Stocking Stuffer Idea - Cute Reindeers

Too Cute Reindeer Craft

I'm going to make these for the children I give to this year. I think they are so cute.

Materials needed:
Two standard-sized washcloths, tan and white
2 bars of bath-size soap
4 wiggle eyes
2 red pompoms
4 brown pipe cleaners
2 rubberbands
12 tiny jingle bells
Decorative cord or ribbon
Velvet ribbon for bow
Small bell for Rudy
Tacky glue
Blush make-up for cheeks


Directions:
1. Open washcloth and place it on the table with one corner facing you. This makes the washcloth a diamond shape.
2. Place the soap in the center of it.
3. Bring the corner facing you and the back corner up together. Roll the two corners backwards down to the top of the soap. <>4. Take the two side corners in your hands and bring together at the top this will form the ears.
Secure them together with a rubberband down next to the soap. Shape to resemble ears.
5. Fold one pipe cleaner in half and poke it between the ears and through the rubberband.
6. Cut another pipe cleaner in half and twist it around to make the antlers. Do this on both sides.
7. Now attach the tiny jingle bells through the ends of the antlers. Fold the pipe cleaners back to secure them on.
8. Tie a decorative ribbon, cord or bow around the bottom of the ears. The bow shown in the sample has a small bell attached.
9. Glue on pompom nose and wiggle eyes.
10. Put a small amount of blush on each cheek.

Yes, Virginia, There is a Santa Claus

Dear Editor—
I am 8 years old. Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. Papa says, “If you see it in The Sun, it’s so.” Please tell me the truth, is there a Santa Claus?
Virginia O’Hanlon


Virginia, your little friends are wrong. They have been affected by the skepticism of a skeptical age. They do not believe except they see. They think that nothing can be which is not comprehensible by their little minds. All minds, Virginia, whether they be men’s or children’s, are little. In this great universe of ours, man is a mere insect, an ant, in his intellect as compared with the boundless world about him, as measured by the intelligence capable of grasping the whole of truth and knowledge.

Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus. He exists as certainly as love and generosity and devotion exist, and you know that they abound and give to your life its highest beauty and joy. Alas! how dreary would be the world if there were no Santa Claus! It would be as dreary as if there were no Virginias. There would be no childlike faith then, no poetry, no romance to make tolerable this existence. We should have no enjoyment, except in sense and sight. The eternal light with which childhood fills the world would be extinguished.

Not believe in Santa Claus! You might as well not believe in fairies. You might get your papa to hire men to watch in all the chimneys on Christmas eve to catch Santa Claus, but even if you did not see Santa Claus coming down, what would that prove? Nobody sees Santa Claus, but that is no sign that there is no Santa Claus. The most real things in the world are those that neither children nor men can see. Did you ever see fairies dancing on the lawn? Of course not, but that’s no proof that they are not there. Nobody can conceive or imagine all the wonders there are unseen and unseeable in the world.

You tear apart the baby’s rattle and see what makes the noise inside, but there is a veil covering the unseen world which not the strongest man, nor even the united strength of all the strongest men that ever lived could tear apart. Only faith, poetry, love, romance, can push aside that curtain and view and picture the supernal beauty and glory beyond. Is it all real? Ah, Virginia, in all this world there is nothing else real and abiding.

No Santa Claus! Thank God! he lives and lives forever. A thousand years from now, Virginia, nay 10 times 10,000 years from now, he will continue to make glad the heart of childhood.

Christmas Cookie Swap Meet

Step 1
Grab your pen and paper and jot down who you would like to call and invite them to come to your Cookie Swap. This is an opportunity for them to share their favorite recipes and bring their own homemade baked Cookies. Encourage them to also bring the recipes to the Cookies they are bringing to the Swap. Keep track of who is coming and what they are bringing. Be sure to set a specific date and time. Don't forget to send out Invitations to those who you couldn't personally invite.

Step 2
Create individual Goodie Bags to hold all of the guest's Cookies. Medium sized paper bags work fine. Use your pen to personalize each bag with the name of each guest.
(You could also use tins, boxes or whatever you can imagine)

Step 3
On the day of the swap, be sure to have several copies of your favorite recipes on note cards displayed near the plate of the Cookies you just baked.

Step 4
Be sure that every guest is happy and takes home a variety of Cookies