Win a Maileg Pixie in The Great Toy Guide's Guide to the Best Reuasable Advent Calendars 2010

As you might be aware I am Deputy Editor of The Great Toy Guide, which is a fantastic site where we take toys and give them to our own children. Our children are really lovely, but they DO like to do things like dunk toys in orange juice. They send action figures on missions that involve being thrown down the stairs. They pull, prod and shake things just to see what happens. And when they’re done, they leave their toys on the floor for passing adults to stand on.

I know we’re barely past Halloween, but at the Great Toy Guide, the team have been hard at work testing out the best alternatives to chocolate advent calendars. We’ve brought together some of our favourite cardboard, fabric and wooden advent calendars.

This year we are also offering one of our readers the chance to win a magnificant Maileg Christmas Pixie advent calendar. Designed in Denmark, this festive pixie stands at more than 1.5 metres tall and will make a fantastic addition to your Christmas decorations. To be in with a chance of winning, simply leave a comment on this post at The Great Toy Guide telling us your favourite Christmas tradition. A winner will be picked at random on November 25th, and the calendar shipped to you in time for December 1st. UK entrants only. Good luck!

A Pause in Advent - Joy

joy / joi/ • n. a feeling of great pleasure and happiness: tears of joy the joy of being alive. ∎  a thing that causes joy: the joys of Manhattan. • v. [intr.] poetic/lit. rejoice: I felt shame that I had ever joyed in his discomfiture or pain.  2009 has brought me lots of joy, I have shed the above tears and I have a family that brings me joy every day.

 In the bible joy is more than an emotion it combines a sence of happiness with a state of blessedness.

 

For me this advent has been a time of biblical joy.  I have found the time to find happiness in the everyday, in the small things and rather than just in the build up to the 25th December.

 

In fact MadDad and I commented that we have enjoyed advent for its own this year, we have taken the time to sit and rejoyed in our lifes and teach our children imporatant aspects of the advent story and they both see christmas day as the day we celebrate Jesus' birth.  

 

Yes for them presents also play a role in their joy, but the giving in so much as the receiving.  They have learned the joy in giving their freinds cookies instead of cards, giving small personalised Christmas Stockings to their best friends.

 

By giving each day a task we have lived in the present day and took time to enjoy each one rather than just spending the time waiting for the 25th to arrive.

 

This is the best lesson that I have learnt this advent to enjoy each day for its own merits, to live for the now and what you have rather than what you might be getting.

 

For this and my family I truly rejoice.

 

Thank you Floss for allowing me this platform and this excuse to sit down and contemplate the meaning of advent and of this very special time of year.  

 

Merry Christmas One and All 

A Pause in Advent

Well my pause for Advent this week has to be on the whole Nativity play in primary schools.

MaxiMad is in Reception and his play Woops a Daisy Angel tool place on Wednesday and you can read all about it here.
MiniMad is in Preschool (nursery), he is in the afternoon group, which are the youngest children in the school.  We went to his production on Friday afternoon and it was more than a joy to behold.  Unlike Maxi, he had been practicing his songs aloud for about 2 weeks and they were along a pretty traditional line, away in a manger, jingle bells etc.

The most wonderful thing was that all the children were pretty well behaved and it was so fun watching them wave to their family in the crowds and on more than one occasion communicate with them and ask if they were enjoying it.

I am ever so grateful that the boys go to a school, which hasn't killed off the traditional nativity for a non-denominational holiday concert and that the nativity forms the central part of the story.

Both boys are enjoying learning about Baby Jesus, the shepherds and the wise men and even the Christmas Star.

I dont quite know why, but the nativity has always held a special place in my heart, possibly due to the fact that every year in my primary school our concerts were held in the church for our parents to visit and it was one of the main things that when I was terribly unwell I clung too.  In fact MadDad reminded me that I was shouting at the doctors that I would come back and haunt them if I died and didn't get to see MiniMads first nativity.

