Color and Cut-Out The Paper Santa Claus

This paper doll requires brads for it's assembly.

Description of Coloring Page: A Santa paper doll, Santa's suit, moving parts, bag of toys, snow white beard, big black boots

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

 

 A Holly Song by Mary E. Butts

Oho! for the holly, the shining holly,
Green when the year is old;
Brave and bright in the winter light,
Glad in the storm and cold.
Oho! for the holly, the faithful holly,
Like the heart that is true and bold.

White are the drifts in the bleak December;
Red is the holly fruit;
Deep in the woods in the Christmas splendor
When the noisy winds are mute,
We gather the holly, the shining holly,
For its joy doth the season suit.

Then oho! for the holly, the brave, bright holly;
Oho! for the winter cold!
May we never forget our due and debt
To the Christmas Day of old;
But warm with love the patient earth
Wrapped in the snow's white fold

Hey kids, here are kids from WhatsUpMoms making three great Christmas cookies on their own in the kitchen! Learn how to make the holidays delicious all by yourself, well... maybe you will need a little help from Mom.

He dreams of Christmas toys...

Description of Coloring Page: the little Santa Claus, his bed becomes a snowdrift, window, sleeping, Christmas Eve, bed curtains, toys playing on the bed, dancing blocks, parading ducks, toy soldiers and dolls, rocking horse, toy train

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

 

       Here is another fun thing to make; a paper chain depicting a very old-fashioned kind of a toy called a jack-in-the-box. Crank a handle round and round until you hear a clicking sound . . . then pop! Jack is out of his box!

 

       Download and print out the pattern below. The dotted lines indicate where the image will be folded to continue the tree silhouette seamlessly after it is unfolded. The number of images "linked" together in one continuous chain is determined by the length of the paper being cut. Use a very thin paper to make your cutting easier. Cut away the areas indicated by the design. (see image above and read text on the pattern below. This paper-cut may be used as a border around a Christmas bulletin board in a classroom or as a paper chain for the Christmas tree if you like.

 

Pattern for a jack-in-the-box toy chain.

Olivia is longing for Santa to bring her a special Christmas toy.
You can have a peek at what St. Nick has stuffed inside his bag
for her by printing the mystery puzzle, cutting out the pieces
and putting them back together again!

Color Joyful Children Christmas Morning!

Description of Coloring Page: candle light, toy drum, stuffed elephant, three children, toys and dolls hanging on the tree, sharing her wealth with little friends

Don't forget to drag the png. or jpg into a Word Document and enlarge the image as much as possible before printing it folks. If you have a question about this coloring page, just type into the comment box located directly below this post and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

 

 Below are two bookmarks one with carolers and the other with text, "Joy." Include them inside a book you may wish to gift to a friend this Christmas or just color them for yourself...

So many reasons to be joyful this Christmas, remember this whenever you read!

We Three Kings of Orient Are...

       "We Three Kings", original title "Three Kings of Orient", also known as "We Three Kings of Orient Are" or "The Quest of the Magi", is a Christmas carol that was written by John Henry Hopkins Jr. in 1857. At the time of composing the carol, Hopkins served as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and he wrote the carol for a Christmas pageant in New York City. It was the first widely popular Christmas carol written in America.

Illustration of "We Three Kings of Orient Are" sheet music, CC.

 

