Christmas wreath

A very simple craft to make a Christnas essential!

I had some green paper covered in glitter left over from our Christnas cards. Other than that I just needed some feathers, paper plates, ribbon and glue

Cut the middle out of the plates and cut the paper into little bits

Cover the plate in glue 

Stick on the paper 

Dip the feathers in glue 

Stick the feathers onto the paper!

Cut a piece of ribbon to make a hook and glue on. I pegged it while it was drying to help secure it.

And there you have it! A festive wreath that can be made in any colour

Winter Woods by Rogue Theatre, Tehidy, Cornwall

A truly magical day enjoyed by all - A great way to get the festive feeling in an alternate way!

I had no idea what to expect from this live theatre experinace, and I don't want to give too much away for those who are planning on attending... The one thing I will say is be prepared for mud, and dress in layers. The outside performances are very cold, but the marque is lovely and snug.

The Zebra was mesmerised by the lights and decorations as we wound our way deeper into the forest, entertained by a variety of performers 

The actors were so good, and kept the attention of even the youngest children. They were also a little easy on the eye for the mummies! 

The entry price included free bags of sweeties and hot chocolate! There was also face painting and woodland crafts for the older children 

The main performance was fantastic. A festive tale made up of songs, dance, shadows, characters, comedy, and love

Everything about the experinace was wonderful and felt like stepping into a whole new woodland world. Expect for the toilets which surprisingly were warm, snug and modern!!

I can not recommend this theatre enough, I'm so exited to make this a Christmas tradition and head back again next year. I would also like to explore the cute village of Portreath which lies below the cliffs. However, I don't fancy getting lost again on the step, narrow roads...

Gingerbread Rudolph Reindeers

These biscuits look so cute and are really easy to make - they are just upside-down gingerbread men! 

We are still housebound with chicken pox so had to find a recipe that only included ingredients we already had - which was a struggle! This book had the closest we could find...

Ingredients:

125g butter 

85g brown sugar (we used light brown)

175ml golden syrup

375g plain flour

2tsp ginger (we used mixed spice)

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

******preheat oven to 190*******

Start by adding the sugar and butter into a bowl

Mix it well until it's smooth! We didn't have real butter and used spreadable so it didn't take long at all 

Add in the flour, spice, and bicarbonate of soda

Then get mummy to help pour in the syrup 

Mix everything together until it becomes a dough

It's safe to say the Zebra likes cookie dough!!

Put the mixture into the fridge for at least 30 minutes. I didn't have any cling film so used a ziplock bag

Roll the dough as thin as possible

Using a gingerbread-man cutter, make your biscuits

Pop into the oven for 8-10 minutes. It seems our biscuit were too thick and took 15 minutes to cook. The Zebra kept a good eye on them for me the whole time 

They also got a lot bigger while cooking than I expected!

Once they have cooled it's time to ice - the "legs" of the gingerbread man become the antlers! You can either ice the eyes, or use googley eyes for decoration. 

They certainly pass the Zebra taste test! 

Glitter snowflakes

Another easy craft we attempted while home with the pox, was these lollypop-stick snowflakes!

Although we attempted a variety of textures, only the glitter would stick to the sticks!

I simply coated the sticks in PVA glue,

Before letting the Zebra loose with "shake-shake" glitter pots!

While the Zebra got her glitter on, I put some blue paint in a pot and mixed in some string. 

The string and sticks then had to be left for a few hours to dry. 

Using PVA glue I stuck the sticks together in a snowflake shape and attached the string to the top so they could be hung up. 

Easy peasy and a great addition to our Christmas display!

Cotton Wool Snowman

We are finally home after a week staying at Nana's while the boiler was replaced... But that's the end of our good luck as we are housebound with the Chicken Pox!! The Zebra is very spotty, itchy and miserable - At least I have lots of craft ideas to distract her and pass the time 

I wanted to start with something simple in case she didn't feel up to much. Mr Snowman only needs basic supplies and pretty minimal preparation 

In fact, the only prep needed was cutting one plate slightly smaller than the other 

I let the Zebra loose with a pile of cotton wool balls, some glue to "dip-dip", and the plates.

Once the Zebra had used up all the wool, she decided that was enough for this morning and she would much rather just watch me from her box! 

I bent some pipe cleaners to make the arms. Using scissors, I made two holes in the body, stuck them through and secured on the back with sellotape.

For decorations, I used some googley eyes and a feather for his nose. Mouth and buttons were made from small black pom-poms. His scarf is some old ribbon and makes it look neater where his head is glued on.

The Zebra was quite happy with her finished snowman! 

Father Christmas at The Eden Project

Hooray hooray, we are off to see Father Christmas today! 

We have had some lovely visits to The Eden Project, so when I saw they had a Winter Wonderland experience I quickly booked tickets for me, the Zebra and Nana. It was only £11 so not crazy expensive either. 

When we arrived the weather was rather miserable, and it's a long walk down from the car parks.

As expected, it was very busy - and the queues at Eden never move fast... 

We were able to renew our Local Pases, which is a fantastic scheme to join. For £12 I now have unlimited entry for 12 months - instead of paying the usual £25 entry fee. All you need to do is take along proof of address showing you live in Cornwall.

We arrived to Eden early so we could have a nosey around and grab some lunch. The restaurant was very pretty with lots of Christmas trees and decorations 

The food was very healthy and very yummy as usual, lots of fresh veggies which are organic and locally sourced where possible.

We only had time to walk around one biome, so we went for the cooler, Mediterranean dome - I didn't fancy walking round the rainforest in a thick winter dress! 

I was expecting the domes to have a winter wonderland feel to them, but there wasn't a single Christmas decoration to be seen.

At least the Zebra gave the rocks a festive look! 

Time to see Father Christmas! As tickets have a prebooked time slot, I wasn't expecting to queue outside in the rain for 20 minutes. It was only a drizzle by now but still not much fun

We did get to have a peek at the skating! It looks amazing for when the Zebra is older, and Christmas music was blaring out so we could have a dance while we waited.

The Father Christmas experience was amazing. It started with a stage show from the elves, before the big man himself came out 

I wasn't sure if the Zebra would sit all the way through, but she was mesmerised and loved the whole show 

It was only once we got to be front of (yet another) queue to meet Santa, that the Zebra decided she was quite happy watching him from a distance! 

She did get to meet him, but there wasn't a chance she would sit on his knee! 

They gave out a pretty crystal charms to hang on the tree to all the children, a much nicer gift to keep than the usual pound-shop tat that gets given! 

We had to make sure the Zebras Christmas wishes came true, so she wrote them down on her tag and gave them to an elf to have on the magic tree 

The Zebra was amazed with the real reindeer that Father Christmas had parked outside his workshop! 

It really was a magical day, and felt very much like a winter wonderland - even with all the queues! We will certainly be going again next year.