Wrapping Presents Playtime

As I am not the most organised person, I generally leave wrapping presents to the last minute. It then becomes such a chore, as it has to be done quickly and well. Darling Him loves doing it, so he generally has the pleasure of wrapping for both of us (well, I do wrap his, to keep it a surprise). When we wrote down "wrapping presents" as one of our countdown to Christmas activities, I wasn't actually intending Ju to wrap all my presents for me. The aim was to playfully experiment with matching different sizes of paper with different object sizes, to develop coordination with sticking sticky tape while holding paper, and generally discuss the point of wrapping presents at all. Also, did I mention Ju loves folding paper at the moment?

This is what I gathered for today's playful activity:

• jam jar lids
• several packaging boxes of different sizes: small cosmetic box, light bulb box,...
• pieces of wrapping paper of different sizes (use recycled paper from previous years/gifts)
• scissors
• small strips of sellotape (lots!)
• last year's Christmas card, main picture cut into small squares
• hole punch
• pieces of wool

Ju chose a jam jar lid to wrap first, and he folded it up inside some paper. He stuck sellotape, not necessarily on the bits that needed to be stuck together, but more on top of the paper. This allowed us to discuss the point of sellotape in closing any "gaps" and fixing the folds onto the main bit of the present wrap.

Wrapping a jam jar lid

He then cut some paper with his scissors and realised that it was too small for the box he had originally intended to wrap, so he chose one of the smaller boxes.

Ju cuts paper to wrap this box but then realises that the piece of paper is too small

Wrapping paper absorbed him for quite a while and he didn't really get frustrated until the fourth wrap. 

Holding the folded paper while putting the sellotape on is tricky

He then punched one hole in each of the tags and set about threading the wool into the hole to make the tag attachment.

Punching holes through the tags

Threading wool through the tag

Present ready: " I will put it under the tree now"

Sweet Little Gifts

A tradition we used to have in my family around Christmas time was to make truffles, either for us to eat, or to give away as little gifts. When Ju said he wanted to eat chocolate as part of our Christmas countdown activities, I thought he too might enjoy making and giving truffles. We will take some to the nursery Christmas party tomorrow and also take some with us to give to family when we travel on Friday. If I can keep them hidden from Darling Him long enough, that is.


I made the chocolate preparation (a ganache) the night before, melting 300g dark 70% chocolate on a double-boiler, then mixing it in with 200 ml almost boiling double cream. I refrigerated this overnight, to allow it to set.

Melting dark chocolate over a double boiler

Mixing hot double cream into the melted chocolate

Today, we all washed our hands thoroughly twice and then I shaped little walnut-sized balls out of the chocolate preparation. I passed them to the boys to roll in the cocoa powder and then place in the little paper petit four cases.

Ju rolls the truffles in the cocoa powder

Ju puts the ready truffle in a paper case

Lilo puts the truffles on the plate

They both enjoyed doing this, although Lilo's first three went into his mouth. Hands and mouth were covered in dark chocolate and cocoa powder. This is certainly not an activity for the faint-hearted!

Truffles all ready

We made 36 truffles in total with the recipe above. They have to be refrigerated and will keep for up to a week this way.

We then made little heart boxes out of card using this template. It's a very handy one as it doesn't require glue or staples, just cutting, scoring with a butter knife and folding. Each box fits 4 truffles, which is plenty, as these truffles are very dark and rich. The boxes are a bit too fiddly for little hands, but older children might be able to make them by themselves. Ju decorated them a little bit. I wrote down the ingredients and the use before date on the box.

Heart box template all cut out

Box with 4 truffles

Ju shows off the box

I also have started making "marrons glaces", which are candied chestnuts, which are very Christmassy sweet gifts. However, they take 3 days to make according to this recipe I am following. So here is the progress so far: I have boiled the chestnuts and peeled them.

Boiling chestnuts

Chestnuts all peeled

I am now ready to introduce them to their first syrup. Wish me luck and I'll keep you posted about the result on Friday!

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