Snowman Soup Hot Chocolate {Free Printable}

Today, I'm sharing one of the many things that are in my Christmas Eve box for the kids this year. If you're wondering what a Christmas Eve Box is, well let me tell you. I shared a post over on one of my favourite Irish blogs, Where Wishes Come From , as part of her #craftadvent2015 series, about the whole thing but I'll tell you a little bit about it here too. 

It's a box, filled with loads of goodies to keep the kids entertained on Christmas eve. That day is the busiest day for everyone. Last minute wrapping and getting last minute jobs done around the house. Prepping the turkey and veg for Christmas. And then, the dreaded question... How long til Santa's coming??  It's a lovely tradition that not only makes lovely memories but also keeps the kids busy on Christmas Eve.

I'm putting lots of goodies in there but I made these really cute Snowman Soup gifts for the kids. It's just simple hot chocolate but done in a fun way. Christmas is all about magic and fun after all.

You'll need:

Hot chocolate

Chocolate chips

Mini Marshmallows

Candy cane

Icing bag

Ribbon

Free printable

Print off the free printable and cut out the circles.

Layer the Hot chocolate, Chocolate chips and mini marshmallows in the icing bag. 

Tie the bag with a piece of ribbon and tie on the candy cane.

Add the printable and stick it in the Christmas eve box.

It's not too late to get your bits and pieces ready to do a Christmas Eve box this year. The kids will love it and you'll have a little more peace and quite on a very busy day.

 
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Magic Reindeer Food plus a free printable

One of my favorite things to do with my kids on Christmas eve is to go outside in the freezing cold with our magic reindeer food and scatter it around the lawn for the reindeer and Santa to see.

I never had this as a child so whoever dream up this idea, thank you!!

All you need to make your own is: 

porridge oats

sprinkles

glitter

zip-lock bag

ribbon

free printable tag {below}

Print off your label on card.

Cut the top off your zip-lock bag.

Put the contents into the bag, adding as much glitter and sprinkles as your heart desires.

Tie it shut with ribbon and add the label.

These are great to put in the Christmas eve box or as a gift for the smaller members of your family and friends. It an inexpensive gift that they will love and you will help make magic and memories. 

I love sharing our family traditions on my little piece of the internet and would love to hear about some of yours.Don't be shy, share them in the comments. And, if you want to follow along in another tradition that we do in our house, head on over to my Instagram page {here} to see what Jingle our elf on the shelf is getting up to.


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Letter to Santa round-up {free Printables}

At this Time of year, I love to add little bits of magic to make it extra special for my kids. I want them to remember the magic of Christmas when they have grown up. So that they can pass it on to their children and keep it alive for generations to come. 

And because writing the letter to the big man himself is the first thing we do in our house, I searched for the perfect printable for the job. I considered making one myself but there are soo many beautiful ones already out there. So, to save me and you some time, I'm sharing some of my favourite ones.

Bomb Shell Bling

Freebie Finding Mom

Raining Hot Coupons

Home by Heidi

Kate Smith Design

Blush Printables

Spaceships and Laserbeams

My Expression

Melon headz illustrating

11 Magnolia Lane

I hope you've enjoyed my little round up of letters and will enjoy using them to create some Christmas magic for your little ones.

Potato Print Christmas cards

We had a very busy afternoon here making Christmas cards. Yes, I said Christmas cards. Please don't hate me but I love Christmas and the older my kids get the more I love it. They are the reason behind all the magic and I love making magic memories with them.

These potato print cards are all over pinterest and they are so easy to do. We the potato whole and then got cookie cutters to make shapes on our cards. Jasmin used her thumb to make a lovely wreath. I wrote the Merry Christmas with my new favourite gold sharpie, that I got in Aldi of all places. I can see lots of things written in gold sharpie in the near future.

These really are the easiest thing to do and the kids had lots of fun messing with the paint.

Make sure to head on over to Our Little House in the Country for more potato print ideas.

Don't forget to join in on my #30thankfuldays2014 photo challenge on my social media accounts. I've found some very thankful ladies through this challenge and can't wait for the link up at the end. You ca find the link to my social media accounts below.

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Christmas Traditions

We all have traditions that make Christmas special for our family.

When I had my kids I started thinking about traditions I wanted to start with my family.

Today I'm sharing some of our old and new traditions that we love doing every year.

School Holidays means pancakes in our house.

Chocolate chip Christmas shaped pancakes.

They love these.

Every year I sit down with a big mug of hot chocolate, the Christmas TV guide and a highlighter and mark off all the movies that we're going to watch over the holidays.

It's not Christmas until you've seen the big man in the red suit.

Little Man was in LOVE with Ho ho ho.

That's what he calls him.

One of my faviourite places to go every year is Listowel Garden Center. 

They have, hands down, the best Christmas display I have ever seen.

They transform the entire shop into a winter wonderland with every kind of decoration you can imagine.

Christmas Bliss!!

This is a new tradition.

I made up nice list certificates and letters from Santa for the kids.

Jasmin was over the moon to hear from Santa and to see she was on the Nice list.

I whipped up a little chocolate bar wrapper too just for the heck of it.

I found these adorable printab;le Santa letters on Pinterest.

Where else, right!?

They were so much fun for the kids to use.

You can read all about them here.

Christmas Cards for her school friends is a very important tradition for Jasmin.

Even though they are very time consuming, she would be devastated if we didn't do them.

What's Christmas without 30 plus hand written cards?

For the past two years we've gone to Jasmins Christmas show and It was the highlight of my Christmas so for this year.

She was an Angel.

But no ordinary Angel.

She put her heart of soul into every move and shake and sang her heart out.

She even  scolded me for not clapping enough all the way from the stage.

(apparently, trying to hold her brother up to see was NOT an good enough excuse)

The last tradition I love doing is my Christmas Eve box.

I fill a big box with new pj's for everyone, sweets, popcorn, hot chocolate, Christmas movies, and anything else that takes my fancy.

I'll be doing a post in that when I've got it made up, so keep an eye out for it.

Do you have any traditions that I missed out that I just have to do.

Share them with me.

I'm always wanting to add some more.

Thanks for reading.