@LITTLECITYTALES On Christmas and Arts & Crafts Projects With Her Petits

We’ve been a huge fan of the arts & crafts projects Stephanie shares with her A3s (the initial of her petits all starts with A) on Instagram for a while now. As a mother of three, she always encourages her little ones to let their imagination wild with DIY projects at home. Read on as Stephanie shares where she gets her inspirations from and her family’s Christmas rituals!

photo credit: @littlecitytales

Where do you usually get your arts & crafts inspiration from?

It’s quite hard to pinpoint any one place that I get inspiration from. There’s in fact an incredibly creative and supportive craft community on instagram, and I get inspired by their creations a lot.

I tend to look at lots of pictures and visuals and then think about what materials I have at home to work with. I also like to base my crafts on themes or celebrations, whether it be Christmas or Oceans Day, I find that it becomes easier to conceive of a craft idea that way, anchored often by a little research!

photo credit: Poete Spitalfields.

photo credit: @littlecitytales

Tell us more about your Christmas DIY project this year. Which one is your favourite?

I’ve been struggling for time a little this year, but one of our family traditions has always been to create an advent calendar. However I don’t believe in simply giving sweets or treats so we tie it in with a kindness calendar. Each day my little ones will have a little task, such as expressing gratitude, telling their grandparents they love them, or baking cookies for our neighbours etc.

We pop these into our eco-calendar, which is made of 24 upcycled toilet paper rolls and reclaimed wood as a base this year (Karyne from Poete Spitalfields amazingly helped me source it)! The base will be reused for many future purposes as a table centrepiece, other crafts so we really wanted to explore ways of prolonging the life of our craft creations.

What are some of your petits’ favourite Christmas movies?

This might be a surprise, but my kids actually aren’t so good with movies. They get a little scared but they’ve watched The Grinch and Home Alone and found them both fascinating while remaining a bit fearful of them!

Need kid-friendly movie inspiration? Check out our 8 Holiday Movies To Watch With Your Kids blog.

photo credit: @littlecitytales

Can you tell us more about your Christmas ritual each year?

I know traditionally, you are supposed to open presents on Boxing Day, but we tend to open ours on Christmas Day! We also go to church and we’ll make hot chocolate with marshmallows and snuggle up after.

We always have Christmas lunch with our family followed by board games for an easy, relaxing day. This year though, we will be spending a hot Christmas in Australia, so that will be a first!

photo credit: @littlecitytales

Given that your petits are all at different ages, how do you engage them in play and DIY projects?

That’s a great question, and sometimes it’s actually a little difficult. I tend to either do separate crafts with them, or think of crafts that have various different stages to engage them all. For example, with our origami Easter eggs, all three enjoyed the squeegee painting process, my middle son loves origami so he did most of the folding, and my eldest hid all the eggs and they played the hunt probably ten times round!

Follow @littlecitytales on Instagram for more art & crafts ideas.