Seasonal Craft

I remember making a yarn doll like this, with my very boyish then six-year-old. He loved little crafts like that, using real materials, with something he could actually play with as an end result (of course, for him "dolls" were "guys" who would then go on adventures and defeat many enemies). There are some with braided legs, like this, too. You can do the same thing with corn husks.

We also made sock dolls like this. ...my daughter, then 8 or 9, and her younger brother. Here's another one. They were Kateri dolls, I remember -- with black braided hair and Native American clothing -- though I don't remember why we were doing that. She had buttons for eyes, I think....they are probably still around somewhere but I haven't seen them for a long time.

Here is a felt angel.

The reason I'm looking all this up is because I was thinking of working on some sort of simple felt or cloth Nativity scene with my younger three. Last year Kieron made a Nativity scene out of Sculpey clay. I think it would be pleasant to work with textiles this year, and we certainly have some around the house to spare.

While we were visiting Shawna a few weeks back, she and her little daughter showed us how to do this flat felting -- for Jesse Tree ornaments. It is charming and quite simple to do even for little hands. I don't think we'll get around to obtaining the proper supplies this Advent for this family, but I certainly would like to try it sometime.