Ever since they start walking and talking, kids love to help their parents and ask to participate in all happenings around home. Even small kids, like toddlers and preschoolers enjoy crafting and baking with mommy as we approach holiday season. Same goes for Christmas! Invite your toddlers and preschoolers to help you with Christmas crafts and decorations. And they can even make Christmas gifts for family members and friends!

1. It’s fun when your Christmas tree is twirling and whirling on the wind! Invite your kids to create Christmas tree twirler from paper plate and decorate it as they wish. Then attach it on your ceiling and let them spin!

2. We always keep a stash of paper rolls in our recycle bin for crafts. This inexpensive crafting medium is so versatile and we love reusing them to recreate different items. Like this lovely toilet paper roll reindeer! Adorable, isn’t he, with his red nose!?

3. Little ones enjoy sensory play and while you’re busy preparing for Christmas holidays, prepare for them Christmas themed sensory bin to occupy them and let them explore different textures and senses.

4. Is your child looking forward to white Christmas? As years go by, we are lucky if snow really falls on Christmas. But you can still let them have a sense of white Christmas if you make with them homemade snow recipe.

5. Do you have buttons laying around your home? We always have some spares for crafts and one of crafts we made with them are lovely button snowflakes. If you are looking for more easy Christmas decorations, you can take a look at collection in Handmade Ornaments book.

6. Gingerbread man is one of my children’s favorite Christmas themes. We made many gingerbread man crafts over years and we still have gingerbread man cards we made years ago as keepsake!

7. Thinking to put together a Christmas party or you need a larger scale Christmas decoration for your classroom? We love how kids get to collaborate to make handprint Christmas tree. Looks wonderful displayed on bulletin board!

8. Crafts that can be completed in super short amount of time, when you need something to quickly distract and occupy little ones are sometimes hard to find. Let them create their own personalised easy solstice lanterns as last minute project before Christmas.

9. Christmas crafting comes as good practice for your toddlers and preschoolers fine motor skills. One of the crafts where they can use their little fingers and practice waving are yarn Christmas trees. Love how each and every one of them is different and unique!

10. Every child is looking forward to Santa coming on Christmas eve! As they wait, invite them to make their own paper plate Santa! Easy craft to make after reading your child’s favorite Christmas story!

Christmas is one of those holidays every child loves. We also love to spend time over Christmas holidays crafting and baking together. Perfect opportunity to spend time bonding as family and create memories for years to come! You can start new Christmas tradition this year with your kids too!

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Christmas Adverts have become big business this year and while some people love to shed a tear at the John Lewis advert, there are those of us rooting for the underdog and in recent years that has come in the shape of an orange little carrot called Kevin.

The marketing campaign from Aldi is brilliant and their social media team have gone to new levels this year, enjoying some entertaining banter with Coca Cola too. The frenzy around Kevin reached new heights last week when Aldi released their Kevin the carrot (and family) soft toys for 2018.

The world official went mad.

Websites crashed.

Queues outside the stores.

Women wrestling in the carrot aisles (okay I may have made that bit up).

Despite not caring where I buy our food from, my girls were swept up in the Kevin the Carrot frenzy and wanted their very own Kevin and Katie. So I was amazed when I went into our local store to find that they still had some left. I wrestled worked my way to the front and was delighted that there was still a choice so I got a Kevin and Katie each for my girls.

However (now this is the good bit) as it happens, one daughter only wanted Kevin and the other Katie so I have two to spare! 

I have seen so many of these plush toys selling on eBay for silly money and whilst I am not saying a few extra pennies might be nice this Christmas, it is the season of goodwill after all, so I have decided to give the Lilypad readers a chance to win them! 

All you need to do is enter on our Instagram page!

Good luck. 

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It’s beginning to look at lot like Christmas! And now, with Halloween and Bonfire Night done and dusted, the weather has turned colder and we’re officially allowed to crank up both the central heating systems and our plans to go full Crimbo! Eeeek!

I don’t care what anyone says. No matter how much you dread spending hundreds on stuff you don’t need, and food, and all that jazz, we definitely do it because Christmas is simply magical. It captures us from October onwards and gives some sparkle to our cold and dreary winter days.

You’re tired. But it’s OK, it’s Christmas. You’re skint. But it’s OK, it’s Christmas. You’re having a glass of wine straight after the school run. It’s OK. It’s Christmas.

Such a special time of the years deserves to be celebrated with crafting and all things creative. We’ve got Elf season coming up, and I’m even excited for that. Don’t judge me. Our Insta is going to be merry and bright!

That being said, there’s one thing that I’m absolutely not feeling.

Decorating the dreaded gingerbread house.

OH MY GOSH. Tell me I’m not alone on this one? I can’t be the only mum who finds it darn near impossible to piece together gingerbread with watery or clumpy royal icing (there’s no inbetween) and make a delightfully festive and equally delicious gingerbread abode.

