Hope you had a Splendiferous Christmas! - Recycled Paper Ornaments

Fancy Nancy starred in a new book this holiday season called Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas. The book is currently #1 on The New York Times Children's Bestseller List. According to Fancy Nancy, "Only one word describes how magnificent, joyous, and sparkly Christmas morning is -- splendiferous!" While we haven't had a chance to read the book yet, our Christmas was all of the above and more. We attended a candlelight Christmas Eve church service, sang several carols and listened to the Bible account of Jesus' birth. Christmas morning the kids excitedly opened their gifts from Santa, oohing and aahing over each present. We merrily ate our Christmas lunch of turkey and ham at my brother's home and enjoyed the time with family (but all felt sad Great-grandpa and Great-grandma couldn't make it due to illness.) After opening more gifts we frosted and decorated sugar cookies and added plenty of sprinkles. Fancy Nancy would certainly approve!

We still have one more celebration to go, but already the wrapping paper and trash has started to pile up. Time to recycle some of it into pretty ornaments for our tree!

Paper Cranes
I made paper cranes out of Fancy Nancy wrapping paper and other used scraps of paper. Each person saved a scrap of their favorite gift paper, and I cut squares and folded them into paper cranes. Paper cranes make beautiful ornaments appropriate for gift giving. You can find step by step directions at wikiHow "How to Fold a Paper Crane." After you master the first one, they don't take long to fold! The paper crane is an international symbol of peace.



Paper Ornaments
The Fancy Nancy website at HarperCollins Children's includes several printable activity guides that correspond with the books (Click Parents - Party Central - Party Kit). A Fancy Nancy: Splendiferous Christmas kit link can be found there or use the direct link to view the downloadable pdf file: http://www.harpercollinschildrens.com/kids/gamesandcontests/features/fancynancybooks/pdf/SplendiferousChristmas.pdf. Page nine, "It's Ornamental" provides directions for an easy, homemade paper ornament craft. We recycled old Christmas cards and gift bags to make our ornaments, and they are splendiferous indeed!



(Disclosure: We received a gift of free wrapping paper from HarperCollins this holiday season (but not a copy of the book). I am an Amazon affiliate and may receive a very small commission for products purchased through my Amazon links.)