children’s crafts

The Santa Visit

I am writing this post late today as we have only just arrived home after our little festive jaunt over the hill here to Ashton Under Lyne to see Santa. A visit to Santa is probably not high on the list (if at all) for a lot of my readers but I have no problem joining in with the excitement of the grandchildren waiting in the queue in anticipation of handing over a Christmas list and receiving a small gift.

For the two seven year olds this was magical. Master Freddie had a very l o n g list to hand to Santa with every item beginning with Paw Patrol and then when that was exhausted Number Blocks. He had also written one for his little brother, baby Chocolate…though I suspect this was more another list of toys that he wanted rather than his brother. In fact, I doubt his little brother got a say in what he wanted!

I hadn’t realised what a long history Father Christmas has had and the changes he has undergone since his first appearance around the 17^th century. It is from America that we have the Santa Claus we acknowledge more today as the one who comes in the night and brings gifts for children.

It is not the first time either throughout history that there has been a move by some group or other to abolish Christmas or replace its traditional customs with something less religious. For 15 years from around 1644 the celebration of Christmas in England was forbidden.

Might it be again? I see in the news that some schools are renaming their, now traditional, Christmas jumper days as ‘Winter jumper’ days and Tesco’s Christmas trees are being sold as ‘Evergreen trees’ all this lest they offend anyone. It seems history just keeps on repeating itself in different forms.

I have no problem with having a Christmas jumper, Christmas tree, Christmas cracker or Christmas cake and I love to hear proper Carols being sung in the shops rather than the American non-religious songs.

So for our visit to Father Christmas we chose to go to Portland Basin in Ashton Under Lyne, an old mill building that sits alongside the Peak Forest Canal (as seen on the Canal Boat Diaries with Robbie) houses a museum and cafe.

This will be the second year as we all loved it so much last year. It is quite low key compared with many and a lot of Christmas nostalgia. The museum has an indoor mock-up of an old street complete with chip shop and chapel. Santa waits patiently in the tiny living room of a replica of a terraced house decorated to resemble the war years.

It is reminiscent of my grandma’s house, complete with outside toilet and for all it is shabby, compared with today’s style of décor, it has a nostalgic warmth and cosiness. We could all squeeze in for a lovely little chat with Santa and a photo all together at the end.

The museum is full of nostalgia, many of the items I can recall from childhood like the signs for the Christmas club and good old-fashioned paper chains.

One or two board games like Snakes and Ladders are making a comeback, and of course, Monopoly comes in so many different variations now. My family always had a game on Christmas Day night as there was no TV back then. Uncle Peter generally won, but maybe not fair and square!

Remember these patterns for baraclavas – my mum had this one I’m sure.

Not only was it our Santa visit but it was a day of crafting and of course the adults in our little party, me included, could not help joining in.

Before we went to the museum we started our day at the Saturday craft workshop at the Vale in Mossley.

This week they were making gingerbread wreaths using gingerbread coloured card and white felt tip pens, with a lot of glue and imagination.

After our picnic we had chance to make some elf hats and hunt for the elf stockings around the museum.

And best of all (apart from the cost of booking to see Santa) it was all free; though we did leave a donation at each place. So well done to Tameside MBC for a fun filled festive day, and I, for one, will be putting my feet up now and watching TV.

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The Advent Calendar

Doesn’t everyone just love an Advent calendar.

No matter what shape or size, whether full of goodies or just little pictures, opening each individual door to discover a surprise each day is still as exciting now as when I had my very first one.

For all of my childhood the calendar would be of a Christmas or Nativity scene with a small picture behind the door, it wasn’t until sometime in the 80’s that I first bought one containing chocolate for my daughters and now they are very much the norm and this has escalated in the last few years and you are likely to find anything from a tea bag to gin.

In 2023 I bought these lovely Advent boxes from the Tiny Box Company and filled them with little presents for both my daughters. (This is not a paid recommendation)

This year I had ideas to make some little stitched chocolate parcels and hang them from a branch, but that was a bit adventurous for the time I had, and then whilst looking for some card the other day I came across one that I had started a few years ago and never finished.

It is just a basic homemade, very traditional style calendar with no sweets, just pictures; but such fun to make and easy to do with the children too.

Just collect together any pictures from old Christmas cards, tags or wrapping paper – even Christmas pictures from magazines are fine. I had a mixture of materials and where a picture was too big for the window I just copied and reduced it on the photocopier.

Then make a plan of 25 differently shaped rectangles on a sheet of A4 paper, leaving a margin around the outer edges. I used a piece of thin black card for the front of mine.

Cut out the 3 opening sides with a sharp knife. Fold back the door to the inside of the card on the uncut side. This prevents the doors springing open too soon on the finished calendar.

Using the same plan on a sheet of white A4 paper cut out suitable pictures for each window and stick in place on the sheet.

Cut some double sided tape to fit around the outer edges and one or two pieces in the middle (this will hold the two sheets firmly together). Place the right side of the picture sheet to the underside of the door sheet carefully aligning the edges and press firmly together.

Stamp a number onto each door one through 25 and add a bit of decoration. Mine is quite basic and a bit rushed. I always prefer to have the 25th day a picture of the Nativity and the largest window.