Just say “NO” to class holiday projects.

Two and a half years ago my sister became engaged. She decided that she wanted to get married on Christmas Day and she decided on a snowflake theme.  Originally she wanted four Christmas trees covered in snowflake ornaments. As favors, she was going to let her guests pick some ornaments off of the tree.

I was very excited for her. I saw some neat wire snowflake forms and I told my mom that if she wanted to buy the supplies, I would make some beaded snowflake ornaments for the tree. I also found some beautiful quilled snowflake ornaments online. I sent a link to my mom and told her I thought that they were pretty. I had never quilled before. My mom suggested I make the frames myself to save money. I thought that sounded like an awful lot of work. I mean, they wanted enough ornaments for four Christmas Trees. I told my mom that if she wanted to make the frames that I would use them, but that I wasn’t going to be making them.

A few days later craft supplies started to show up in my mailbox. I had offered to help, but it seemed that I was now set to make all of the snowflakes for the trees. I’m not sure if it was before or after I stopped making ornaments, but my sister decided to scale back and only used two trees.  At any rate, quilling kits arrived, craft bead kits arrived, pattern books for crocheted snowflakes and spools of thread arrived. The crocheted snowflakes were gorgeous. Some of them were three dimensional and then they required sewing on beads and sequins after they had been blocked. Ultimately though I decided I did not have the time to make those.

I learned to make a TON of beaded snowflake ornaments. Don’t worry, they’re coming

My daughter’s birthday is in November and she thought my new found snowflake skills were awesome. For her birthday she wanted to have an ornament making party. I however, was burned out on making ornaments so I ordered a bunch of kits from the oriental trading catalog.  All of the girls that were invited to the party were in TAG programs at their schools, so these were really bright third graders. Kits from the OTC should have been a no-brainer. The  party was a real challenge though. Several of the girls wanted to do their own thing, which is fine. One couldn’t follow directions at all and another one was so used to having her mom do things for her, that she needed help putting the beads on the wire frame. It seemed as if everyone needed individual help. I was happy to assist, but there were only a few girls. My daughter had a fabulous time and everyone left with a small collection of ornaments. The party was considered a hit by the girls.

So then it came time for the class Christmas party and I’m not even sure how this happened but I offered or was volunteered to help with the craft. But when your daughter is looking up at you adoringly, how can you say “no”? She thought that I was the absolute most talented mom in the world and well..I’m a sucker for that. 🙂

But then I remembered her birthday party and I became a bit concerned.  We were preparing to move. I was very busy and did not think that I would actually be able to attend the party to help. Personally assisting a few girls is quite a bit different from helping an entire class. Whatever craft they did, it needed to be easy enough for the kids to do on their own. I decided on two very easy projects. The first is a classic that kids love because they get to eat it . The other is a SNOWFLAKE.

It is an expensive task to take on, especially if the class size is large. The snowflakes call for quite a few beads. My daughter’s teacher absolutely loved it though. I hear the other mothers at the party were also impressed. The party ended up being the day we left town so I did not get to attend. I was busy packing the car, but I’ve been told that this is a great way to earn brownie points with the teachers if you are in to that sort of thing.  I swore though that I would never, ever do it again.

As it turns out, my son is in the third grade this year…. and since I did it for his sister, he is hoping that I will do it again. I’m such a sucker. My daughter is now in the fifth grade and has asked if I can do something for her again, you know, since I’ll be doing something for her brother. So I’ll be making kits this weekend. Her class is going to get the pony bead star ornament. It looks cute and I don’t think it will be too spendy to make. I am going to have to rewrite the directions though to make them a bit easier for kids to follow.

One word of advice though. If you decide to take on the holiday party craft, whatever grade the kids are in, find a project for kids that are a year or two younger. The kids are going to be hopped up on sugar and unfocused. The goal is to find something cute for them to take home that they can make without getting frustrated. Parties are supposed to be fun! Also, if you do it for one child, chances are good that you’ll be doing it for the rest of them. 🙂