Decorating for the holidays and planning creative gifts does not have to cost a fortune. Sometimes the best memories are made when we look back at a simpler more basic time of life when a bowl of popcorn and cranberries were all the necessary ingredients needed to create a festive occasion. Last week while the kids were off school, we decided to try our hand at some old fashioned holiday traditional crafts and activities – popcorn balls, garland and gifts!

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Popcorn Balls, Garland and Gifts

Popcorn Balls

Making popcorn balls was a fun experiment, but it didn’t turn out quite like we had hoped. We popped up the corn, printed the recipe from the JOLLY TIME website and gathered our ingredients. The kids had a ball trying to make the perfect popcorn ball. We even had this nifty popcorn ball maker that we received. I’m sure there must be a trick to making a perfect popcorn ball, but we don’t know it. If you are an expert at creating popcorn balls, we’d love to hear from you. We finally decided that Popcorn Bowls taste just as good! They’re just not as pretty!

Popcorn and Cranberry Garland

I have to admit I’ve never actually made a popcorn garland. So the kids and I found it quite fun to talk about how in the “olden days”, people would create their Christmas decorations with what they had. So we popped the popcorn, threaded a needle and started stringing the popped corn and cranberries. The first string didn’t last very long. My son came by and decided it looked too good to save. He had finished off the garland strand in just a few minutes. Guess we’ll just make more!

Popcorn Gifts

I love the idea of using canning jars to store collections, seeds and odds and ends in the off season when they’re not being used for canning, but I’ve never actually used them to give gifts. JOLLY TIME included some preprinted labels to put on the top of the canning jar. We poured in the popcorn kernels, added the twine and the holiday greeting. This will be a perfect gift to add in a holiday bag with a DVD! What a simple but fun gift!

The best part of our day was spending time together. We made quite a mess and even more memories! I sure love hearing them laugh as we try out new-to-us experiments.

Do you use popcorn to decorate or create gifts? I’d love to hear your best tips or fun ideas!