Christmas Treat

Here's a fast, simple, and cheap gift for the kids:

A Cup of Cocoa in a Bag

I found the cutest hot chocolate kits at Michael's this week! Each kit comes with designed marshmellows. The vanilla (blue) candy canes come with snowflake marshmellows, and the peppermint candy canes come with snowmen face marshmellows. Michael's also had a set of 16 pre-printed "have a sweet HOLIDAY" ziplock treat bags for just a few dollars. I had to go to the grocery to get the hot chocolate pouches.

It all made for a cute holiday happy for the kids.

Each bag contained one hot chocolate pouch, one candy cane, and one marshmellow.




NOTE:  All images, text and printables contained herein are copyright protected. This material is for your personal use only. I encourage you to print or pin from this site whenever you would like as long as it is credited and linked back to EasyBreezySundaySchool.blogspot.com. Failure to link back and credit my site constitutes a copyright violation.  Thanks so much!

Christmas Lanterns

Luke 9:5

I made a few changes to this old craft. It was a good idea, but honestly, I was disappointed. Here's how to not make the same mistakes....

In an effort to cutesy up this craft, I decided to use colored gift bags with handles. The colors were nice, I thought. The handles will be ...handy, I thought. The "on sale" price made them almost as cheap as the standard lunch size paper bag, so why not, I thought. My reasoning was good; however, I did not realize is these bags are significantly thicker than the traditional cheap lunch bags. Big deal, right? Well, it was a big deal. Not catastrophe big, just "I won't do this again" big.

The bags were thick (especially in the area where the handles attach), and our child-safe scissors were dull, so making neat cutouts was impossible. We laughed it off and did our best, but next time I'll go back to the cheap lunch bags. The middle bag with baby Jesus is mine. It looks ok from a distance but, believe me, up close it is a jagged mess. LOL

Instructions:

1. Using a pencil, lightly draw shapes onto on side of a bag. Large, simple shapes are best, i.e. stars, hearts, circles.


2. Cut out the shapes.













3. Place a battery operated votive candle inside. I opted to skip the rocks/sand usually used as weight in the bottom of the bag because I reasoned that these lanterns will more than likely be displayed around the house and the weights won't be necessary. I told the kids they could collect a few rocks from their yard to put inside if they have trouble with it falling over. 

















NOTE:  All images, text and printables contained herein are copyright protected. This material is for your personal use only. I encourage you to print or pin from this site whenever you would like as long as it is credited and linked back to EasyBreezySundaySchool.blogspot.com. Failure to link back and credit my site constitutes a copyright violation.  Thanks so much!

Christmas Ornaments

(Isaiah 11:1-10 Peace in God's Kingdom, or Matthew 1:18 The Birth of Jesus)

Today's craft is an easy Christmas ornament. I first found it here. Our lesson today was about peace in God's kingdom, and since it's Christmas time, the ornament was a perfect fit.

Materials needed:

Clothes pin pegs (Michael's/Hobby Lobby)

Raffia (any color is fine)

Twine

Wire

Wooden stars (Michael's/Hobby Lobby)

Pen
Hot glue gun & glue sticks (for adult use only!)

Drill, saw & sandpaper - or a hubby with skills ;)

Instructions:

Several steps are a must before class: 1) For each ornament, cut off the legs of one of the pegs to make the baby. The edges will be rough, so a slight smoothing with sandpaper is needed. 2) Drill a small hole in the center of each star. 

Everything else can be done in class, but in the interest of time, I also pre-cut the wire, raffia, and twine, and hot glued Mary and Joseph together. Exact lengths for the wire, raffia and twine are not important. Just eyeball it. Notice that Mary and Joseph are staggered in height. I did this at the suggestion of Lisa Brown, who first posted this craft. I like the way it looks.

Give each child one set of parents, one piece of raffia, twine, and wire, one wooden star, and one pen (or other writing instrument).

Ask the children to write their name and the year on the back of the parents. It is best to write this information down the legs of the parents so the hot glue that is about to be applied will not cover it up. My parents had a definite front and back because when I glued them together, the glue oozed to one side or the other. We obviously made the messy side the backside.

Next, have the children put the wire through the hole in the star and twist the ends to hold the star securely.

Now hot glue the twine and the wire with the star onto the back of the parents.

While the glue is hardening, have the children tie the raffia bow around the neck of the baby. Trim the ends if they are too long.

Lastly, glue the baby onto the front of the parents.

NOTE:  All images, text and printables contained herein are copyright protected. This material is for your personal use only. I encourage you to print or pin from this site whenever you would like as long as it is credited and linked back to EasyBreezySundaySchool.blogspot.com. Failure to link back and credit my site constitutes a copyright violation.  Thanks so much!