The days are numbered. Advent calendars are already ticking away the time between now and Christmas. If you haven’t gotten all of your decorations out of storage yet, don’t worry! Here are a few ideas for how to make your home feel festive this season.

Tree

Although there is more to Christmas decorating than the tree, it’s usually the first step when it’s time to start decorating. With good reason, too, because besides being an iconic image of Christmas, the tree is also a gathering place. How often have your family and friends circled the tree, getting lost in the wonder of antique ornaments, admiring handmade trinkets from the kids, and letting the gentle scent of pine waft through the house?

Lights

Lights are another Christmas standby, but why not try to spice things up a bit this year? Naturally, the outdoor lights will be hung with care, and inside, the tree will be dressed in all its glowy finery, but what about the other rooms of the house? Try something as simple as sticking lights inside glass lanterns or bowls in various rooms. Making lights spell out Christmas phrases, creating wreaths or entwining lights with bows, candy canes, and branches help make the season bright. Literally!

Senses

Christmas is about more than just what you see hung on the walls, so try to incorporate all five senses in your decorating. For touch, bring in elements like acorns and branches from outside to add to your winter décor. Taste is an obvious one — just cook or bake some seasonal goodies! Some traditional things to try are sugar cookies (which are fun to decorate with the kids), turkey or even a fruit cake if you want to challenge yourself. Smell is also a powerful reminder of the season. Pine scented candles, cloves or apple and cinnamon often get people feeling those winter vibes as soon as they walk in. The same goes for those groovy Christmas tunes! Get everybody humming along to the season’s favorites with a pre-made playlist for the occasion.

Room by Room

Living Room

The living room is often the first room guests see, so don’t hold back here! Choosing a color scheme for the season can help make a familiar room feel different, so think about what colors fit with your festive scene. Consider using wrapping paper to decorate baubles around the room, make a banner for over the mantle or go all out with an entire wall of ornaments.

Bathroom

The bathroom gets used a lot, but homeowners often forget to spruce it up for the season. Some frosted spray on the mirror or a Christmas seat cover can brighten up the space quickly. You can also swap your standard towels for some festively themed ones.

Bedrooms

Though most guests won’t be in the bedroom, try wrapping the doors with festive paper and a bow, hang stockings on each family member’s door or tie bows on the pillows inside.

Kitchen

This is a great place to display those Christmas cards! Make a creative collage and include any artwork from the kids alongside them. Oven mitts, towels and plates can also add a sense of season to the kitchen.

Follow these tips and you’ll have a fantastically decorated house this Christmas.

Images by cobaltfish and JL_7978, used under Creative Commons license

 

In our techno-age, it can sometimes seem like a struggle to get our kids to unglue themselves from the various screens that dominate our homes and lives, and become excited about creating. Countless studies have shown that boosting creativity in your child’s development leads to greater health and happiness, and what better way is there to get your child to create than scrapping down with a bit of DIY. The following are some tips to get your kids up off the sofa and into the workshop!

Make Something Your Child Wants

This could be a box for their toys, a desk for their room, even the most boring of DIY tasks: shelves. But the important thing is to make it fun. Allow your child to design exactly what they want – this can be as wacky or elaborate as they like – encourage them to use their imagination. Obviously, you are not about to build together a SpongeBob shaped cupboard. But you can try together to see how to incorporate your child’s ideas into something achievable.

Go shopping together for the materials, the wood, the paint etc. so your child can be part of the whole process. As they watch their design come to life, they will surely be enchanted by the magic of creation, of seeing an idea in their head materialize as a fully 3D object, one they will surely treasure and feel inordinately proud of.

Get a Kit

Another way to drum up interest is to get your child a DIY kit. These range from furniture to clocks to chemistry sets to radios, remote control planes and so on. Your child will benefit from the patience and practical thinking required to assemble it, while also catching the creativity bug big time. Again, the process of watching something come from nothing can be extremely gratifying, no matter your age.

In addition to this, you can always buy your child some tools. Tools which are theirs. They will likely be pleased to have such a grown-up present, yet there are many age-appropriate kits available which come in different colours and themes.

Get Crafty!

It’s no secret that children love arts and crafts, once the X-box has firmly been put away. As with making furniture with your child, next time you need a fancy dress costume, or something else artsy for whatever project or party, make it together with your child. Design it together, shop for materials together and create together! There is really no better way to instill a passion for do-it-yourself projects in your kid than to start early and keep on doing it!

 

When the kids have downtime I can’t stand them being sat in front of the TV or playing computer games so I always try to keep them entertained with an activity that uses their brain or something that gets them outside and active. Particularly difficult in the holidays but I’ve found that a small D.I.Y. project really entertains them and gives them a sense of reward. Here’s 6 fun D.I.Y. projects to keep them entertained.

Lego Challenge

Lego is amazing and flexible, challenge your kids to create something different than what the box says. Difficulty levels will depend on their age but set it as a challenge so they feel a sense of achievement afterwards, if you have more than one child, add a little competition to proceedings. The beauty of this project is that you can knock it down and start again with a different challenge.

Make a Robot

Craft ideas like this will entertain the kids for hours, robots can be simply made by coating empty cardboard boxes in tin foil and adding some flair with buttons, string, nuts and bolts or whatever’s lying around. This project will peak your kids’ interest and allow them to express some artistic flair, plus they get to dress up at the end.

Make a Volcano

One for the older kids here and a task that may inspire their scientific side is making a Volcano from household goods. For the volcano simply coat a plastic bottle in newspaper and glue to make a volcano shape with a hard edge. For the lava simply put bicarbonate or soda in the bottle and add vinegar for the explosion, encourage your kids to add flair to volcano and watch your volcano blow.

Create a Scrap Book

This one is a little old school but can entertain the kids for a good length of time and give them an account of all their memories. All you need is a book, some glue and some memories, kids can put ticket stubs, photos and thousands of other mementos in their specially designed book.

Bottle Rocket

Take a soda bottle and grab some bicarbonate of soda and some vinegar, wrap the bicarb in cling film and twist the cling film over it then pop the bicarb in the bottle. Next you need to place a hole in the bottle cap, create a cone to fit to the bottom of the bottle and you have a rocket, use a tube for the launch and simply add the vinegar, replace the cap and put the bottle cap down in the tube then wait for the boom. Definitely one for parents to supervise.

Music Centre

One of my faves is this music center, simple and entertaining for the kids. Take any number of pots and pans, empty glass bottles with varying amounts of water and well, anything that makes a noise. Let the kids decide what order to put them in and give them some wooden or plastic sticks and watch them go. I placed old pots on a piece of wood and some old tubing, with bottles and a bucket or two and the kids played with it for hours. Easy, fun and noisy, just what the kids love.