Winter Wishes Garland - Craft for the Kids

Disclaimer: I saw this adorable garland on one of the many decorating-themed blogs that I read, and for the life of me, I cannot figure out whose it was -- so forgive me, fellow blogger, if you read this and it was your idea, please let me know so I can give you credit for the inspiration!!

Anyway, I saw this Thanksgiving garland that someone brilliant made and it was leaves cut out of paper and they wrote all of their blessings (I believe...) on each leaf, strung it together, and hung it on their fireplace mantle. Totally cute idea, but as usual, I found it a little too late to try it out for Thanksgiving. Instead, my daughter and I made our own version for the rest of the holiday season -- "Winter Wishes" we are calling ours, and we thought we'd share it with you!

I scrounged some construction paper that my girl had miraculously not already drawn on, and I drew a mitten and a stocking -- both very simple, very basic. I cut them out and used them as templates to make many more stockings and mittens, all in different colors. My girl and I both took turns writing the name of some family members or friends on one side of each mitten or stocking, and then on the other side, we wrote a wish for them -- ex. "We wish that Ci-Ci would have a safe trip to our house for Christmas", "We wish that Emmy would get all A's on her test" (that was my girl's wish for her cousin!), etc. We took a single hole punch and punched a hole in the top of each "wish" and then I strung them together on a piece of twine. Alas, I do not have a mantle over my fireplace (yet!) but I do have these weird poles in my entryway, and I was able to make them look much more festive by tying our Winter Wish garland to them! And, now our family and friends can feel even more welcomed into home, when they walk in and see their name and their wish!

This was an inexpensive (I had all of the supplies!), fun, and easy craft to do with my daughter -- those are my favorite kinds of crafts!