Ladybird Tuesday - Christmas Customs

It's Ladybird Tuesday! I'm starting my post this week with a proud picture of my new wall display:

A few weeks back I received a lovely kind gift from a blogging friend - Katie at Randomnest. A box set of 100 postcards, each one a copy of a vintage Ladybird book. It's a wonderful collection, and it's also a reminder of just how many fantastic Ladybird books have been published. I bought four little frames and chose four of my favourite postcards, with the intention of working my way through them. Definitely a great gift for a vintage Ladybird book lover!

Now onto this week's book. It's well into November now, so it must be time to start thinking about Christmas! The Ladybird book "The Stories of Our Christmas Customs" is from Series 644 - Customs. There were only two books in this series - this one and a more general book titled "Stories of Special Days and Customs" which covers other special days such as Shrove Tuesday. "The Stories of Our Christmas Customs" was published in 1964 and is a look at the origins of our familiar Christmas traditions.

The book begins with the reason that Christmas is celebrated - to mark the birth of Jesus Christ. But the origins of Christmas go back a lot further than that, and many of the traditions that we carry out at this time of year have nothing at all to do with Christianity. Long before Jesus was born, the 25th December was the shortest day of the year and people worshipped the sun, praying for it to return for another summer. Because Christians knew that God made the sun, they chose this day to worship the son of God. The shortest day now falls on the 21st December due to changes in the calendar, but the 25th December has remained as the day for celebration.

Even the Nativity scene has existed from times before the birth of Jesus, when clay dolls were sold in the streets of Rome at the Roman winter festivals to be given as presents. When Romans became Christians they bought dolls which looked like the people of the Nativity story, and so in time they were created specifically for this purpose. This book is filled with fascinating information!

The book looks at some of the things that people do at Christmas time, for example a trip to the pantomime or circus. The pantomime is a British custom, although had beginnings with the eighteenth century dancing of French comic dances from the Paris fairs, with stories from fairy tales and nursery rhymes added in to give the dancers a rest. This book suggests that the Christmas circus has become more popular than the pantomime. I'm not sure if this is still the case today, certainly I never went to a Christmas circus when I was little, although I've noticed more of them around over the last few years.

The book continues on from Christmas with a comprehensive look at Boxing Day, New Year's Eve and New Year's Day, finishing with Twelfth Night. Twelfth Night doesn't have the importance in the calendar that it once did, and so the traditional Twelfth Night cake has now become Christmas Cake, eaten on Christmas Day.

This is an absolutely fascinating book, I can't believe how much I have learned from reading it! It is so interesting to learn about where all these customs come from, and of course even though the book itself was published a few years ago it is still absolutely relevant today.

If you love Ladybird books, do pop over and visit Ladybird Tuesday, where Being Mrs C is assembling a really comprehensive catalogue of Ladybird books and reviews.

Below you can find links to all my Ladybird Tuesday book posts.

Snow White and Rose Red
Hansel and Gretel
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
The Three Little Pigs
The Old Woman and her Pig
Little Red Riding Hood
The Ugly Duckling
The Railway Children
A Little Princess
A First book of Aesop's Fables

A Ladybird Book about Knitting
More Things to Make - For Special Occasions
Easy to Make Puppets
Learning to Sew
Stamp Collecting
Tricks and Magic

Prehistoric Animals and Fossils
Dinosaurs
Stone Age Man in Britain
Great Civilisations - Crete
Charles Dickens
Nelson
Lives of the Great Composers Book 1
Lives of the Great Composers Book 2
The Story of Music

Plants and How They Grow
The Ladybird Book of the Night Sky
Sea and Air Mammals
The Farm

The Story of Nuclear Power
The Motor Car
How it Works - The Computer
How it Works - The Rocket
The Story of Ships
The Postman and the Postal Service
People at Work - The Nurse

Understanding Numbers
Talkabout Clothes
Going to School
Teaching Reading

Stories of Special Days and Customs
Christmas Customs

Girls and Boys - A Ladybird Book of Childhood

The Labyrinth Kindermusem, Berlin

The Labyrinth Kindermuseum in Berlin is located a little way out of the city centre but it is very easy to reach by public transport and is well worth the trip. We visited with a four year old and a two year old and they were absolutely enchanted, we spent hours here.

Despite the name, it's no museum in the traditional sense. There are no display cases and 'do not touch' signs. Instead, the large room is stuffed full with hands-on activities and interactive experiences. Every six months or so the theme of the exhibition changes. When we visited the theme was "Ganz weit weg - und doch so nah" ("So far away, and yet so near") which is running until the 30th March 2014.

It is an amazing journey through the homes and lives of children across the world, experienced through all the senses. The room is organised into different areas, each crammed full of exciting and inviting activities. There are rails and rails of dressing up clothes, packed with outfits from across the world, with staff on hand to help the children dress themselves in the costumes.

There is a market stall with play food and a real yurt, full of cushions and books for storytelling.

