Christmas tree fairies and hot chocolate

It was a beautiful, cold sunny day today so we met up with friends and their 3 year old son in town, and we all went to see the reindeer on display as part of the Christmas celebrations in our town. Our favourite was a 7-month-old white calf called Gavin. They were eating lichen and we found out lots about their antlers. 

Reindeer

We spent a lot of time outside  today, going up on the Ferris wheel and playing in the play park. A lovely hot chocolate with marshmallows was a well deserved treat, and it was also one of our Christmas garland countdown activities.

View from the top of the Ferris wheel

Hot chocolate and marshmallows

Our recipe is for a thick, Spanish-style hot chocolate, courtesy of Jamie Oliver. This makes a mix, which you can keep in a jar and re-use as required, or give as a gift.

• 2 tablespoons Horlicks

• 2 tablespoons cornflour

• 3 tablespoons icing sugar

• 4 tablespoons quality organic cocoa

• 100g quality dark chocolate (70% cocoa solids), finely grated

• a pinch of ground cinnamon

• a pinch of sea salt

For 1 pint of semi-skimmed milk, you need 5 heaped tablespoons of the hot chocolate mix. Heat up the milk (don't let it boil), then add the hot chocolate mix and stir over a medium heat until the chocolate starts to thicken. Ju likes to help stir the hot chocolate with a wooden spoon. For the children, I dilute the hot chocolate half and half with cold milk, which makes it slightly weaker and cools it down instantly. For Darling Him, I add a pinch of chilli powder. We all add some mini-marshmallows for an extra special treat and then it's time to enjoy...

Christmas tree fairies

We also made some quick tree fairies today, using wooden pegs. I cut out circles from some glittery Christmas drape which we got from the pound shop. I made a small hole in the middle, through which Lilo and Ju pushed the head of the wooden peg through.

Ju pushes the wooden peg through the hole

We then wrapped a white pipe cleaner around the neck and the fabric, and twisted it to the back, then wound the two ends of the pipe cleaner into 2 fairy wing shapes.

Creating the fairy wings with pipe cleaner

Then we glued some poylester filling on the head to make the hair and a silver bead chain around the waist to create the body and the skirt.

Glueing on hair and creating the waist of the fairy

It was then time for Ju to draw on some eyes and a smiley mouth with Sharpie marker pens and our beautiful tree fairies were ready.

Ju draws eyes and mouth on his fairy

Lilo's tree fairy

The boys enjoyed putting the fairies on the branches of our Christmas tree, although they first had to work out how to slot the branches between the fairies' peg legs.

It's hard work putting the fairy on the tree

Ju's tree fairy

This activity was featured in: