The Big Winter Holiday is headed in our direction, and whilst the adults are busy with holiday prep, kids are mostly left to work themselves into a lather of anticipation. Here are a couple of fun projects to do with little ones, because there are only so many sugar cookies you can decorate before declaring your kitchen a Superfund site.<\/p>\n
Magical Reindeer Food<\/B><\/p>\n
1\/2 C instant oatmeal or birdseed Mix together, place in an empty plastic spice bottle (the kind with the flip-up lid), and label. Sprinkle liberally outside on Christmas Eve.<\/p>\n During the off-season, the same mixture can be used to attract unicorns.<\/p>\n Summoning Snow Fairies<\/B><\/p>\n Present the child with a pretty bag containing the items needed for attracting Santa’s Elves, Hannukah Hobs, Solstice Fairies, or whatever magical creature you happen to feel needs a little encouragement.<\/p>\n You will need snow fairy food (blue and white jelly beans), plus whatever “ritual” items you want to include: A little silver plate to hold the food, special gloves to wear whilst preparing the meal, a bell to ring to alert the fairy that it’s dinnertime, pretty note cards to write a greeting to the fairy, and so forth.<\/p>\n Be sure to include instructions for properly performing the “ritual,” along with any background information about the creature in question, for instance, “Solstice Fairies tend to have snow-white hair and blue eyes.” “Elves don’t like to hear whining, complaining, or teasing, but get very excited when they hear ‘Please’ and ‘Thank you.'” (A side benefit of having one or two of Santa’s Elves hanging around is the tendency for children to be on their best behavior, lest the elves rat them out to Santa.)<\/p>\n It’s fun to get creative with the labels and packaging, and kids really get caught up in the magic.<\/p>\n Either one of these items would make unique party favors, too. The fairy-summoning bag could even be used as a wedding favor, particularly if you included additional elements like flower seeds (for attracting summer fairies) or votive candles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Big Winter Holiday is headed in our direction, and whilst the adults are busy with holiday prep, kids are mostly left to work themselves into a lather of anticipation. Here are a couple of fun projects to do with little ones, because there are only so many sugar cookies you can decorate before declaring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-677","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bittens"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=677"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1977,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/677\/revisions\/1977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=677"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.shadowmanor.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2 Tbsp sanding sugar<\/a> or edible glitter<\/a> (make sure the glitter is edible, for the sake of non-magical creatures that might eat it)<\/p>\n