8 Festive Christmas Food Ideas

You know that saying that we tell the kids all the time, "Don't play with your food."  Clearly I'm not the one to be giving out that advice. lol  Well, you'll see what I mean.  I love to play with our food and create all kinds of funny little creations for the kids to enjoy.  As you probably can tell by now, I like to create and play with pretty much everything.  So here are a few fun Christmas food ideas that we've tried and you can try too to light up the kids' faces. 

Waffle Santas -  We've had a few variations of waffle Santa over the years.  We've use whipped cream to make his puffy beard and hat details and we've used bananas to make his beard.

This was one of our elf on the shelf ideas.  Pumpernickle and Bre'ella decided to join us for breakfast one year. 

Christmas crunch mix -  Mix Crunch and Munch popcorn, Christmas m&m's, raisins and peanuts together for a fun snack.

You can use regular popcorn too as we did this year.  I decided to melt some white chocolate chips in there because the kids love them.  I didn't eat any, but the kids loved it.  For tots, you can substitute the popcorn and those kernels with puffcorn.  It's kind of like a Cheeto, but not.  You can find that at your local dollar stores and grocery stores.

Snowman muffins - I love baking molds.  I always try to snag some after the holidays during the clearance sales. 

Fruit candycanes - Cut up bananas and strawberries add a festive flare for the holidays.  You can challenge smaller kids to make these and they'll be building patterns. 

Ornament Waffles - The possibilities are kind of endless here.  Use different fruit and toppings, whipped cream and come up with ways to decorate your ornament.  This is a fun activity for the kids to do as well.

Christmas Rice Krispy Treats - Just add Christmas m&m's!  Then, you're set for a snack and a story.

Christmas tree sandwiches - We even have an old Christmas tree lunch in here.  Use peanut butter to "glue" your ornaments on your tree.

Donut snowmen - This went along with our elf on the shelf shenanigans.  Sometimes Pumpernickle and Bre'ella like to suggest activities for us to do.  The eyes and mouth are made of icing and the nose is cheese.

And while we're talking about fun food and snack ideas.  Let's not forget about all the delivery people making rounds this holiday.  I have no idea who originally came up with this idea, but it is perfect.  We appreciate all the work they do!

What fun food ideas do you have for the holidays?  I'd love to try some!

Giving Cash For Christmas - Cute Gift Idea

Christmas is only days away and I still have one or two last minute gifts to get.  I know.  It's taking me a while to decide on a gift.  Sometimes people in your life are so hard to shop for that you'd rather go with the gift card or cash option to avoid the stress of finding a gift.  However, you may just want to spread some Christmas cheer in the form of a few bucks. Who doesn't want a little extra jingle in their pocket, right?  Well, I've got an idea for you! This gift started out as a cute birthday gift for my niece, but I knew this could easily be a cute Christmas gift as well.

Go to your Dollar Tree and get one of those cute little gift boxes and fill it with some tissue paper.  I used paper shreds in here too.  I decided to wrap some bills with ribbon to add to the box.  At first, I was going to wrap lots of ones in rolls of twos, but I got tired!  So I added a few bigger bills.  I decided to add a little bath bomb in there too, because teenagers receiving cash is always "the bomb."

Even though I didn't use all ones, I still think this turned out pretty great!  I think anyone would be happy to have it, especially kids and teenagers!

Fun Unshelf Your Elf Ideas

Elf on the shelf.  Some love it. Some hate.  Some are probably ready for those little elves to be headed back home up North. Well, hang on it's almost over and I'm sharing a few fun ideas (late because I operate on tiny human time.)

We started the Elf on the Shelf tradition about 5 years ago.  It's been a fun little thing to add to the holiday fun and chaos.  I probably have just as much fun as the kids do.  I love coming up with somewhere to place thing, creating something fun for them to do (which usually has an activity to go with it).  Now, I'm going to warn you guys in advance that sometimes I am a bit "extra."  Not much by some means and way to much by others, but whatever.  There's your disclaimer.  HAHA!

Here are a few pics of our elves in the past and present!

Elves climbing the Christmas tree to hang their own star (We had not hung one up yet.)

  Elves packing a lunch.  I'm a lunch packing mama so the elves had to join in too.  Click here for lunch packing ideas!

Hanging out in the Washer and Dryer -  The kids have all been sick this week and we've been washing everything so this was more of a much needed break. lol

  Making a get well card for sick babies

  Having a snow ball fight with pom poms 

Do you wanna build a snowman?

Oh sometimes this happens and Pumpernickle and Bre'ella get the flu.

Hanging out on the kitchen shelf.  "Ask mom if we can make these today?"

Hanging out in our homemade Christmas town.  Caleb took the note, but it asked the kids to compare going through this town and going on the Journey to Bethelehem.

Bre'ella came in like a wrecking ball

Climbing up pantry shelves

Do you think they like Adele?

Those elves got into the craft supplies and starting decorating their own ornament for the tree.  They suggested the kids make one too.

Caught in the cookie jar

Hanging out on the jewelry board

Having a photo shoot

The elves made "let your light shine for Jesus" lanterns and wanted the kids to make one too.

In the laundry supplies

The elves were trying to see if the kids could guess what Christmas song each item represented

Reading the story of Jesus and have one for us to read too.  I made a popsicle stick story to go along with the story for the kids to put in the correct order.

Reading the story of Jesus and had pop sickle sticks for them to put the story in order

Decided to give one of the dolls a makeover

Suggesting family game night

Found their basket of blocks and challenged them to build the journey to Bethlehem and asked about the differences then and now.  I usually plan this on the day the local church hosts the journey to Bethlehem.

Pumpernickle and Bre'ella were ready to make cookies!

Reading about the birth of Jesus

Trying on human shoes

Having good conversation with the dolls

Thought the clock needed an extra hand or two or a hundred

This was the second year when we bought a second elf after my kids questioned why they didn't get an elf that looked like them.  Ummm, representation matters.  I included a cute little note to name her.

Reading the Good Dinosaur and hinting that mom might have movie tickets if we do 3 good deeds.

The candy cane hunt is a favorite here.

The elves like hiding among Christmas decorations. 

Decorating the Teepee

When the elves saw our coupon stockpile, they thought it would be a nice idea to make "Blessings Bags" for someone in need.

Suggesting a marshmallow roasting/ smore making night. Another house favorite.

Fill in the blanks for Away in a Manger.  The elves were just supervising an activity that mom set up.

Looking through the bookshelf for Christmas books.  They found one with someone they know.

Joining the kids for breakfast as they have Santa waffles

Welcome back from this year.

Pumpernickle and Bre'ella got a little hung up trying to hang their picture on one of the art lines.

Just hanging out

The elves love hiding in the Christmas décor. They think they blend in well.

Found checking out the telescope!  I think they were trying to see the North Pole.

They love to give us reminders of who we are.

In case you're wondering about all that melanin on our elf.  After searching for and finding a black elf for the kids, it just looked like it had a light tan.  My husband couldn't tell it was a black elf and I knew it probably wasn't going to fly with the kids.  I preferred it be darker skin as we were still going through self love issues with Cate.  So that night, I painted her.

Hope you guys got some ideas!  However, don't you think for a second that I haven't woke up in a panic over not moving the elf, not remembering we have one, or it has sat in the same spot for 3 days because it was tired from an elf flight! HAHA!