The countdown to Christmas is on, which means the Michael Bublé Christmas album is on shuffle, decorations are up and there’s only a few weeks until presents are unwrapped.
As parents, we are more than familiar with the joy of giving and the pleasure that comes with seeing our loved ones unwrap gifts. But for children, Christmas is so often about the excitement of receiving a gift that the joy of giving can get lost.
Encouraging children to make a homemade gift can act as a valuable opportunity to teach them both to take pride in their work and help them understand the satisfaction of giving a gift. An additional perk is that making a homemade gift provides hours of entertainment during the school holidays and a chance to let their creativity run free.
There are oh-so-many homemade gifts your child could create for Christmas (or even for birthdays and other celebrations in the New Year) but these are two of our favourites to make.
Homemade Bath Bombs
Whether or not your child has used a bath bomb before themselves, there is something wonderfully exciting about creating a colourful, science-based, “explosive” gift. Making this gift will really stimulate a child’s senses as they will be exposed to different colours, textures and scents as they go.
Not only is the finished product a beautiful present to give, but these also couldn’t be simpler to make.
Makes 4-6 | You will need:
200g bicarbonate of soda
100g citric acid
50g cornflour
4 tbsp coconut oil
½ tsp essential oil, such as orange, lavender or peppermint
a few drops of liquid food colouring
(Optional) dried flowers to add into the bath bombs for decoration
Method:
1. In a bowl, mix your cornflour, bicarbonate of soda and citric acid until well-combined. Then set aside.
2. In a separate bowl, melt your coconut oil before mixing with the essential oil and food colouring. It’s important to ensure that these have been mixed thoroughly so the colours are vibrant and not patchy when you form the bath bomb.
3. Slowly mix the oil mixture with the bicarb mixture a little at a time until fully combined. You’re looking for a texture that has enough moisture that it can be squashed together to form your bath bombs.
If needed, you can also add a little bit of water to give it more moisture, but you’ll need to work quickly when you add it in as water will make the bomb fizz.
If you’re adding in any dried flowers, you can also fold them into your mixture now
4. It’s time to start moulding! You can either form a spherical bath bomb simply by compressing the mixture in between your hands to form a ball, or you can use a mould like a cookie cutter, an empty yoghurt pot or an egg carton to press the mixture into. Make sure to pack the mixture in tightly so it retains its shape and then allow it to set for 2-4 hrs.
5. Once set, it’s ready to be packaged up as a gift! Cellophane bags tied with a ribbon or string work well as they keep out any moisture but you can also use a paper bag or simply wrap in decorative tissue paper if you’d prefer something a little more environmentally-friendly.
Top tip: You can also make multiple batches with different colours and either gift a mixed set or combine multiple colours in your mould to make a rainbow or ombre bath bomb.
Homemade Pen Pots
There is not a person in the world who wouldn’t make use out of or enjoy receiving a homemade pen pot as a gift from a child, so these are always a safe bet. The great news is that these are very straightforward to make and there’s no limit to what you can decorate them with, so children can be as creative as they want with these.
You will need:
Cardboard tubes – empty toilet roll tubes work particularly well but you can also use empty kitchen roll or wrapping paper tubes cut to size as well.
Sheet of cardboard for the base
PVA glue or a glue gun
Anything you’d like to use for decoration. Some examples include: stickers, glitter, coloured paper, magazine or photo cut-outs, felt tip pens or dried flowers.
Method:
1. Lay your sheet of base card flat and arrange your tubes on top in the way you’d like your pen pot to be set up. Once you’re happy with the position, draw around the edge of each tube so you have a line to act as a guide for the glue.
2. Using the PVA or glue gun, line the outlines with glue and then press the tubes back into place before setting aside to dry.
Top tip: you can make a series of small incisions around one end of each tube which, when pushed outwards, will act as a flat base to help adhere the tubes to the cardboard. For extra stability, you could also cover the whole structure in papier-mâché once you’re happy with the positioning, but this will need to dry overnight before decorating.
3. It’s time to decorate! It’s really up to you how you want to do this but here’s some ideas for inspiration…
Monsters: Paint each tube in one of your favourite colours, stick on a pair of googly eyes and draw a menacing smile and you have yourself a ‘monster pen pot’.
The Castle: Using a piece of card, cut out a series of small rectangles and glue them to the top edges of each tube. Once dried, paint everything grey and then draw on a door and archers windows to create a pen pot that looks like a castle. You can also paint the castle another colour if there’s one you prefer!
Christmas Pen Pot: It’s up to you which Christmas characters you want to create but you could paint one tube brown and fix on a red pom pom nose, googly eyes and a couple of small sticks or cut out paper as antlers to make a Rudolph. One tube is painted red with a flesh-coloured circle to act as a face and make Santa. Cotton wool can also be added to make a beard and the fluff on his suit and hat.
Unicorn: Choose a base colour for the tubes and paint them, either draw on eyes or fix on a pair of (you guessed it) googly eyes. Cut out a small triangle and add some glitter to make a horn before glueing that and a few pieces of wool or ribbon in your favourite colours to the top section of the tube to form a mane.