Decorating Their Trees

I am not crafty at all. Nor am I creative. But I have great friends who help me out. Last year Michelle gave me a very cool book that details how to "help children find Jesus in our holiday traditions. "

For instance, "Blaire" suggests cutting stars out of black construction paper, punching holes around the edges, and letting the kids "lace" the stars with yellow yarn. While the kids are working on their stars, you can ask "Why do we put a star on top of our Christmas tree?" Then you can talk about how the wise men followed the star until they found Jesus.

Wesley enjoyed lacing the star but he really got into using the hole puncher which is great for building hand strength in preschoolers.

Last week, Janet hosted a little playgroup for Leslie and me. We did the star craft with the kids, a snowman craft, and a "Christmas Cone-ifer."
For this "cone-ifer", turn a sugar cone upside down, cover it in icing, and add miniature M&M for the decorations.

As the kids are decorating their trees, you can talk about how Christmas trees represent the tree Jesus died on, which is why he was born in the first place. The tree also points to heaven just like Jesus did with His words and His actions so as to draw attention to God who loves us.

Thankfully, Lydia was happy to just eat the cone while watching the older kids use the icing.

Of course, the best part of this "craft" was eating it!