Lara's Christmas Craft Party

Yesterday Lara held a Christmas craft and cookery party for a few friends.  It was so much fun (although entertaining a house full of three year olds is shattering) and Lara exhausted herself because she got so excited.

Together with some of her friends from nursery, I taught Lara how to make gingerbread from first principles and also how to make mince pies.  It was icky sticky work but the results were fab and we had so much gingerbread left over that Lara and I managed to make a whole army of gingerbread men!

The girls seemed to enjoy themselves most during the crafty part of the event.  A couple of weeks ago I had taken Lara to Hobbycraft in Reading to choose a few select bits and pieces of Christmassy craft materials for her party.  Then, rather co-incidentally, Hobbycraft last week sent Lara a big party box full of children's Christmas crafts which made her party into something very special indeed.

The girls had fun painting stained glass window tree decorations, making collages from sticky christmas trees and candy canes and printing with shaped sponges.  There were hand paints, stencils, pipe cleaners, carboard, stickers and straws along with plenty glue and tape to help them along their way.  But do you know what I think all of the girls were most taken with?  the funny reindeer antlers which brought great smiles when I told them that they could take them home with them.

Once the pies and biscuits were cooked they ate them from paper plates and cups with napkins and a tablecloth to match.  Hobbycraft really had thought of everything for a Christmas party and there were even a few bits and pieces that we put into party bags such as crayons and DIY hand puppets.  In Lara's box there was also a cracker-making kit that I thought was probably a bit too advanced for a group of three year olds but maybe I'll hold on to it for next year in case Lara's Christmas Craft Party becomes a tradition!