In a pretend school, children can complete geographical and language puzzles and play with themed toys, and upstairs there are more puzzles and crafts. Next to a small area with wooden toys suitable for younger toddlers is an amazing construction area where children can put on a high visibility vest and hat before using sections of pipe, foam blocks and sheets to actually build themselves a home.

You need to take your shoes off while you are there, but I was able to borrow some special shoes from a basket so that the children could do a spot of shoe cleaning.

The Labyrinth Kindermusem was an absolute highlight of our trip to Berlin, and I am so envious that we don't have something like this near us. I'll leave you with a short video of Harry exploring some of the different play food in the yurt - we spent ages in here!

See the Labyrinth Kindermuseum website for more details. In particular it's worth checking the opening times, as during term time the attraction is not open every day for individual visitors. Admission currently costs 4.50  € and a family ticket is available. 

We were kindly provided with complimentary access to the museum.

Making a Christmas journal

I love making journals and scrapbooks. I have made them for holidays and for the children. Last year I thought that it would be a lovely idea to put together a Christmas journal which could be kept with the Christmas decorations and brought out each year. I imagine it being brought out and pored over by our growing family as we remember Christmases past.

I found this lovely notebook in Ikea towards the end of last year, and as a bonus it was in the sale! It is spiral bound, which I always prefer for my scrapbooks as then you can stick things in and remove pages if it becomes too bulky. It also has a nice elastic cord to hold it shut.

I don't want to go too over the top with it, I want it to be a flavour of our Christmas. As the children grow I hope that they will contribute with some seasonal pictures, or perhaps poems and stories. It would be lovely if they could add in their own thoughts and memories. I will also leave some space for photographs to be added as we have them printed.

I have included a list of the presents received by the children. I've also written a couple of paragraphs about what we did in the build-up to Christmas, and a few lines about how we spent our Christmas Day. I've noted down any traditions, for example in 2012 we made our first gingerbread house and the children had new pajamas on Christmas Eve. I found a picture from a magazine of the big present that we bought for my son, and I've stuck in a few other bits of ephemera that I wanted to save, for example the first gift tag that my son wrote for his sister.

Television forms an important part of Christmas in this household, so I've added in the Christmas Day pages from the television guide as well as information about a couple of special programmes which were on for the first time in 2012 and I expect to be repeated in years to come. We did some decorating over the Christmas period, so I've put in some swatches of the paint colours that we used.

It's a lovely little collection of memories made up from things that were happening over the Christmas period in our house, and it will be added to each year!

LOXX Minatur Welten Berlin - indoor miniature railway

We recently returned from a family city break to Berlin and were delighted to discover that there are some amazing places in Berlin to visit with young children. One of our absolute highlights was LOXX Miniatur Welten Berlin - a huge indoor model railway but also much more than that, with scale models of Berlin landmarks, typical German scenes, plenty of interactive elements and even a model airport with planes that land and take off.

LOXX Miniatur Welten Berlin is housed inside the ALEXA-Center shopping centre in Alexanderplatz and covers over 950 square metres. There is a large display in the centre and smaller displays around the edges. Children can borrow a little stepladder so that they can see everything.

Harry was so excited when we entered the room, first he wanted to see everything at once, then stood transfixed once he realised that trains were actually running around the tracks. There are lots of buttons to press to make things happen, it is a really interactive exhibit. Make sure that you don't miss the popular chocolate factory tucked away below the tracks - watch a little chocolate bar make its way through the smallest chocolate factory in the world - and then receive a real chocolate bar at the end!

Harry loved the smaller display above where you press a button to make the train run around in a circle - he chased it round and round several times! The lighting in the room periodically changes to reflect day and night, and it's fascinating to see all the little buildings light up. We also experienced a thunderstorm, with plenty of thunder and lighting although fortunately no rain!

The displays have a definite German feel to them. There is a large fun fair, complete of course with beer tent. There is also a fantastical display of tiny scenes from popular German and European fairy tales.

The airport was excellent. Not only to the planes take off and land, they taxi around the runways, little buses and trucks come up to them when they are parked to refuel, and they wait for imaginery passengers to get on. There's a raised bank to one side with comfortable, real aeroplane seats where you can sit and watch the airport going about its business. I spent ages here, and I even made a little video of the planes by night, I was so delighted with it.

LOXX Miniatur Welten was the first place that we visited on our trip to Berlin, and it was a great way to introduce our children to some of the landmarks of the city like the Brandenburg Gate, the Reichstag Building and the Television Tower. Our children loved it and I would absolutely recommend a visit here if you have children, and even if you don't!

LOXX Miniatur Welten kindly gave us complimentary access to experience this attraction. Adult admission is currently 12.90 € and child admission (above 1m in height) is 8 €. Family tickets are also available, and Berlin WelcomeCard holders receive a discount.

Berlin - Our first family city break

Ram and I took a lot of city breaks in our pre-children years. We took them very seriously - a packed itinerary every day and plenty of walking. Although we have still travelled since having the children, we've generally kept it safe with more traditional family friendly holidays.

