It was the last session of term at The Little House in the Park yesterday and we are now officially Christmas-crafted out. 

First we made a festive crown by sticking sparkly bits onto silver card. Matthew really enjoyed doing this, and chose a purple and gold theme which I thought was pretty tasteful for a 3-year-old. He never likes wearing these things, though, so Basil has been crowned Christmas Bear. 

Then we made a wand from laminated bits and bobs cut into a star shape and taped onto a stick, and a Christmas star decoration from white tissue paper glued over bent willow. There was all kinds of glitter etc to stick on top, but Matthew insisted on just one red and white thing - which proves there is Danish blood running through his veins. 

 
Things are getting seriously Christmassy at The Little House in the Park. 

Matthew was really taken by the willow Christmas trees so we made one of those first. Most of the hard work (cutting and bending into shape) had been done for us, so all we had to do was assemble all the bits, tape them together and then decorate with tinsel, bows, ribbon and various baubles and other dangly things. 

Next we made the gnome. Well - I made the gnome. Matthew mostly messed around with the jar of beads and kept trying to swipe the needles off me. It's just a piece of felt cut into shape, sewn up along the neck and hat, and stuffed with wool. 

You can't really see just how very funky the angel is in this pic. She has a blue face, green arms, a pink body, purple wings and red tinsel hair. All chosen by Matthew. The skirt is a doily (obviously). We're getting our tree today and she might just have to take pride of place.
 
This week the Holburne Museum is organising a Lantern Procession to mark the beginning of the Bath Christmas Market. We are very excited. Especially as we now have our very own homemade lantern, which we made at The Little House in the Park last week. 

We started off by threading willow sticks through a cardboard base with holes round the edge, bending the ends of the sticks underneath the card and taping them down. Then we taped another piece of card over the bottom (to cover all the ends) and taped around the sticks near the top (to stop them waving about and poking small children's eyes out). 

Then came the really fun part - gluing white tissue paper around the sticks (two layers), covering that with lots more glue, and decorating it with bits of coloured tissue paper and glitter. A big old sticky mess. 

We've put a string of LED lights in our lantern (you have to make a hole to get them in) and are now ready for the procession (or recession, as Matthew calls it). 
 
Last week's theme at The Little House in the Park was apples (in celebration of National Apple Day on 21 October). Here are some of our appley things. 

The biggest one is a willow wreath wound round with wool. Matthew couldn't quite manage the winding but was very enthusiastic about choosing autumnal colours and finding the ends of balls of wool (which he is quite handy at). 

The top right apple is made from plaited ribbon glued onto card in a spiral, and the bottom right one is glitter and other shiny bits scattered onto that sticky foamy stuff (don't know what it's called). We glued a safety pin on the back of that one too, to make it into a badge. 

Can I take this opportunity to sincerely wish everyone a very Happy Apple Day.