My attempts always look like the Hansel and Gretel witch’s dwelling, after she’s been burnt alive and the house is left in ashes.

Gingerbread houses cum war zones aside, there has to be some other stuff we can decorate with the children in the run up to the 25^th December. Here are five of my favourite, and totally doable, Pinterest-worthy ideas.

1.    Christmas Bauble

The beauty in a bauble is that it can literally be any craft whatsoever… on a string. Just make some fabby Christmas creation with your youngster and thread a hanger through it. Job done. Literally.

2.    Christmas Cake

You might have to nip to M&S to make sure you have a reserve in play, you know, just in case, but Christmas cake decorating is the perfect way to spend an afternoon with your sprogs. Rank up the degree of difficulty depending on your baking skills. Mums and dads who are a dab hand in the kitchen can make fruit cake and chocolate yule logs from scratch. Parents who aren’t, well, no one will no. Nip to Asda. Stockpile all your decorating bits and bobs and let your children create their own snow scene. A chocolate log complete with perched robin is a traditional and easy-to-do festive favourite.

3.    Christmas Cards

Three options. Visit Santa with the children, go to the photo shop and reprint your snaps. Create photo cards. Turn a fantastic morning out into a crafty and productive afternoon at home. Alternatively, finger prints make for some unusual abstract reindeers and snowmen cards, or so I’ve seen online. Or, you could just nip to ELC or Tesco and buy a card kit. Like the rest of us.

4.    Christmas Wreath

If you want to make a wreathe with anything other than tissue paper, I suggest you attend a class before introducing eucalyptus leaves and holly to your children. You’re a better person than I am. For those of us that wish to stay sane, scrunching shades of green tissue paper onto an O-shaped piece of cardboard looks surprisingly brilliant. Adorn with pinned pinecones, dried orange rings, holly berry tissue paper balls, and any other Christmas decoration your DD/S fancies.

5.    Mini Christmas Tree

Mini Christmas trees can be picked up almost everywhere on the highstreet, in supermarkets, and in gardening centres for next to no cost. Pick one up and let your little one decorate their own tree for their bedroom. Mini baubles from Paperchase are slightly expensive, but fun and young, and definitely worth it if you reuse each year.

So with the cold weather on the way, stay in the warm and get crafting! You never know it might warm your soul too! 

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Going to the theatre is such a treat, it is a way to escape reality and Director of the Pinocchio at The Old Rep Theatre, Alec Fellows Bennett feels that in the age of iPads , smartphones and computer games that it is important to come together as a community and fall in love with live theatre. 

This year The Old Rep are sharing the story of Pinocchio, the tale of a wooden puppet who wants to be a real child. "To me Pinocchio is the perfect story for this theatre," says Alec. "If you asked a young child to draw a theatre they would pretty much draw The Old Rep auditorium. The idea of a story where toys come to life and it's all make-believe is the perfect story for a classic theatre like The Old Rep."

The lead is played by Holly Sayer and her ability to actually act and walk like a puppet had you believe from the outset that she wasn't a "real boy" and you are rooting for her portrayal of Pinocchio to be successful in his quest.  

The ensemble cast for Pinocchio is made up of Birmingham Ormiston Academy (BOA) students. This is very personal to me as my best friends daughter is auditioning for BOA next year, so it was a great chance for me to see the opportunities that are ahead for her. 

Launched in 2011, BOA is an independent state-funded academy which specializes in creative, digital and performing arts. Sponsored by the Ormiston Trust and Birmingham City University, the academy is for students aged 14-19 years old and The Old Rep is an amazing platform for them to perform. 

I couldn't recall the tale before we went into the show and I had forgotten quite how "dark" the storyline was. I was amazed to learn that the adventures of Pinocchio is the second most translated book in the world, beaten only by the Bible! The original version of the story was written to teach children moral lessons and whilst the live show is a little more light hearted than that Collodi's original story it still keeps its moral compass. 

We were invited to the press showing of the stage show but the tickets are reasonably priced as;

Stalls Tickets £19.00 (Conc £17.80)*
Balcony Tickets £16.00 (Conc £14.80)*
Schools & Groups £9.90
*Price includes £1 restoration levy 

We also got the chance to meet some of the cast after the show and I "may" have pinched the Fox's hat ....... he was crafty enough to get it back though! 

At the start of this review, we mentioned that the Director wanted a new generation to fall in love with live shows and we were captivated by the Pinocchio production at the Old Rep Theatre in Birmingham but fell in love completely with the Blue Fairy. Daisy Ann Fletcher might be my new girl crush.

So if you are thinking about introducing your children to live theatre shows, The Old Rep Theatre is the perfect place to start.

And don't forget, think Blue ....  

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