I am in charge of what we call the Mitten Tree, a Christmas event for Girl Scouts ranging from Daisies to Cadettes. There will probably be about 50-100 girls in attendance. I am on a tight budget. I need low cost ideas for activities.
This page is a list of responses.
gift exchange - each girl brings a gift to exchange within her age level
sing Christmas songs
decorate the leader - put tinsel, garland, etc on leader to make her look like a Christmas tree. Best one wins a prize.
rather than a gift exchange, that gifts be collected to be donated to charity. Our troop just had a JGL birthday party.. the girls were all asked to bring a gift..no $ value set, just "whatever you would normally bring to a friend's birthday party"..those gifts were then donated to the Ronald McDonald House
Christmas trivia contest
If you can get big sheets of newsprint or butchers' paper, you could have a station to make wrapping paper (crayons and markers would be fine if you didn't want to get into the mess of sponge stamps and paint - plus you don't have to wait for it to dry) and then wrap the gift and label appropriately (your charity may want it label for boy or girl, plus age range).
Here are ideas for recycling other material, allowing you to do this on the cheap.
1. Grocery Store: ask the produce manager for berry baskets. (They are usually willing to give you some if you ask) *You can weave strips of material through the sides and make a cute basket. It's a good size for 3.5 diskettes [B: Colors and Shapes] *If you cut out the bottom, you can paint and sprinkle with glitter and you have snowflakes
2. Collect tin cans (clean, no label) or frozen juice can ends *Cover with an old map and you have a pencil holder. Could also use Christmas Cards or wrapping paper... *Fill with ice and freeze. The hammer nails through the sides and top in a design (the can will be upside down, so the 'top' was the bottom) -place over a candle. [You can also poke holes in frozen juice can ends, hang on a string and use in a window or the tree] [B: Me and My Shadow, J: Popular Arts] *Paint. Fill with dirt and a plant. [B: I think Plants has a step like this]
3. CD's (like AOL, etc. that you get in the mail) *Glue labeled sides together, leaving shiny side out. Decorate with stickers or paint [cut sponges into shapes and decorate that way] [B: Colors and Shapes]
4. Nature crafts:
*Collect Sweetgum or sycamore balls and make gum ball racers
5. paper towel roll:
6. yarn
7. old mattress pads - make snowmen ornaments by cutting into snowman shape and stitching up side - then decorate.
make mitten swaps
collect empty food boxes (cereal boxes, etc. small sizes, all shapes) - have each group work together to build the biggest tower they can build using all the boxes (Everytime I have done this the girls have loved it - it is a NO COST fun activity!)
make and fill Christmas stockings to be given to a children's ward, daycare, etc
Cut out christmas tree shapes and let the girls decorate them using markers, crayons, glitter, sequins etc. Then we made a paper chain equal to the number of days until christmas. Attach to the tree and remove 1 link everyday until christmas.
Teach them how to cut out snow flakes. Maybe an office supply store will donate paper. I was amazed at how many girls did not know how to cut out round snowflakes.
3 popsicle Sticks
small red pompom
Tacky glue
2 wiggle eyes
Pre-dye the sticks using brown basket dye. Have the girl make the letter "A"
out of the sticks. Turn so the top of the "A" faces the girls. Glue the point
of the "A" and glue the cross bar in place. Glue two wiggle eyes on the
crossbar and a red pompom on the point.
A ribbon can be added to turn it into an ornament.
Make a christmas ornament. Some have been posted on the list or make a
Christmas ball using hollow plastic balls, take a polaroid of each girl,
cut out to outline, place inside ball with florists clay and add some
small decorations. Put date on back or picture and glue ball shut.
Parents love this one......
Get a bunch of grapevines and make small 6" wreaths. decorate with
small plastic mistletoe, berrys pointsettas and ribbon pieces....
Decorate candle holders, cut small piece of wood and drill for candle,
decorate with plastic garland cut into small pieces and made into circles
to cover base of candle holder...
Sleigh rides. Get a large wagon, have two older girls wear reindeer
antlers and give rides in the "sleigh".. Decorate the sleigh with painted
cardboard sides and back...
Make a snowman out of marshmallowas and tooth picks.
Riendeer face painting, primarily a bright red nose......
With baby food jars and a few small items added, fill 2/3 full of
water with few drops of bleach , seal lids and print label "Frosty the
snowman"
You buy a bunch of the small pretzels, almond bark (white melting
chocolate, it comes in big bricks... and readily available during the
holiday season) and shoelace licorice (red) the long thin ropes.
You melt the white chocolate in the microwave, and you dip the pretzel
into it half way. and you place it on wax paper. you do this with each
pretzel forming a pattern. The "double hump" side of the pretzel facing
out. and you place them next to each other in a circle, then you do the
same w/ a second layer on top, only you off set them ...
