There might be a cost of living crisis, but that doesn’t mean we can’t give our little Mumblers some Christmas magic! Here are a few, low-cost ideas to get that festive feeling…
Using cheap biscuits, icing (made from icing sugar & water), or jam, chocolate spread, peanut butter etc., let your Mumblers go to town on decorations – Christmas sprinkles are available in lots of shops for less than £1. This doubles up as a naughty but nice snack too!
Make your own decorations, from paper snowflakes, to foraged wreaths, there are loads of ideas available on sites like Pinterest. If you’re less crafty then you can pick up some great sets from places like Home Bargains for £1-2, which would suit up to around age 11.
Always one of my favourite festive things & completely free! Wrap up warm and go for a wander looking at the decorations around where you live. To make this more of a challenge for older ones, or tots that won’t walk so far, you could make a little scavenger hunt of things to spot, e.g. a star, three reindeer lights…
Print off some festive colouring sheets, or, if you’re really arty make your own! You could further this with sticking different things on, leftover wrapping paper scraps, advent calendar chocolate foils, leaves found on a wintery walk etc.
Put some Christmas tunes on and have a dance! Little ones will love it, it will keep everyone warm and even help burn off some Christmas calories… You can often find carol services suitable for children at your local church that are free to attend and have a lovely atmosphere so worth checking those out too.
Do some cooking with your little Mumblers, use whatever you have available and find a recipe in a cookbook or online. You could even make some low-cost gifts for friends and families, like no-cook fudge or easy fork biscuits. This can cost as much or as little as you want to spend, no promises that the cleanup won’t be painful though…
What a Christmas tradition! Creating paperchains will not only enable you to make some low-cost decorations, but it will keep small Mumblers busy for a while…always a bonus! You can use any paper you can find, a great way to recycle, they look good with newspaper, leftover wrapping paper, cut up envelopes, anything that will cut and bend.
Buying hot chocolates for a whole family out is expensive (and in my opinion, they don’t usually put enough cream on…), but making them yourselves can be a fun experience. Use the bits you like, marshmallows, sprinkles, cream, chocolate buttons or whatever else you fancy and let your Mumblers go to town! Then settle down for Christmas film and a perfectly festive afternoon!
For the littlest of Mumblers you can whip up some great sensory play at home using Christmas bits, tinsel, snow, lights, pinecones and cinnamon sticks are all brilliant, but you could use anything you have (just make sure you supervise the child the whole time). You could even do a sensory walk, crunching leaves, looking at lights or feeling frost.
Another winner with toddlers upwards is playdough and there are loads of recipes for making your own, you can even get your little one involved in making it. You can theme it using glitter, festive food essence (mint or orange work well) or cinnamon or mixed spice added in. If you’ve got Christmas cookie cutters they can be fun, or pipe cleaners, other ideas are things you could find out and about like acorns, big leaves or small stones or sticks.
There are lots of local events around for those Christmassy vibes – have a look around your local area, or check out our listings here. A favourite, free, one of mine is to wrap up warm and go for a walk on the beach.
Making your own wrapping paper can be a great craft and cost-saving too! Use a potato or sponge to cut out a design (cookie cutters are good for this) and then print, with paint, all over the paper. You can use any paper for this, but newspaper works well, as does packaging like that from Amazon – good for reusing things too!
This one can be as simple or extravagant as you like, but make a standard meal or snack more Christmassy with some theming… Think little signs, whippy cream waffle beards for Santa, special packaging (stick some pictures on…) or rename foods eg. Cheerios make great elf doughnuts…
