A fun project for kids: Make your own Christmas ornaments

Instructions: Paste each picture onto cardboard and cut out along the dotted lines (always use safety scissors so you don't cut yourself). Color with plain or glitter crayons,  with paint or felt-tip markers - whatever you've got. Punch out the black dots and string with bright ribbon, then hang them on the tree, over the mantle of the firepace if you have one, in your room, or wherever your folks say it's okay to hang them. These can also be glued to wood or cloth. Parents & guardians: younger children may require some help with this.

Click on thumbnails for larger images.

Thanks to Graylady.

Chocolate-frosted marshmallows/fruit on a stick

Your kids will enjoy helping with this recipe - and they'll be more than happy to eat the product of their labors afterwards. This is a great item for a kids' Christmas party, as well.

Ingredients:

15-20 large marshmallows
6 oz. semisweet chocolate
red and green sugars
waxed paper
toothpicks
cookie sheet or platter

Preparation:

Place a piece of waxed paper on cookie sheet or platter. Stick a toothpick into each marshmallow.

Heat the chocolate in a double boiler (or a smaller saucepan placed inside a larger saucepan of water if you don't have a double boiler) until melted. Take each marshmallow by the stick and dip in chocolate. Then pass it off to a kid who will then thoroughly roll it in red or green sugar.

Put the marshmallows on the cookie sheet and place in the refrigerator for about 4 hours.

Sliced bananas or other fruit of your choice may be substituted for the marshmallows.

Name that Christmas Tune

These are riddles, of a sort. Based on the description given of a song, you must guess its real title.

For the answers, click on "read more" at the bottom of this post.

Can you name these Christmas songs?

1. Oh member of the Round Table with circular missing areas.

2. Boulder of the tinkling metal spheres.

3. Wanted in December: a pair of upper, forward incisors.

4. A psychiatrist's luxury apartment.

5. The lad is a diminutive percussionist.

6. Sir Lancelot afflicted with laryngitis.

7. Decorate the anterooms.

8. Cup-shaped instruments fashioned of a whitish metallic element.

9. Oh small Israeli urban center.

10. Distant in a haybin.

11. We are Kong, Lear, and Nat Cole.

12. Duodecimal enumeration of the passage of diurnal intervals in the Yuletide festival, terminating in Epiphany.

13. Depart and vocally transmit information upon an orographic locale.

14. Our fervent hope is that you thoroughly enjoy the Yuletide season.

15. Listen, the Cherubim and Seraphim are proclaiming tunefully.

16. As the agrarian guardians of the woolly ruminants protected their charges in the nocturnal period.

17. I perceived a triad of buoyant conveyance platforms.

18. Jubilation to the totality of the terrestrial sphere.

19. Do you perceive the longitudinal waves which stimulate my auditory sense organs?

20. A joyful song of reverence relating to hollow metallic vessels which vibrate and produce tintinnabulation when struck or shaken.

21. Parent was observed osculating a hoary, unshaven teamster.

22. May the Deity bestow an absence of fatigue upon cheerful and refined human males.

Jingle Bell ROCK: Aly & AJ

Here's a rather less "sedate" version of Jingle Bell rock than Brenda Lee, from teen pop duo Aly & AJ - who, incidentally, spent part of their childhood in Seattle--

Tinsel Toons, #2

Even more Christmas Coloring Pages Added!

Christmas Coloring Pages

Snow Day

I crawled out of bed this morning, and after acquiring a cup of Joe, I noticed it was snowing outside. A gentle, lazy snow - none of that wind-driven, white-out stuff. This suddenly called to mind an old Simpson's "snow day" episode....

The story goes that Bart has been doing miserably in school, and is in danger of being held back if he doesn't pass his next exam. That night, after getting corralled by Homer (such a good Dad) into putting off studying in favor of watching a King Kong knockoff, Bart resolves to at long last hit the books. But the hour has grown too late, and in desperation, he prays for a miracle, to buy him some time....

Voila, the next morning, it is snowing. And it turns out that school has been called. But instead of remembering his prayer of the previous night, he grabs his sled and snow goggles and makes a headlong dash for the door. However, waiting for him at that portal to a winter wonderland is Bart's perpetual conscience, his sister Lisa, who reminds him in a philosophical sort of way about his prayer of the previous evening.

So, Bart dutifully trudges back upstairs, and once in his room, a mental war ensues. "Stupid snow day," he says to himself, "how good can it be...?"

But it's good. Looking out the window, he sees a scene of winter joy unparalleled.The whole town is out there, having fun. The crooked, philandering Mayor Quimby even makes an appearance, and from a podium which just happens to be handy announces, "I hereby declare this SNOW DAY - the FUNNEST DAY EVER in Springfield..." Thereafter, everyone in town joins hands in a circle, and begins to sing "Winter Wonderland."

How does it turn out? Does Bart stick to the books and save the day, or does he yield to temptation?

If you haven't seen it, I guess you'll just have to find out.

Click here to watch the entire episode online.

Christmas Coloring Pages for Kids Added

I thought it would be a nice touch, so I've created a kid's coloring page. There's a link in the sidebar, as well.