       At the time he was writing "We Three Kings" in 1857, John Henry Hopkins Jr. was serving as the rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. Although he originally worked as a journalist for a New York newspaper and studied to become a lawyer, he chose to join the clergy upon graduating from the University of Vermont. Hopkins studied at the General Theological Seminary in New York City and after graduating and being ordained a deacon in 1850, he became its first music teacher five years later, holding the post until 1857 alongside his ministry in the Episcopal Church.
       During his final year of teaching at the seminary, Hopkins wrote "We Three Kings" for a Christmas pageant held at the college. It was noteworthy that Hopkins composed both the lyrics and music; contemporary carol composers usually wrote either the lyrics or music but not both. Originally titled "Three Kings of Orient", it was sung within his circle of family and friends. Because of the popularity it achieved among them, Hopkins decided to publish the carol in 1863 in his book Carols, Hymns, and Songs. It was the first Christmas carol originating from the United States to achieve widespread popularity, as well as the first to be featured in Christmas Carols Old and New, a "prestigious" and "influential"  collection of carols that was published in the United Kingdom. In 1916, the carol was printed in the hymnal for the Episcopal Church; that year's edition was the first to have a separate section for Christmas songs. "We Three Kings" was also included in the Oxford Book of Carols published in 1928, which praised the song as "one of the most successful of modern composed carols."
       The carol centers around the Biblical Magi, who visited Jesus as a child in a house (Matthew 2:11) sometime after his Nativity and gave him gifts of gold, frankincense and myrrh while paying homage to him. Though the event is recounted in the Gospel of Matthew, there are no further details given in the New Testament with regards to their names, the number of Magi that were present or whether they were even royal. There are, however, verses in the Old Testament that foretell of the visitors. Isaiah 60:6:..."The wealth of the nations will come to you. A multitude of camels will cover you. The young camels of Midian and Ephah; All those from Sheba will come; They will bring gold and frankincense, and will bear good news of the praises of the Lord." New American Standard Bible, and two selections from the Psalms- Psalm 72:10: "The kings of Tarshish and of the isles shall pay tribute, and the kings of Arabia and Saba offer gifts" and Psalm 72:15: "...and may there be given to him gold from Arabia", New American Standard Bible. Hence, the names of the Magi—Melchior, Caspar and Balthazar—and their status as kings from the Orient are legendary and based on tradition. The number three stems from the fact that there were three separate gifts that were given.

Ella Fitzgerald sings this version, 

Capital Records 1967.

Christmas Waits

 P. Monsted, inscribed Langseth, and dated 1919

        "In England, more than in this country, I think, little troops of children go around singing Christmas carols under the windows of their friends. And for those of the Readers who live in countries where it snows I will whisper that there is no better fun, when the holidays come around, than to go down to the best stable in town and whisper to your friend who manages it that you want on Christmas Eve the biggest sleigh he has, with two horses or four, as he thinks best, and all the furs that can be piled in, and then start with the best of the drivers and pick up a sleigh load of young people -- boys and girls. Let it be five or twenty-five, according as the size of the sleigh suggests. But be sure that Joseph Haydn or Luke Tenor, or some one who can lead them well, Is tucked in-with the rest. Then spend the hours before ten o'clock in the evening singing carols under the windows of their friends.

       Under the full moon, on the snow still white, with sixteen children at the happiest, and with the blessed memories of the best the world has ever had, there can be nothing better than two or three such hours.

        "Oh, we went to twenty places that night, I suppose! We went to the grandest places and we went to the meanest. Everywhere they wished us a Merry Christmas and we wished them a Merry Christmas. Everywhere a little crowd gathered around us and then we dashed away far enough to gather quite another crowd. Then we would go back, perhaps, not sorry to double on our steps, if need were, and left every crowd with a happy thought of 'The Star, the Manger and the Child.'"

       A very tender and unselfish friend and companion of mine, living in a large city and without any bank account which enabled him to go into Howland's stable, or Hobson's, and give an order for four horses and twenty-live bearskins, used to take an evening walk as the sun went down before Christmas Eve, and take note of the boys or the girls who were flattening their noses against the windows of the toy shops. And after standing a minute or two he would select his boy and lead him in. "Which of all these things in the window would you like to have most?" he would say. And then that particular thing would be bought and paid for and wrapped up in a parcel and given to the amazed child, to whom this was much the same thing as if Santa Claus had driven his reindeer over the roof and had come down through the chimney.

