
Getting Away from the Computer
If we let them, our boys would sit merrily in front of the computer and play 24/7. I’ve absolutely no doubt about that and I also can’t blame them entirely because had I been in possession of technology like they have when I was a child, Sindy would have been buried in the toy box wayyyy before she was [we won’t say how old I was when I gave up making a beautiful home for Sindy and her family].
Since the boys were very young and teeny though, they’ve all shared a love for creating things out of anything they can find. If you watch our Instagram Stories, you’ll have seen the full body costumes they created out of cardboard to become FNAF characters last week and put on a “horror show” for me and Gav, and we are forever running out of gaffer tape and packing tape, and sellotape…and any kind of tape we have that they could possibly use. And they make the most unholy of messes, and there are bits of cardboard everywhere, but I’d take a hundred glitter covered carpets any day over seeing them glued to the screen, twiddling their thumbs for hours.
Time for Family
Family Time. I know if I set out a craft, they’re interested and drawn to it instantly. They love the colour, the texture, the sparkles, the sequins, the glues and tapes – so if I set out a craft and pull up a chair myself, they’re around the table faster than I can get my bottom seated. They always want to sit and talk and show me their crafting as they go on – and it gives us time to just talk.
They’re also at ages where they focus on their own crafts, only needing a little help, and now we can spend an hour or two, appreciating just being together – which sounds quite cheesy, but it’s true. And Christmas is the best time for slowing down and appreciating what we have – especially this year. Making our crackers and tree decorations and magnets for the fridge this morning with our Baker Ross Christmas Crafts was everything I needed.
Learning Through Baker Ross Christmas Crafts
The teacher in me feels like I really have to emphasise this part. Crafting in any form involves SO many skills and techniques that it’s always a brilliant learning experience. Snipping, folding, measuring, sticking, picking things up, counting, colouring, twisting, figuring out how to make things work together – and all of the time, they’re having fun, not realising how educational it is for them. Over lockdown we had Easter crafts, St. George’s Day crafts, and all kinds of topical crafts and whereas when I wanted them to sit down and do maths, they were instantly “bored”, when we were working out how long our dragon pieces needed to be to work our puppets, they were fully onboard. Crafting is sneaky like that. Hello, Baker Ross Christmas Crafts for the holiday homework… Haha.
So those are our reasons – and I know there are more. Do you craft as a family? Have you got a favourite craft? Thank you, Baker Ross Christmas Crafts, we needed you today.
