Hama bead Christmas crafts for children

This is an older post, you can find an updated list of Hama bead Christmas crafts here!

With Christmas approaching it's a good idea to have some crafty ideas up your sleeves for when the excitement gets too much, and Hama beads are a great way to get little ones sitting quietly for a bit while they concentrate on their designs. If you need some inspiration to get you started, here are some of my favourite Christmas Hama bead projects, and they will all add a bit of festive decoration to your home.

Hama beads are perfect for making Christmas tree decorations. If you want to make some ornaments to hang on the Christmas tree, you could make these simple Hama bead and ribbon baubles which can be made in beads and ribbons to match the decor of your tree. I also love this Hama bead Christmas mobile, which is a great way to display your favourite creations. 

These Hama Bead Trees would make a great Christmas forest display in your home, and you could also make some little cottages like this 3D Hama Bead Gingerbread House to make a Christmas village scene. This free Gingerbread House template is also very sweet, and would lovely in the background or as a separate hanging ornament. 

If you are looking for something larger, you could try some Hama bead bunting. We made snowflake Hama bead bunting for across the top of our fireplace, and you can find some more snowflake inspiration here - Hama Bead Snowflake Decorations.

I love making coasters with Hama beads, because they are very quick to make, and little ones can easily make them as gifts. These Red and White Christmas Coasters are a simple design and they look great when there are several of them used together.

Finally there are plenty of Christmas themed Hama bead kits with lovely designs. Some come with special Festive shaped boards, and others use standard boards with a range of different patterns. I've written about some lovely little Christmas ornaments using the tiny mini beads.

I hope you enjoyed this round up and it has given you plenty of inspiration - Happy Hama Christmas Crafting!

If you enjoy crafting with Hama beads, you can find plenty more Hama bead crafts on my Hama bead page. 

Printable Christmas decorations with Twinkl Resources

Regular readers of the blog will know how much I love Twinkl. I'm always printing out resources for the children, whether it's on topics that they are studying at school or things that they've shown an interest in. With Christmas approaching, Twinkl have a huge range of Christmas themed crafts and accessories, and with children that love colouring and crafting I thought we'd use some of the printables to create our own unique Christmas decorations.

Twinkl have a fantastic Mindfulness Colouring Christmas Decorations pack (Twinkl subscriber resource) which contains a lovely selection of printable Christmas decorations for children to colour, with some really pretty intricate designs that will keep them busy for ages. They are also great for adults to colour as well as they are so detailed, really lovely for the whole family to colour together. The pack contains baubles, paper chains, stars and angels.

The baubles in this pack were my favourite, you can use whatever cheerful colours you like and then cut and assemble them to hang on the tree.They are a bit fiddly so it's best if an adult can put them together and it's best to use a glue stick style glue so that it sticks down instantly. We used shiny silver ribbon to make hanging loops and then glued sequins all over them for a bit of bling, I think they look fab, they would be great in a school or childcare setting where each child could make their own bauble for the tree!

If you want something a bit quicker, you can also download and print a pre-coloured version of the same baubles here - Christmas Paper Baubles Decoration (Twinkl subscriber resource) - which just need to be cut out and glued together, again you could bling them up a little with sequins or stickers.

Some printable baubles that are a bit easier for little ones to put together themselves are these Simple 3D Paper Christmas Baubles (free download). You can print either a completely blank template for children to come up with their own designs, a black and white one to colour, or a colour version that just needs to be assembled. Here are the pre-coloured ones, they are really easy to put together.

Then here are some of the ones that we coloured in ourselves. We used felt pens to colour some of the baubles as well as these gorgeous Metallic Ink Gel Pens from Uniball which add a lovely shiny texture to the colouring and are great for highlighting some of the details.

We use the metallic gel pens again for these paper chains, also printed from the Mindfulness Colouring pack above. I have very fond memories of making paper chains to hang up around the house when I was little and I love that you can involve your children to make some really unique decorations.