       Yes, and as I write I remember another of the princes among men, who looks in at the post office every day of the week before Christmas, and with his own eyes sees the unfortunate parcels which have been left for Uncle Sam to carry by mail and which should arrive on Christmas morning. They should arrive, but alas! the postage is deficient, and here they are stranded d. p., which means "deficient postage." Then is it that this Santa Claus without a reindeer bids the clerk make up the deficiencies, and in his way helps on the belated present." Generous Hearts.

Sleigh Ride sung by The Ronettes

Craft a Vintage Camper for The Tree

The finished retro camper ornament.

       Retro campers are not only popular these days for camping in, they are also very popular in textile design, home decor, children's books etc. so I've decided to make one for the Christmas tree as well!

 Supply List:

• acrylic paints: blue, black, white, grey
• tiny beads or buttons shaped like flowers
• one recycled pop bottle cap
• thin wooden craft sticks
• cardboard
• template for camper

 Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. First, you will need to download and print my template for the camper. The link is above in the supply list.
2. Trace around the cut template on top of cardboard with a pencil.
3. Cut out the cardboard and begin to brush on a light coat of white school glue to the backsides of thin craft sticks. 
4. Line these up, side-by-side, allowing for some of the longer lengths of the sticks to hang off to the side of the cardboard template. 
5. Clamp down the craft sticks and allow the glue to dry.
6. Clip off the excess wooden parts with utility scissors. (see photo below)
7. Once you have covered the entire cardboard piece with craft sticks, sand the edges.
8. Glue on more craft sticks vertically to make the door of the camper. 
9. Glue on thin slices of cardboard to make a frame for the window and door. 
10. Cut extra craft sticks short for the awning of the window frame and the wheel well.
11. Cover the bootle cap with masking tape and then layer glue and brown wrapping paper on top. 
12. Paint the wheel and hot glue it under the wheel well from the back side of the ornament, just beneath a short craft stick. (see photos below)
13. Hot glue a tow bar made from left over craft sticks and paint this gray and black.
14. Now add more paint details like: curtains inside the window and another window inside the door panel. 
15. Hot glue on floral beads below the window awnings to look like there is a flower box there.
16. Paint the window awnings in stripe pattern.
17. Hot glue on twine for a hanger.

The first part of this craft begins with a template and with gluing on long narrow craft sticks.
You can see that I used clamps to prevent the craft sticks from warping while these dried.

Left, the finished wooden, retro camper prior to painting. 
Right the wheel is a bottle cap that has been painted. 
See also the details added to my camper's window.

Left, is the backside of the ornament. You can see how I attached a bottle cap wheel.
Right, the ornament is ready to hang on a Christmas tree.

Glue together a modern looking tree ornament...

Left, details of toothpick pattern on the tree stand.
Right, the finished Christmas tree ornament.

       I've included a template for this Christmas tree stand on a different post here. This variation of a wooden craft stick, tree ornament, is a bit more sophisticated than others. Perhaps, an older child or teen would enjoy making the houndstooth pattern arrangement with toothpicks and white school glue?

Supply List:

• toothpicks
• red beads
• white paint
• green scrapbook papers
• hot glue gun and hot glue
• white school glue
• ribbon for hanging
• thin wooden craft sticks
• large paper clamp
• Mod Podge

Step-by-Step Instructions:

1. Trace around a thin wooden craft stick on top of scrapbook papers to cover these with a thin layer of white school glue.
2. Glue four thin wooden craft sticks together at one end in the shape of a fan. Let this dry thoroughly.
3. Cut out the template for the Christmas tree stand from a pattern posted here.
4. Trace around the pattern on top of a thin piece of cardboard.
5. Using white school glue, paste down the toothpicks in a "houndstooth arrangement", clamp the toothpicks and cardboard to keep these from warping while they dry.
6. Trim the toothpicks that hang over the edges of the cardboard shape, off with a pair of scissors.
7. Paint the tree stand with a white wash.
8. Hot glue red beads to the tree branches.
9. Seal everything in the end with Mod Podge.
10. Hot glue on a ribbon for hanging.