It is popular to share Holiday Traditions with the class at school so while I was thinking what it was that marks this time of year for us, I found myself at a disappointing low... 'how come we don't have any real traditions!' There are the usual culinary traditions but even those seem to change depending on who's coming, the weather, the time of day, where we live... we don't ALWAYS have prawns or turkey, sometimes it is a beef fillet grilled on the BBQ or this year I'm even thinking a Beef Wellington. We have trifle when it suits us and christmas pudding at others. We do hang a stocking, we don't do St Nick, we have an "Elfie", we eat Indian curry on Christmas Eve and call it Curryfest and sometimes are back home to celebrate my sister's birthday with a cheesecake. Our girls have just turned five and six so I went looking for someone else's tradition we could hijack for our family for the rest of time. Pinterest. What a time waster that is, but wow - it shares some pretty cool ideas. Check this out. A new update: I was brand new to Pinterest when I first found this idea and didn't actually 'pin it' to a board so I now can not find where I originally saw it but in doing a new search I think I may have found the original owner... a very talented woman at www.bluecricketdesign.net has something very similar as well as a million and one other creative ideas to do as a family or for special occasions. Please look her up, she is amazing!
This is a lovely gesture of gratitude and giving. We've never seen houses so beautifully decorated than here in Wisconsin. Obviously it's not limited to the Festive season, all year round they seem to take pride in their houses and adorn them in appropriate wreaths and garland for every season or occasion. It's a real reminder of the changing land and weather. We love it. This idea resonated with me because it's nice to tell people you noticed what they do and appreciate it.
Drive around your neighborhood and decide on the top 2 or 3 houses with the nicest Holiday decorations.
Using a tin with a pull top, open the bottom rim with a can opener leaving the ring pull end in tact.
Empty the contents (we now have an enormous amount of peaches as I prepped this exercise for 2 classes 30 kids!) and wash the tin out thoroughly.
Once dry, fill your tins with candy (leftover from Halloween perhaps) but ensure they are individually wrapped for hygiene purposes.
Seal the end using hot glue and push together to set.
Using any assortment of card paper or even wrapping paper, buttons, ribbons, sparkles or stickers... decorate your tin. Write or print a little message saying how much you like your neighbors lights and then drop it off on their front door step over this Festive season. It will bring a smile to their face and you would have fun enjoying their lights and making a small gift of appreciation.
Wonderful idea for the season of 'giving'! This is certainly a tradition worth copying. Do you know whose idea it was originally? Congratulations on expanding your site in such an interesting way. xx
ReplyDeleteHey Mo, I like this one - very cool. I am enjoying the journey of your cooking adventures, thanks for sharing!! Frances
ReplyDeletethanks Mum and Frances. I do not do enough 'crafts' with my girls so I certainly made it for it this year. I can't remember where I saw this Mum, my pinterest board is mysteriously hidden from my view although I see people follow it. I'm still clueless how this site works, so one day when I figure it out I will give this person due credit! Needless to say the little kiddies in Georgia's class particularly, Loved this project. One little friend said "mrs Elder, I love you" at the end of the morning session... So sweet, I wasn't sure if I was allowed to say 'I love you too Eliza ' (which I'm sure she was hoping for) so I just said, you are so kind! It was worth all the tinned peaches in the world to see them happily working away at this today. They did a wonderful job and were so proud of themselves. A nice tradition to start.
ReplyDeleteYou can certainly say "I love you too, Eliza!!!"- her mommy says it's okay:) So glad you shared this wonderful gift of giving with the kids! Great blog and I will certainly be checking it out for dinner ideas. With our insane schedule of two full time working parents and 3 kiddos, we need all the help we can get!
ReplyDeleteThanks Sarah, as an Art teacher I suppose you do this sort of stuff with ease, but it took me days to get organsied for this activity! lol. I'm much more efficient in the kitchen so perhaps I'll go back to doing that! ps. Eliza's a doll!
ReplyDeleteThere is craft and then there is thirty cans of peaches. I love your stuff mo and you know i am a big fan of the glue gun but I reckon traditions need to be more sustainable. How about just leaving the card you made? Love catty
ReplyDeleteHey catty, Agree but I'm not planning on sustaining everyone else's traditions going forward... they will only need one tin per kid, so everyone has an empty can or two laying around. Its the craft exercise that the kids enjoyed and of course the idea of making something to give to someone so I think it will be easy to continue if it's something you chose to do. I was just a little over enthusiastic this year and wanted to share the idea with two classrooms full of kids! Silly, but we found a delicious use of all those peaches... peachy pops! yum!
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