Although these decorations are mainly made using subscriber resources, Twinkl also offers a great selection of free resources which you can adapt for your Christmas crafting. For example, I printed out some of the pages from this Colour in Christmas Cards (free download) resource and cut out some of the Christmas images. The children coloured them in, then I cut them out and we stuck them to some circles of gold cardboard and added ribbon to hang from the tree. As you can see it has been a while since Mia last saw a snowman - she's coloured him blue!

Twinkl have such a huge range of Christmas printables it's well worth having a browse. If you are looking for some more free resources, you might like this Cutting Skills Christmas Tree Activity (free download), which would make a lovely decoration on the wall once it's coloured in. You can also make your own Advent Calendar with this Design an Advent Calendar Activity (free download) and either draw some Christmas pictures or cut out pictures of friends and family or from festive magazines to go behind the windows.

If you are looking for some free Christmas resources from Twinkl you might like this video that I made as part of Vlogmas 2016 where I showcase some of my favourites:

I'm a Twinkl blogger and have been given a Platinum Plus subscription. I received the gel pens to review.

Some Christmas jigsaw puzzle inspiration

This post contains Amazon affiliate links

I have some lovely memories of Christmas from when I was growing up. One of my favourite memories is doing jigsaws, both by myself and with my family. I know that we did jigsaws throughout the year, but perhaps it's something about the long dark evenings and the family being gathered together that makes having a family jigsaw out at Christmas part of the festive experience. But although we certainly had favourite jigsaws that came out time and time again, I don't remember us having any actual Christmas themed jigsaws to work on, so I thought I'd have a hunt around and put together a wishlist of Christmas jigsaws for both children and adults.

Related post - The benefits of doing jigsaw puzzles

For the children

For the very little ones, I love this set of My First Puzzles - Christmas Friends. There's a 2, 3, 4 and 5 piece jigsaw included, and the bright, colourful illustrations will appeal to the youngest toddlers.

Last year we reviewed this lovely The Snowman and the Snowdog jigsaw puzzle. It's almost inevitable that if you have children you'll be watching both this film and the original Snowman film over the Christmas period, and this jigsaw is a fun way to remember what a lovely couple of films they are. You can read my review here - The Snowman and the Snowdog Jigsaw Puzzle review - and although it's a little difficult for younger children to complete by themselves, it's a nice size to work on as a family with enough of a challenge to interest the grown ups too!

If your children are more into Disney then this puzzle has a similar difficulty - Disney Christmas Eve - again, a great one for children and adults to work on together and have fun spotting all the Disney characters.

For adults

When it comes to puzzles for adults it's fun to have a nice large one that you don't normally have the time to complete, especially if you have a few extra adults in the house to help. How about this 2000 piece Christmas Eve jigsaw puzzle - a fun cartoon design with plenty of details to look out for!

Last year I reviewed this lovely puzzle Santa's Final Preparations, depicting Santa and Mrs Claus in their busy cottage as they carry out their final tasks before Christmas. It's a bright and cheerful design and I had a lot of fun completing it - you can read my review here Santa's Final Preparations jigsaw review.

I also own these lovely jigsaws from Gibsons - Christmas Eve Jigsaw Puzzles. The box contains two jigsaws, each with 500 pieces with a picture of a lovely festive town, and the two completed puzzles can be put next to each other to create a panoramic scene.

Last year I also reviewed this lovely Christmas Library jigsaw which I really enjoyed putting together and reminsicing about festive book favourites.

Finally, if you are looking for something a bit different, how about a Wasgij puzzle like this - Wasgij Christmas Jigsaw Puzzle . There are two jigsaws in the box, one is the scene on the box cover and the second is the solution to the puzzle - what the shoppers in the busy department store can see. Each puzzle has 1000 pieces so there's plenty to keep you busy, and it's also a fun challenge as you only have the picture to refer to for one of the jigsaws!

I hope I've inspired you for some Christmas jigsaw fun!

