Tag: seasonal activities

Present and Activity Ideas for a Quiet Christmas

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For many of us, Christmas will be quieter than usual this year, with fewer friends and family members around us. But there is still plenty we can do to embrace this atmospheric time of year and plenty of fun to be had.

Storytelling

Short days bring cosy nights, which are perfect for storytelling. For seasonal stories, Advent and Christmas Stories includes a treasury of verses, stories and songs.

Interested in telling nature stories? Then The Natural Storyteller has stories for telling orally. Using the story maps, you can easily tell the stories without reading and become a family storyteller.

You can find world stories in 147 Traditional Stories, for children aged 7-12 to retell, and storytelling tips. And it wouldn’t be Christmas without Findus and Pettson and their seasonal fun in Findus at Christmas and Findus and the Christmas Tomte.

Seasonal Nature and Craft

Books such as The Children’s Forest offer stories and songs, wild food, recipes, crafts and celebrations for all the year round. Families can enjoy these, with seasonal things to look out for while out walking.

If you have ever wanted to try a new craft but never seem to find the time, now is your moment. Crafting is a great way to either spend time with family or to lose yourself in to counter feelings of anxiety or loneliness.

Making with your hands is a great way of giving children the creative life skills for navigating this age of disruption. We have a wide range of craft books, including Making the Children’s Year, Making Simple Needle Felts, Making Soft Dolls and Making Peg Dolls. Materials supply shop, The Makerss, have hosted many online tutorials this year, that can help you get started and are still available to watch on YouTube.

Lastly, we recently came across the wonderful work of Star in the Apple Stories and their beautiful, seasonal musical storytime, now available to watch online.

For more ideas, visit the storytelling and craft pages at hawthornpress.com

’tis the season to be crafting

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As we spend more time at home again, make the most of chilly days and early evenings by taking up a new craft project.

Hikaru Noguchi-darned jumper

Darn it! As discussed in a recent article by Rosanna Dodds, visible mending is about more than thrift – it is a process by which we can save favourite garments and make them unique to us. It is also a craft that can fit into the time you have available. As Hikaru Noguchi, author of Darning: Repair, Make, Mend says,

“Most projects are finished within a few minutes to an hour. There’s no need to take out a sewing machine; the tools are as simple as a darning mushroom, needle and scissors. You can darn just as quickly as sewing on a button. If you’re set on darning a larger area, you can continue to enjoy the pleasures of sewing and working methodically, giving you a great sense of satisfaction in a job well done.”

Whether you are new to darning, or already an enthusiast, join us for a new season of Meet Make Mend with Katy Bevan and Kath Child from Atelier Stroud. The mending and darning circle meets on the first Wednesday of each month, starting on Wednesday 4th November at 7 p.m. Register here to join us online.

Rainbow peg dolls by Steffi Stern, inspired by Making Peg Dolls by Margaret Bloom

If you prefer to make rather than mend, then one of our many craft titles could inspire you, from needle felts to knitted animals and soft dolls. For online guidance author Steffi Stern runs a number of YouTube tutorials, which you can follow in your own time. These include a soft dolls workshop, with accompanying materials kit that can be bought from Steffi’s shop, The Makerss. You can also find more craft ideas on our YouTube channel.

Steffi is running a brand new workshop on Sunday 8th November at 11 a.m. celebrating winter with a hands-on robin masterclass.

Learn to make needle felted robins in Steffi Stern’s online workshop

Throughout November Steffi will also be running workshops on making nativity figures, from her book Making Simple Needle Felts. Watch live or catch up on YouTube.

For more seasonal crafts, both indoor and outdoor-based, The Children’s Forest, Findus, Food and Fun and Making the Children’s Year all have a variety of activities that are fun and educational.

Many of us may find this winter more challenging than usual. We hope that by immersing ourselves in the fun of crafting, we can make the most of this unusual time.

We’d love to see the results of your projects! Do share pictures of them on our social media – Twitter, Facebook or Instagram. We look forward to it!