I am finding it such a joy to sit and talk about all of this with the boys at Dinner time each day, it has opened such a line of questioning, it is with such innocence and humor that they thing about things.

Some of the comments we have had this week:

Jesus only wears pants and and swish cloth in his manger - Mini

Isn't Jesus lucky he had two dads, Joseph and God - Maxi

One of the wise men was called Frank Sence - Mini

How did the camels make a clip clop sound if they were stood on sand? - Maxi

Julias Cesar lived in Rome - Mini
Did Mary and Joseph have to go through Eygpt?

How great that they are thinking about it all and have not once asked about presents or advent chocolates.  

They have been keeping me busy baking, decorating and crafting though. 

Jelly Baby Jesus Cakes

Ingredients

Shredded wheat

Golden Syrup

Milk Chocolate

Jelly Babys

Royal Icing

Cake Cases

Break up the chocolate in a bowl and microwave till melted, whilst scrunching up the shredded wheat.

Add about a tablespoon of golden syrup to the melted chocolate (it keeps it melted longer, which is easier for the children) and then add the shredded wheat.

Have a good lick at your spatula when you have finnshed mixing!

Scoop out and place in to the cake cases, this is the chocolate straw.

Add you Jelly Baby Jesus, very gently as not to wake him on to his bed of straw.

Then cover him in a royal icing blanket.  I buy premade royal icing for the Christmas cakes, so just save it.  I rolled it out for the boys to cut.

Then enjoy scoffing your Jelly Baby Jesus Cakes!!

Sorry if this offends anyone, but we love it.

Decorating on a Budget

I'm just a boy who helps around

The workshop and I can be found

Sawing for Joseph or shaping wood

Helping a master who's kind and good

And now I'm here to wave goodbye

To watch them go and know that I

Am trusted to finish the table and stools

And take proper care of the carpenters tools

I have had a lot of of wonderful compliments on the Christmas Decorations here at TheMadHouse, so here are some tips for decorating on a budget.

MadDad and I have been lucky enough to build up our collection since we were married nearly 14 years ago.  We decided pretty immediately that we wanted a traditional look and would go down the mainly red, green and gold colour scheme and have stuck to it.  That is the key for me.  We have a small tree in the dinning room which the children call their tree and we put all their decorations on or around it.  They like it better this was.  The tree was our first ever tree from Agros 12 years ago in the sale!

Great places for shopping for decorations:

Ikea

Great value, Scandinavian style and a little bit different.  This year I have bought a few garlands to drape over the twig lights, they are wired and only 99p each.  They look so much better in real life than the photographs.

 

Straw decorations  - I strung some that we purchased a couple of years ago on cotton and hung from the curtain rail.

Ikea also do great candle-bridges which are super for adding atmosphere to a room.

John Lewis

We have bought quite a lot of items from John Lewis, they tend to reduce items before Christmas. 

These santa dolls are reduced to £2.85 

Poundland 

 

You have to look, but they often have great basics such a baubles for a pound.  I fill up vases with them, to make our standard decorations look even better.  They also have gold and silver spray that you can use to decorate pine cones etc with.

Friends and Family

Often parents and grandparents have lots and lots of decorations, many more than they use, why not ask if you can look through the boxes that they havnt used this year.

This Father Christmas came from my mum, she hadn't used it for years as it was part of a double set and it is older than me!!

Home Made

The older I get, the more sentimental I get nad I love to see the children make their own decorations, but homemade decorations do not always have to look childish.

I made our advent stockings and our personalized stocking too.

Charity Shops

I always keep an eye out on the charity shops on the lead up to Christmas as they often get some super retro decorations in.

Many, many places know down the cost of their decorations after Christmas, that is how we got our tree (Homebase for £10 in the sale 5 years ago).  So it pays to scope out and look for inspiration in these places sometimes and add them on your January hit list.  Marks and Spencer have some lovely decorations in this year, so if cash allows I will be taking a look in January.