Our Autumn break at Center Parcs, Whinfell Forest

During the October half-term we spent a lovely mid-week break at Center Parcs Whinfell Forest, and I thought I'd share some of the things that we got up to. We've been lucky enough to enjoy quite a few holidays at Center Parcs now (you can find links to my other posts at the bottom) but this was our first visit to Whinfell. It's quite a long way from our home, but we were able to break the journey up there by staying with family. It's admittedly not particularly cheap to visit Center Parcs during the school holidays, but unfortunately now that the children are in school and with teachers in the family that's our only option! This holiday was with part of the rest of the family, and we were a party of six adults and two children.

Our visit didn't get off to the best start as the main road where the entrance is located was closed in both directions all day due to an accident. By looking at maps we discovered that there was a back service road into Center Parcs on the other side of the park, and so we took a chance and made our way around. Fortunately Center Parcs had opened this entrance and we were able to cut across the park to the Arrivals Lodge. There wasn't a great deal of communication from Center Parcs about this on their social media channels, but at least they knew what to do and it saved us a very long wait! There were posters up that evening apologising for the delays caused, suggesting that people who had missed activities due to late arrival would be refunded.

We stayed in an Original Style Executive Lodge with four en-suite bedrooms. It had a sauna in the lodge, with free wi-fi, daily maid service, fully equipped kitchen and open plan living area.

It was perfect for several different families sharing together, as having the en-suite bathrooms and two separate floors gives you some privacy. The kitchen was large with plenty of storage space as well as two large fridges and all the equipment that we needed for preparing meals. The living area didn't quite have enough sofa seating for all eight of us at once, but we could all easily fit around the large dining table. It was located in a nice quiet little cul-de-sac of about eight houses and we deliberately chose a lodge that was close to the central area to save too much walking for little legs.

We don't tend to do many of the extra activities that Center Parcs has to offer, as we find that they are very expensive. We did bowling as a family for an hour, and some of the adults visited the Aqua Sana spa. Generally we found that once we'd spent the morning in the Subtropical Swimming Paradise and had our lunch, there was enough to keep us occupied - either exploring the park or quiet time in the lodge with games and colouring. We also spent quite a lot of time Pokemon hunting in the forest and you can read more about that here - Playing Pokemon Go at Center Parcs Whinfell!

The Subtropical Swimming Paradise has plenty to keep everyone entertained for several hours. There's a large central pool with regular waves, flumes and slides, and warm pools with bubbles. There's a fast lazy river style rapids and an even faster outdoor rapids with an outdoor pool that you can also swim around (although it was quite cold out there so we only ventured out once!) Our children aren't very confident swimmers and so we borrowed them a free buoyancy vest each which meant they were better able to enjoy the pool. The pool didn't feel too busy and we never had a problem with finding a changing room, there were plenty of family changing cubicles which could fit us all comfortably.

We also spent a lot of time walking around the forest. The first Christmas decorations were being put out which made an evening walk magical, having visited Center Parcs at Christmas before they really do go to a lot of effort with the seasonal touches. But this holiday was mainly about enjoying the beautiful Autumnal colours in the forest and hunting for treasures like pine cones and colourful fallen leaves.

We were lucky with the weather and it was mainly dry, albeit a bit colder than we were used to coming from down South! I even finally made it to the Pancake House - the opening times never seem to fit in with what we are doing and so this time we made a special effort to fit a visit into our day and I enjoyed a delicious Caramel Crunch Belgian Style Waffle.

We had a lovely holiday at Center Parcs Whinfell, it's a great place to visit with the family and plenty for everyone to do.

You might also enjoy some of the other blog posts that I've written about our previous trips to Center Parcs. We have visited Center Parcs Elveden Forest at Christmas, and I've also shared some tips on Things to do for free at Center Parcs, Elveden Forest. Also in the UK we spent a week at Center Parcs Longleat just before Harry started school.

