Today being December 1st, the countdown to Christmas has officially started here at the Clubhouse. Last night I got out last year's Advent Calendar, which I made out of all recycled materials. Tissue paper from gift bags, Christmas cards from year's past (yes, I save everything), brown paper bags, and even some wrapping paper. This year, we get to use it again.. so I guess it's re-recycled?
That got me to thinking about all of the different ways we recycle during the Holidays. You'd be surprised at how much can be found in the mail. Before you throw out yet another "look at our lowest deals ever" circular, take a closer look...
Usually the letters are big, bright and incredibly useful...
Letters aren't the only thing the ads are full of, numbers also abound everywhere! Cut them out and have some fun. For us, these numbers were used in our advent calendar. Take a look at the calendar above again, see the numbers? We had fun finding the numbers 1-25 and then putting them all in order. You can use the numbers in all sorts of ways though. Free math fun, delivered to your mailbox.
What else comes in the mail this time of year? Christmas cards, of course! When we made our advent calendar we used a different card for each day. On some we wrote a note on the inside of the calendar pocket, reminding us who the card was from. That card from my grandmother I could never bring myself to toss out? That's now day 2 on the calendar. It's a nice way to keep the card, and actually use it ;)
A pair of scissors and a glue stick and your preschooler can make their very own Christmas collage. Tell them to cut out everything red, or anything with snow on it, or whatever you choose.. there are plenty of photos in ads and on cards for them to choose from this time of year, it's bound to keep them busy at least long enough for you to check another item off of that ever growing holiday to do list.
Speaking of the to-do list, do you have all 25 days in your Advent/Countdown Calendar full? From activity ideas to treat options, scriptures to free printables, we have compiled a very useful Pinterest board, follow it here: Celebrating Advent.
We're not done recycling yet! Want to make a recycled Christmas Tree? Check out how Housing a Forest gets it done here.
One last recycled project, this is a structure I had the pleasure of seeing and working with at the NAEYC Conference last month.
How cool is that? Those tubes are ALL recycled newspaper! The product brings the "connecting pieces" and it was actually really easy to use, and so much fun! Now that is definitely a cool way to recycle. We are looking forward to building a nice big "newspaper village" with ours :)
Check out the product here:
So whether you're dreaming of a White Christmas, or not... you can always celebrate a "Green" Christmas and have some fun with all of the extra stuff in the mailbox.
24 Days and Counting... are you ready?! :)
Ms. Liz
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