Christmas Crafting
Every year at Christmas, the boys' elementary school has a "Holiday Shoppe." They sell some craft items (which were made by some of the students) and other little trinkets. Each year I fork out money for the kids to "shop" for each other. After many painted-tongue-depressors-with-foam-cut-out magnets, I decided that I just couldn't do it again this year. After all, with four in the same school this year, how many painted-tongue-depressors-with-foam-cut-out magnets can one refrigerator handle? (Especially since my kids weren't the creator of most of these items, just the customer. There's a big difference.)This year I decided they would pick names and get a gift for only one person. Handmade or store-bought. I was really pushing for handmade, but I knew the bulk would fall upon me, and I was afraid I wouldn't have time for all of their grand schemes (t-shirts, pillows, etc.).
A few days before Christmas, I was in Michaels and raided their dollar section for kid-friendly items. I found a small paint-by-number kit, a velvet drawing (with markers to color), a puzzle, a felt key chain maker, pompom animals, etc. I bought enough that the kids could "shop" from my bag of goodies for their gift.
So the boys "shopped" secretly and we wrapped. One by one. And then I had the idea to make some ornament blanks for the kids to decorate as part of their gift. I sewed several Christmas trees, stars, round ornaments, poinsettias, etc., and let the kids loose with sparkly pom-poms, rick rack, and buttons.
Here is a sampling:
It kept them occupied on Christmas Eve for a bit after we decorated the gingerbread house. 
And because I didn't think any of the dollar items were appropriate for Sawyer, I decided to sew him a couple of fabric snowballs from some white fleece I had hanging around. Mason helped to make them as part of his gift. Mason loved the idea of snowballs so much, he asked for a green one. (Green is his favorite color and everything is always green for him.) I joked that a yellow snowball is gross and he should never, ever make a snowball from yellow snow. He laughed so hard and begged for a yellow snowball.
Christmas morning, Mason got his yellow snowball.
Comments
we did a 'mom's store' this year, too - i just got about 3 little gifts (target dollar section or what i had around) for each kid, so that the other two had something to choose from for the others. they LOVED it and helped wrap and everything.
P.S. I had to make my blog invite-only. There's an invite for you in your inbox.
And a great idea to let the kids "shop" for their sibling from your stash of crafts. Eliot decided he wanted to keep what he gave to Aidin (magnetic paper dolls) and I ended up making Aidin's gift to Eliot (a tied fleece pillow) that was supposed to be HER project. That's how it goes, eh?