Do you want an activity for your whole family to do together this holiday season? Paper ornaments are a beautiful craft for the holidays.  They use just the right amount of mindfulness to be relaxing, fun, and… they are pretty too!

Break out the construction paper for a quick, easy, low-mess, inexpensive, intergenerational, multi-lingual, delightful holiday craft.

You don’t need special equipment,  and everyone in the family can participate  — even the young ones can cut lines and tape paper together.

Time: 5 – 30 minutes

Materials: Tape, scissors, marker, ruler, string, and 1 piece of construction paper per person. If you want flair,  decorate with a glitter pen or markers before you start cutting.

Cost: pennies

Let’s get started!

Step 1: Fold a piece of paper in half.

Step 2:  Cut paper. The goal in this step is to make a square, so cut off extra rectangle at the bottom.

Step 3: Lay your paper flat against your table. Fold in half to form a triangle. Fold in half again to form another triangle.

With your marker, draw 3 – 5 lines parallel to the LONG edge of your triangle. Draw the lines so they  ALMOST touch the other side, but stop before you get to the edge.

Cut along the lines.

Open up the piece of paper.

Curl the inner most pieces together to form a tubular shape. Tape together.

Flip the paper around. Tape the next two pieces together.

Flip and repeat, until you have taped all the pieces together.

Add a little string to the top. Now hang it up and admire your fine work!

   

Here are some other ones we made:

We hope this provides a moment of mindfulness with your family during the holidays.

Happy Holidays!

 

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People sometimes ask me how I get my daughter to eat vegetables. Here are a few things that work for us that may work for you too!

1. My most effective strategy is to plant a garden, and let kids snack on the vegetables as they grow. Green beans and cherry tomatoes are some of my favorite vegetables to grow with kids. Also, gardening is a great family activity that gets the whole family outside.
2. Ask your kids what they want to eat. Involve them in meal planning.
3. Take your child with you to the farmer’s market or produce section. Let them pick out a vegetable to bring home.
4. Cook with your kids. Give them a plastic knife and a little cutting board, and let them hack at something for practice (and fun).
5. Lead with vegetables. At snack time, or while cooking dinner, arrange a few different vegetables on a plate. I like to use carrots, cucumbers, cherry tomatoes and/or strips of purple cabbage. You can save time and vegetables by prepping several containers at a time. Then, right when you think your kids will wander into the kitchen to look for a snack, they will find vegetables on the counter.  If they are really hungry, then they are more likely to want the vegetables. 
6. Add a dipping sauce. If you don’t have time for homemade salad dressing, then use whatever you have. Balsamic and olive oil is just fine. I learned this trick from Alice Waters and it works!
7. Sit down and eat together. Keep offering different vegetables. Encourage them to taste vegetables at dinner, but don’t force them. One fun thing to do is to “cheers” with your vegetables, and then take a bite together.
8.  Give thanks for your food with a meal song or blessing. Here is one of our favorites…

For the Golden Corn (Traditional Waldorf song)

For the golden corn and the apples in the trees,
For the golden butter and honey for tea,
For fruits and nuts and berries that grow along the way,
For birds and bees and flowers,
We thank you every day!

 

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