More recently we have tried out Center Parcs Erperheide in Belgium, and enjoyed it so much that we returned for a second Holiday to Center Parcs, Erperheide. I'm a big fan of the Belgian Center Parcs and you can also read more about the VIP Accommodation at Center Parcs, Erperheide.

Books for young children from Curious Fox

With Christmas approaching I'm always looking for little stocking fillers for the children, and one of my favourite things to give is books. I've just been introduced to Curious Fox, an Oxford based children's publisher, and they have sent me a bundle of books which would make great gifts for the young readers on your present list.

After never showing much interest in books as a baby, Mia's reading is now coming along in leaps and bounds. She loves her books now, and really pushes herself to read books that are a little above her reading level, as well as enjoying being able to independently read the picture books that I read to her when she was younger.

These two little books by Michael Dahl - Me and My Dog and Me and My Cat are very sweet hardback books about children and their pets. Mia is desperate for a pet, and so these books appealed instantly! The books talk about the things that the animals like and don't like, and so are a great read with your child if you are thinking about introducing a new furry family member. They are fun for reading to little ones, and also simple enough that young readers can tackle them alone.

For slightly more confident readers, these first chapter books by Debbi Michiko Florence are based on Dorothy and her friends from the Wizard of Oz. Each book has four or five short chapters and plenty of bright, cheerful illustrations as you follow along with Dorothy and Toto the dog, meeting lots of familiar characters along the way. There are several books in the series but each one can be read independently from the others. Although they are lovely little stories they also deal with issues that young children might face, that although they aren't too serious might still bother them. For example in What's Your Name? Dorothy makes a new friend that keeps calling her by different nicknames that she doesn't like, and she has to learn how to approach the situation in a way that doesn't hurt his feelings.

At a similar reading level are these lovely fairy books by Janey Louise Jones - Sonny the Daring Squirrel and Farrah the Shy Fawn. Fairies are another topic that appeal immensely to Mia, and these beautifully illustrated chapter books are great for little ones that are reading independently. Each book begins with an introduction to the fairy characters that we will meet, and the stories are about a group of Superfairies that use teamwork to rescue animals in trouble. Each fairy has a particular skill, and they use these by working together to help each animal. Again there are several books in the series, but each one is a standalone story. If you have a little reader that loves books about fairies, these stories would be fantastic to add to their collection!

Harry is quite different to Mia and has always been a keen reader, but he's proving a little tricky when it comes to books at the moment. He is an excellent reader for his age, but he's quite particular about the books that he likes, and he's reluctant to stick with one if it doesn't appeal after the first few pages.

He enjoys books that have a fast moving plot with plenty of humour, and these books by Malcolm Judge following the adventures of Jonny Jakes - Jonny Jakes Investigates the Hamburgers of Doom and Jonny Jakes Investigates the Old School Ghoul - are right up his street. Jonny Jakes is an undercover reporter for banned school newspaper The Woodford Word, and he's determined to pursue the truth about what's going on in the school. Written in a diary format, the text is broken up with plenty of cartoons, little notes, newspaper headlines and so on. The stories contain plenty of elements that appeal to young children, like jokes about bodily functions and annoying parents.

Another book which is perfect for Harry is How to Draw Batman, Superman and Other DC Super Heroes and Villains - a large book packed with drawing instructions for different cartoon characters ranging from the well known to a few less familiar ones. The book has plenty of drawing inspiration and also tells you all about the different characters so it's a great reference book for superhero fans.

Publishing next year, The Fearless Travelers' Guide to Wicked Places by Pete Begler is a story for more confident readers. It follows Nell Perkins, who knows there is magic at work that she can't yet understand. Her mother has been taken by witches and turned into a bird, and Nell must journey deep into the Wicked Places to get her mother back. I've only just started reading it myself (it's a bit too old for Harry yet) and it's a gripping story which will definitely appeal to older readers.

