Christmas Gifts to Mom and Dad from the kids

I normally do a gift to mom and dad from the kids for Christmas. It's usually an ornament with their face or handprint on it.

Does anyone else do anything for mom and dad from the kids?

I don't do a "specific gift". There gift is all the beautiful creations the children make, and we make a LOT. We make 2 or 3 different types of tree ornaments, and additional keepsakes like pictures and collages, etc etc The last two years, I have given the child a stocking with a picture of them on the front with a santa hat on, sat in santas chair next to the tree. I have also decorated, myself, a bauble ornament with their name and the year written in glue pen and then with fine glitter as a keepsake, attached. I fill the stockings with goodies like, chocolate kisses and books and bubbles. I get a great stocking with a clear window on the front to slide a photo into. Other than that no. I know a lot of people do it to teach the children to give, but before age 3, I don't think they understand the concept of giving a gift. If they do, its forgotten as quickly. I try to teach them the lesson of giving through regular role play and dramatic play, as well as constantly reinforcing the importance of sharing through stories and songs.

In this day an age of hurried parents and the lack of interest they take in the daycare in general the more I stopped doing special gifts. The cost and time spent just wasn't appreciated. Yes they gush to a certain extent when it is given but at the same time I didn't feel they were going out of their way to do something special in return. Yes the gift cards are nice and I get to buy what I want - which is what most of my parents give me but at the same time lacks the personal touch. Instead I build it into the program and up the number of crafts we do in December. We make ornaments mostly so up to the parents to hang and keep and reuse or save over the years. I only do a couple with the babies so they have something special but it is still simple - usually a hand or foot based gift but maybe done in foam over paper. Cost is definitely kept to a minimum. The kids are just as excited about the simple things they made if not more than when I went all out and worked with each one to create something wonderful but more complicated. It meant those not having a turn were left to "just play" till it was their turn. Now we keep it simple, make them together and spend the time we save on seasonal games and activities to play.

We do ornaments as well. This year we are also doing scented light up jars. Easy and cheap. Buy a set of battery operated white lights, put into mason jar, fill jar with cinnamon smelling potpourri and when they turn on the lights it makes the whole room look and smell pretty :)

I agree with Playfelt that the kindness and generosity most of us show is not appreciated by most of the families. Last year almost all my families gave me boxes of chocolates even though they know I don't eat it and had worked my ass off losing 60 pounds during the year...duh! I have one awesome family who had an ornament made for our tree which was beautiful and totally thoughtful! Its families like those who make me want to put in the effort so their children bring home something nice for them :)

We make lots of simple crafts over the next few weeks that parents can chose to hang on their trees, put on the fridge or just throw out but I always put in the effort as I know I loved having the little crafts when my kids were little and in daycare.

We are doing this:

http://media-cache-ec7.pinterest.com...tt921Mdo_f.jpg

And this:

http://media-cache-ec5.pinterest.com...DZm6HXqU_b.jpg




Thanks, Pinterest! :D

We will be doing these amongst other things. Pinterest is fantastic don't you think. Thanks Alphagetti. :)

http://http://pinterest.com/pin/40110252902908926/

http://http://pinterest.com/pin/40110252902936433/

http://http://pinterest.com/pin/40110252902908915/

my pictures won't show :( what did I do wrong???

Yup ... I have a cycle of about 5 different 'handprint' gifts that I do so that each year they are different to show how much their hands grow over their time here ... this is the Santa one I also do a Penguin, a snowman family, a reindeer

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...yawake/003.jpg

The final year we did the Cookie Tray for Santa

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n.../plates002.jpg

I am excited because this year we can return to the beginning of the cycle as my last group I had had for 5 years is gone off to grade 1!

Love love love all the ideas!

Oooooo Reggio...mind if I steal the plate idea for this year?? So sweet!!! What kind of paint do you use that won't chip off easily?

It is Acrylic paint from Michaels with a 'clear glass and candle primer' added to it ... I did warn parents to 'hand wash' if if they actually USED it for cookies but I gave it to them with the a plate holder thinking more to use for a 'decoration' ;)

LOVE the santa cookie plate idea!!

I was also thinking of felt cut outs for stockings and they would "sew" the stocking & decorate it.
I did this as a kid and my mom still hve my stocking :laugh: it's a bit of prep but easy for my age group.

<somthing like this-------> http://crafts.kaboose.com/felt-stocking.html

Mine had hole-punched holes going around and we had to sew the two psices together then glued the white "fluf" on and decorated with glitter glue. Also our names were written along the side. (My brother had the same teacher 4yrs later and they did the same thing lol)

Oh Alpha, I love those snowman jars!!! Every year we have worked hard to make gifts for the parents and then we make a big container out of a coffee tin or something similar and put all the crafts into it. Then I instruct the children to put the gift under their Christmas tree to give to Mom & Dad. I haven't really thought about what we're doing this year but it's great to get the ideas early.

I love the snowman jar idea too.

I usuallly get the medium size christmas gift bags from the dollar store and then when we make something we put it in the bag. They usually colour a seasonal picture each day too to take home as they don't like leaving crafts behind. I normally add a few items I have made for them too, a finger puppet or small stuffy or other trinket type gifts - seasonal but something they can use - love the christmas socks and wash cloths and stuff from the dollar store.

I usually buy placemats from the dollar store that we use for the month and then let them take home. Have also done trays or dishes to use and then keep.

As I said I do more that we can use within the daycare for the month to make it special but at the end they still get to take the things home with them.

I am doing FOOTPRINT BUTTERFLIES.. Paint the bottom of the kids feet ( multicolour is fantastic) and get the seperate footprints, between the footprints draw a butterfly body, head and face. have the child decorate the rest.
I pick up art canvas from the dollar store for this and I enlist the help of my 21 year old niece who loves to craft ( I HATE it).
I let the butterflies dry for a few days and wrap.
For mothers day I did the crayon melting art.. That was a huge success.. Easy to just make sure you use actual crayola crayons and not the knock offs.

We've done the Butterflies at Mother's Day ~ definitely a huge hit ... and agree that the multi color feet are way more striking ~ this one was our first try so next time I can do them I am so doing multi color feet instead of a solid one .... this one is a 4 year olds and she was way more meticulous at making hers than some of the others ;)

http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...mothersday.jpg

Here is our Reindeer ornament from the one year
http://i305.photobucket.com/albums/n...ke/kids021.jpg

My computer crashed a while back and still having trouble finding all my photos and stuff but these ones were on my photobucket already