Christmas Cards for the Elderly

Let me start by saying: I AM SO PROUD OF MY BOYS! They made 70+ cards in about a month, on top of regular and holiday crafts and activities.  These 70+ cards are for the residents of one of our local nursing homes.

I feel awful for posting this so late. It's 10 days until Christmas.  But I would like to encourage any person to do some goodwill, and to make and deliver at least one card to a local nursing home.

There's a piece of my heart that goes out to those who suffer from anxiety, depression, and/or mental illnesses.  I suffer from a mixture of the three, so I will pretty much do anything I can do to help someone for just a second.  Did you know that there is a serious increase in depression rates among senior home residents during the holiday season?  There's a name for it: Seasonal Affective Disorder.  The holidays can make some seniors feel alone and long for "home".  There are some who don't get many visitors, and they are reminded of that when Christmas comes around.  And there are others who just don't feel the cheer they once had.  Not all residents feel this way, but you'll possibly be bringing a smile to the sad while sending cheer to the cheery if you send out cards.

This day last year, I worked at a day care.  My class alone (of 7 students) sent out over 100 cards to the nursing homes! Although, I never saw their faces, I just know that some of our cards can made an impact.

Even just signing or drawing pictures on store bought cards can make a difference. (Dollar Tree has packs of 20 or 40 for $1!)  So you don't have to be creative, and it doesn't have to be super time consuming.  Any kid or adult can do this.

You never know what one small gesture means to someone.  So I really want to encourage however many people I can, to spread some holiday cheer.  Let some of the local nursing home residents know that they are important, and they have not been forgotten about!

'Tis the season, right?! We'll be hand-delivering our "jolly" tomorrow morning.  

Wrapping Paper Silhouettes

I don't know if it's the same for yall, but Christmas means lots and lots and LOTS of wrapping paper. And wrapping paper, because I'm no pro, means plenty of scraps.
So I made a craft with my boys using my many scraps. 

I gave them a red and green sheet of construction paper and let them glue on all the scraps they wanted to. Finding Dory came on, so they didn't really try. But they enjoyed the five minutes they (somewhat) dedicated to the craft. I even got a blurry picture of them trying to show off their finished products.
After they were finished gluing, I outlined a Christmas shape on the back. You can do a star, sleigh, tree (I didn't do a tree because of our ToiletTree  that we still have up), gift boxes, snowflakes, a bell, Christmas hats, holly, snowmen, gingerbread men, a wreath, any silhouette you can think of!  Trace any silhoutte and cut it out. I tried to free hand my bell and star silhouette, and it was not my finest artistic moment.
Because I already had the trees on a toilet paper roll, and we've already made ornaments I didn't make an ornament or stand out of them (but you can!). I also thought about framing them and hanging them up, but didnt feel like finding a frame. Ultimately, I decided to decorate our fridge with them, our kitchen was lacking Christmas cheer anyhow. 

The wrapping paper silhouttes came out cute and they were so easy that I plan on making a few extras. But instead of Christmas silhouttes, I'm going to cut out into their little handprints and we're going to mail them off as bookmarks with our Christmas cards this year. 
Like the ToiletTrees, you don't have to use wrapping paper. You can use glitter, stickers, other construction paper, tissue paper, crayons, anything Christmas-y you have lying around. Flexible crafts are the best crafts!