Since Harry started school we've really noticed how much the prices for family holidays increase during the school holidays. Keen to find a reasonably priced holiday destination for half-term, we decided to try something new and investigate some of the cheap EasyJet destinations. We chose Berlin for several reasons - research suggested that it was a good family destination, Ram and I visited some years ago and loved it, and having spent some time in Germany as a student I have a certain affection for the country.

I won't pretend it was the easiest holiday that we've ever taken, but overall we had a brilliant time and it was a huge success. Both children were very interested in their new surroundings, and in particular Harry was a complete delight with his eagerness to learn about the city. Not to mention the flight there was a breeze after our previous long-haul flights.

We discovered some fantastic places to visit with small children, so many that I will be putting together some more posts over the next couple of weeks.

I also tried to make a big effort to make the most of the new opportunities that come with being in a foreign country. One of Harry's highlights was definitely his first ride in a tram, a mode of transport that has long fascinated him! He was also very interested to hear people speak German and to learn a few words himself. He wasn't keen to try a sausage from the street sausage vendors though!

Even sleeping in one hotel room together worked out very well. For the first time on a family holiday, we tucked both children up in bed together, said goodnight, turned out the lights and they went straight off to sleep - definitely an improvement on previous bed sharing experiences!

A city break abroad with two young children was quite an undertaking, and I'll shortly be putting together a post with a few tips that we found to make it all easier. I'll also be writing about some of our favourite places for families in Berlin.

Ladybird Tuesday - The Story of Music

The Story of Music caught my eye because I've always had an interest in music and the book seemed very familiar, possibly it's one that I read as a child. It was first published in 1968 and is part of Series 662 - History of the Arts. It is written for an older child, and is an incredibly comprehensive look at music throughout history.

The book begins with the first known example of a man making music - as depicted in a pre-historic cave painting. Early man believed that music-making had magical powers and could be used to control the weather or cure sickness. The book moves on to take a look at the first musical instruments and accounts of musical instruments and music in the Old Testament.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter on minstrels in the Middle Ages, having studied this period and learned about some of the great stories like Beowulf and Siegfried.

The final page of the book laments the fact that today we can hear any music that we choose from any period, and that because all this music is so easily obtained we make too little effort to listen to it. The caption to the illustration below is "Good music unappreciated!", a radio playing in the background while a lady hoovers. I wonder what the author would have to say about the way in which we consume music today, where we really can listen to anything that we choose on demand and very much take it for granted.

If you love Ladybird books, do pop over and visit Ladybird Tuesday, where Being Mrs C is assembling a really comprehensive catalogue of Ladybird books and reviews.

Below you can find links to all my Ladybird Tuesday book posts.

Snow White and Rose Red
Hansel and Gretel
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
The Three Little Pigs
The Old Woman and her Pig
Little Red Riding Hood
The Ugly Duckling
The Railway Children
A Little Princess
A First book of Aesop's Fables

A Ladybird Book about Knitting
More Things to Make - For Special Occasions
Easy to Make Puppets
Learning to Sew
Stamp Collecting
Tricks and Magic

Prehistoric Animals and Fossils
Dinosaurs
Stone Age Man in Britain
Great Civilisations - Crete
Charles Dickens
Nelson
Lives of the Great Composers Book 1
Lives of the Great Composers Book 2
The Story of Music

Plants and How They Grow
The Ladybird Book of the Night Sky
Sea and Air Mammals
The Farm

The Story of Nuclear Power
The Motor Car
How it Works - The Computer
How it Works - The Rocket
The Story of Ships
The Postman and the Postal Service
People at Work - The Nurse

Understanding Numbers
Talkabout Clothes
Going to School
Teaching Reading

Stories of Special Days and Customs
Christmas Customs

Girls and Boys - A Ladybird Book of Childhood

Salt dough Mermaid or Pirate Treasure

For our Under the Sea Day a few weeks ago we made some simple salt dough coins that I called Mermaid or Pirate treasure, depending on what game was currently being played. It was so easy, and has been so popular with the children, that I thought I'd write it up as a separate post.

My salt dough recipe uses two cups of plain flour, one cup of salt and one cup of water, added slowly to mix to a dough. Roll out the dough and cut into small circles. Then you can make imprints in the dough to add a bit of texture - we used coins and cocktail sticks but anything that would make a strong imprint would work well.

Bake the coins in the oven on a baking tray. I cooked them for about as long as I'd cook biscuits - at 180C for about 10-15 minutes. If they are still soggy in the middle I find that leaving them on a hot radiator for a couple of hours works well to dry them out thoroughly.

Then paint with poster or acrylic paint. We used a mixture of yellow, red and brown paints for coin colours, if you had metallic paints then they would work really well. Then when they were dry we finished off with a coat of some gold glittery paint.

We have used these salt dough coins for lots of role playing games. They've been hidden around the house, collected together in various treasure chest receptacles, and used for buying things in a pretend shop. They also turned out to look like pretty good biscuits, so they've been in and out the play kitchen too!

We do like our pirate crafts - here's how to make our pirate map and pirate treasure chest and gold doubloons.