So my basic tips are:

Still to a simple colour scheme year on year (do not follow trends)
Buy in the Sales
Ask family and freinds if they have any spare decorations they do not want
Try the supermarket for basics
Never throw any of it away
Always store it correctly in the loft or garage
Make your own - popcorn on bakers string looks fantastic
Look for pieces that will last

Lastly do not try and do it all at once or it will look overly forced.  Our decorations grow with us each year, we have ones we have purchased on our holidays to Boston, South Africa, Paris and Amsterdam.  My mum even brought us Disney ones back from her trip to the US last year.  Putting the tree up is as much fun for me reminicing about where, who and what ornemants we bought, as it is talking to the boys about them.  The tree holds a lot of precious memories, like the boys first baubles

 

Pine cone door decoration

Mary I've packed the oil

And I've packed the grain,

The water is ready

Now listen again -

Here are the blankets and covers

And your mattress there,

So please, my sweet friend,

Keep warm and take care

Today I have a very easy Pine Cone decoration, which I totally pinched from Sweet Paul.

It is very easy for an older child to do on their own, MaxiMad and I did this together.  We also made one for my mum with red ribbon and golden sprayed cones, but forgot to take any photo's of it before we gave it to her yesterday.

I couldn't find my glue gun (my mother had it), so used Bostik All Purpose Glue to stick the end of the lengths of ribbon to pine cones. 

I am starting to really enter in to the advent spirit and we are all enjoying our time together with a task each day.  Tonight we are off to "Carols on the Green" in the pouring rain, but I have waterproofs out for the boys so at least they will remain dry.

Oh and the marble run has gone back to Father Christmas (grandma's house), where MaxiMad will get it on Boxing day as a thank you for checking it worked OK for Father Christmas!

Christmas Decorations in TheMadHouse

Who am I? I'm Caesar Augustus!

I live far away in Rome

And I want to count all my subjects

So, Mary and Joseph, GO HOME!

Please let me take you on a tour of TheMadHouse dressed for Christmas......

First my wreath as you come to the front door

Then the advent stockings hung over the fire

Meet Rudolf one and Rudolf two the very annoying jungle bell rock singing and ear flapping reindeer that the minimads adore given to them my Grandma.

My Plastic 1960's Santa, which is older than me and pinched off my mum, which guards the dinning room door.

More signing and dancing scary  soft toys, purchased for the MiniMads

The nativity that was my mums, which sits on the lamp table in the sitting room

Our Tree, which hides behind the sofa, so MiniMad and Mr Smudge, does attack it in equal measure!

MadDad and I have a tradition of buying one bauble for the tree a year, since we were married nearly 14 year ago

The twig lights which are decorated with garlands from Ikea

 

MadDad's stocking, which I made this year with the left over fleece I made the advent stockings from.

My Stocking, which I made too.

The MiniMads stockings dated with the year they were born.

The small tree in our dinning room which will be covered in boy made decorations by Christmas day.

I hope this has given you a taste of what Christmas looks like in TheMadHouse.

More pictures to come over the coming weeks.

Egg Box Jingle Bells and Advent Poem

"Mary, I too saw an angel,

And now we can marry with joy,

I'll care for you both, just as he said,

And together we'll bring up God's boy".

The boys task for last night was anther craft, which I have seen out on the blog circuit, but can not for the life of me remember where, so I am sorry for not linking to it.  This is another really easy and inexpensive craft.

Materials

Egg Box

paint

Glitter

String or ribbon

Little bells (I bought a wreath full of the from Poundland)

I cut up the egg cartons and the boys the little sections and then covered them in glitter.

We then set them aside to dry, whilst I pulled the wreath apart.

We then threaded the ribbon through the bell and made a hole in the top of the egg box cutout and threaded the ribbon ends through and tie at the top.

I then strung a number of them together to make a jingling sound!!

So another super easy, super simple and all inclusive advent craft. enjoy.