Why not do a service project? You could have each girl bring can goods,
stocking stuffers, or school supplies, or mittens! Then you can donate them to
Salvation Army, a local food kitchen or the like. Depending on where you are
having it, you might be able to support that organizations charity (lots of
our churches have food banks).
Make an angel out of a crushed can.
Crush a can so that the top faces one way and the bottom stays
flat. Spray
paint the whole can white in advance. Let the girls add eyes, pink cheeks with
markers (permanent works best -- won't rub off like the washable kind). Add
some moss or curly hair and use raffia, corn husks or ribbon wings. Add a
piece of ribbon to the top for a halo. The cost is minimal -- cans are free,
Walmart sells spray paint for $.87. Moss is about $2 a bag and goes a long way
and the hair is about $3 and goes even further! Use tacky glue. The raffia,
corn husks or cheaper than the ribbon, but you never know what you will find
on sale! We made LOTS of these one year and added cut up sheets of music so we
had a chorus.
String those tri-beads as candy canes or wreaths. All you need are the bags
of beads and pipe cleaners.
Using a real candy cane add brown pipe cleaners for antlers, wiggle eyes
and a piece of red or green ribbon for Rudolph!
We will carol at a nursing home or
hospice, then go back to a hall and make a craft (pre-packaged), then have
a snack. The older girls (Jr.-Sr.) are doing all this at a separate time,
then having a sleepover with movies, pizza & games.
For the sing along, do you have access to a karoke
machine? They could sing the Christmas songs this
way. We did this at an event and someone had donated
the use of the karaoke machine.
How about a service project of making tray favors?
Each year at our caroling party, we make tray favors
which are donated to Meals-On-Wheels and some of the
local nursing homes. They could be very simple. The
one we did last year was made out of felt, so would not
be very cheap, so I won't worry about describing it to
you. A very simple one would be to decorate place mats
with pictures and/or holiday greetings. You might be
able to get some place to donate the place mats.
Places like Lutheran Brotherhood and AAL which donate
placemats to our church.
Have them bring in plain sugar cookies (slice and bakes are okay) and have
plenty of frosting and sprinkles available for decorate your own cookie.
(Different troops could bring in own frosting)
Pin the nose on Rudolph.
Remember other Holiday traditions besides Christmas - you might want to
have a dreidel and play the game with chocolate coins or even paper ones.
TO make it easier on you, can you have each troop come up with an activity
at a booth or table - provide their own materials - then have the girls go
around as they wish?
.
Look at lots of Christmas crafts books - some crafts are really easy.
Glitter pinecone ornaments - if you have easy access to pinecones.
what about hot chocolate, donated by the local store/restaurant?
Open it to the community and you can get a lot more done. And if it's
indoors, do Christmas Cards for the local shelter/nursing home/kids
unit.
Decorate the Christmas Tree
Have each troop attending string up popcorn, cranberries, pasta, beads, etc.
Each troop would string up something different. For example, the older
girls could string
up the popcorn and the younger could do beads. When done, each troop
would then put their string on the tree until it is completely
decorated.
See if any of the parents can play the guitar. Perhaps he or she would
be willing to come and play some Christmas songs.
Have one of the older troops perform a skit or lead in singing.
Christmas Cards- just provide thin card or heavy paper, wrapping paper, old
Christmas cards, glue, scissors glitter, crayons or felts, scraps of
Christmas fabric and let them create their own cards.
Gift Tags- cut out shapes of, tree, bell, candy cane, angel in thick card to
use as patterns to cut out scraps of Christmas fabric or wrapping paper and
glue them to blank card, punch a hole in one corner and add ribbon or gold
or silver string
decorations- paper chains, decorate old CD's, make little angels, santas,
snowmen using pompoms or cotton balls
Christmas Food- White Christmas, a traditional Australian slice, mince pies,
marzipan fruits, chocolate moulding.
Christmas Bon Bons (Crackers)
Christmas List Game - girls have pictures of different people and must
choose an appropriate gift for mum, dad, aunty, grandma, the mailman, etc
____
____ ____
so image those were pretzels.. then when the chocolate dries, you lace
them w/ the licorice, and tie a small bow at the bottom of it. they are
fun to eat, and fun to make!
Paper Plate angels
My daughter did this at the
Brownie Breakfast with Santa last year. We don't
exactly remember how it was done, but I hope I can
explain it enough so that you can maybe figure it out
or find the directions on the Internet someplace! The
angels were cut out of a single paper plate so that you
folded the bottom half back and then taped it to form
the skirt. (I would suggest stapling as the tape did
not hold well.) The top half of the paper plate was
like the upper torso of the angel and you brought the
arms forward and glued the hands together. Then they
took another paper plate cut into thirds and used two
of the thirds to attach to the upper torso or maybe the
top part of the back of the 'skirt' as the wings. They
had the girls draw on the faces with markers before
they did any taping or gluing. I think they also had a
halo of some sort which the girls glued on.