This first craft is so simple, I almost feel guilty. Operative word being almost. I’d seen the idea somewhere – it required getting small wooden trays and blocks, painting them as desired, and assembling in the same fashion, ending up with tiered serving plates. Well, guess who couldn’t find the plain wooden trays and blocks… (that would be me).

So I figured the same thing could be achieved with Dollar Tree plates and candlesticks. I was right. And I really like the finished product! For about 5 bucks and 15 minutes, you, too, can create a tiered candy/nut/appetizer dish for Christmas or any occasion! So without further ado, I present:

Tiered serving plates

Here’s what you’ll need:

• Dinner sized plate
• Salad plate or shallow bowl
• saucer or flat candle holder
• Two candle sticks
• Glass and bead glue (which is not pictured. But you should already have on hand if you made the mosaic light).

How to complete:

• Place a bead of glue around the bottom perimeter of  one of the candle sticks and position on the center of the largest plate. Allow to set a few minutes. You’ll have a little wiggle room to re-position, but act fast.
• Put a bead of glue around the top perimeter of the candle stick, and position the medium plate or bowl and allow to set.
• Repeat with second candle stick to adhere it to the medium plate, then add the smallest plate last.
• Once the glue has completely dried, fill the tiered servers with your favorite goodies and enjoy!

How easy was that? So easy, we have time to move on to craft 2!

Popcorn Wreath

Perhaps the most difficult part of this craft is not eating all the popcorn! But the end product is really cute, and worth it even if you have to make more popcorn to complete. It’s a little more time-consuming, but very therapeutic at the same time!

What you’ll need:

• Popped corn (I used less than one batch, popped in an air popper
• Paper plate
• Waxed dental floss – about 10 feet
• Needle
• Ribbon of choice

How to make it:

• Cut out the center of the paper plate. The finished/presentation side will be the back of the paper plate.
• Tie one end of the floss to the plate.
• String the popcorn onto the floss. Fun, and a bit messy I started with about 4 feet of dental floss, which wasn’t anywhere near enough. When I ran out, I simply tied the end around the plate, pulled out some more floss, tied a new end to the plate and started stringing again. If you want to start with enough to finish the wreath, I would suggest using 12-15 feet of floss, which could end up tangling. (Trust me.)
• Begin looping the  popcorn around the plate as you go, adjusting individual kernels so there are few discernible gaps if any.
• Once you’ve covered the entire wreath, you can fill in any small gaps with a glue gun and popcorn.
• Attach a ribbon to the wreath and hang.

How cute does this look on the kitchen cabinet? After Christmas, you can place the wreath outside to feed the critters.

So what are you waiting for?? Christmas eve is TWO WEEKS AWAY!! Get Crafting!

-Liz

I am a big believer in holiday traditions, and for my family it’s not just the  Christmas routines, mind you, I’ve got traditions for practically every holiday of the year. If anything, I think I tend to ere on the side of OVER-doing it. But Christmas is the biggie, the granddaddy, the big kahuna of holidays. The other holidays are just warming me up for the grand finale holiday of the year.

I’ve been at this mom business for a long time, and over the years I’ve added some new traditions and dropped others which didn’t stand the test of time. Today I’m going to tell you about one of my family’s favorite Christmas Eve traditions. (I think this will be the 17th year for this one.) This is our twist on an ornament exchange. It’s a fun, easy and inexpensive way to have fun together and as a bonus, when the kids grow up and leave the house, they’ll have a collection of ornaments (and memories) to take with them for when they have their own tree to decorate.

Ornament Exchange Game

Supplies:

All you need are…

• an ornament for each person (I like to get mine dirt cheap on the day after Christmas for the NEXT year’s exchange.)
• a small gift bag for each person
• a favorite Christmas story
• and maybe some yummy cookies and hot chocolate (totally optional, but who wants to ignore an excuse for some yummy treats, right?)

These are the ornaments for this year's exchange. I try to choose a different theme for each year. This year...sparkly.

These super cute bags came from the Dollar Store..8 for a dollar. Do you love that as much as I do?

Put each ornament in a separate bag and tape it shut so the kiddies can't peek.

Pick a favorite Christmas story. We usually use The Night Before Christmas, but on occasion we've used the Grinch.

Have all the kiddies sit in a circle on the floor and give each one a sealed bag. Now here's where the fun begins. Have an adult read the story and every time the word "the" is read, the kids pass their gift bag to the left. Every time. That's a lot of "the's", 27 if I counted correctly.

And just for fun, because that's how we roll at our house...heehee, we added a "The End" at the end for one final pass. Then open the bags to see the ornaments. We've discovered that it's helpful to use a Sharpie to mark the ornaments with each child's initials. This could aviod an argument over whose ornament is whose, not that my family would argue over such a silly thing.

Have some easy Christmas fun and create some traditions and memories with your family this year!

Enjoy your Coffee Break

~Kate