Finally, I can't resist sharing this lovely picture book - Herbie's Big Adventure by Jennie Poh. Herbie the hedgehog is ready for his first foraging adventure and bravely steps out into the world alone. He has lots of fun adventures in the snow before coming back to his Mum, and it's a lovely book to share at bedtime as you snuggle down with your little one.

I hope that you've found some inspiration for your Christmas book shopping!

I was sent these books in exchange for a review.

November - Lately I've been...

I thought it was time for a little catch up of what I've been up to lately! So here's a November update

Thinking about - I've been spending a lot of time working on my blog, going back and updating new posts, especially thinking about Pinterest, and realising that it's probably time to be a bit less tight and start to invest some money into the blog to help me out a bit with some of the tasks that need to be done in addition to writing the posts, which is the part that I enjoy the most.

I'm also starting to think about Christmas, putting aside a few little stocking fillers and planning some festive activities as well as gifts that the children can make for others.

Worrying about - The children seem to be settling well at their new school, but it is still taking a little longer than I'd hoped, especially for Harry. With a two week half-term holiday I also got very behind with my work, I hadn't realised quite how much I rely on the time when the children are at school to get on with things!

Crafting - My Sky Blanket continues and I'm still enjoying working on it. I've also been taking the first steps towards some Christmas crafting, and I've been making some little crafty videos for a couple of brands. I studied Media Studies A-Level and I really loved the video editing that we did as part of the course - back then I never would have thought that I could end up with a job making videos that companies would actually pay me for! Here are my glittery napkin rings in collaboration with Bostik:

I also enjoyed taking part in the Halloween celebrations in our village, lots of people put in a great deal of effort to decorate their houses and the children had a great time going around and seeing them all. I made a little Halloween window display and carved some pumpkins, and now I'm thinking about how I can make our decorations bigger and better for next year!

Watching - We've just started watching Westworld, we are only a few episodes in but it's looking like it's going to be a good one. We binge watched Stranger Things a few weeks back which was excellent, and at the cinema last week we watched Doctor Strange.

Eating - Far too much over the school holidays! I was doing very well at cutting back during the school term, then we went away and ended up eating out a lot and with the children at home I find it more difficult to stay away from the biscuit tin. We did a food order from nife is life which is where we buy our pizza flour from, and to make up the order for free postage we had to add a few extra bits, which were mainly biscuits, and so along with all the additional pizza that we've been eating there have been a few too many calories consumed lately!

Travelling to - We were out and about a lot over half-term with a holiday to Center Parcs Whinfell, time with family in Warwick, an outing to Birmingham and a day trip to London. I'll be sharing more about the Center Parcs holiday shortly on the blog, we had a lovely time.

Reading - I keep my Kindle topped up with free books and those that I find on special offer. Recently I read The Photographer's Wife by Nick Alexander which was excellent, and I'm currently enjoying Silver Bay by Jojo Moyes which is also very good. Next up is Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine by Derren Brown which I'm looking forward to (Amazon affiliate links).

Listening to - We went to watch the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory musical last week, which was brilliant, and so we have spent most of our car travelling time lately listening to the soundtrack. We recently bought the Amazon Echo which has taken up residence in our kitchen, and while sceptical at first I'm really enjoying how easy it is to listen to music through Spotify hands free, I can just tell it what I want to listen to. So I'm revisiting some of my teenage music while I make packed lunches and dinner in the evening, with a bit of Pulp, Manic Street Preachers and Space.

Planning - Being in the middle of still catching up with blog work from the half-term holiday I'm making sure that everything is planned in advance ready for Christmas, going back and updating old Christmas posts ready for re-sharing and trying to schedule as much as I can so that I don't need to spend to much time on it while the children are off school.

Looking forward to - Christmas! I do love the build up to Christmas especially with the children in school and Nativity plays, Christmas fairs, carol singing and so on as well as crafting at home, putting up the decorations, making gingerbread houses - so much to look forward to!

What have you been up to lately?