Book Club: The Gingerbread Pirates

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I love reading children's Christmas books. There is a great deal of excellent choices and so many retellings of famous stories, too. Our library usually puts out books for each holiday on top of the children's bookshelves but for Christmas they have so many that they displayed them in a book rack. How exciting to pick through the books to find new ones to read with our children!

Our son picked out The Gingerbread Pirates by Kristin Kladstrup and illustrated by Matt Tavares. This story is about Jim and his Pirate cookie captain that he creates with his mom. Jim and his mom bake cookies for Santa but instead of regular Gingerbread Men, they make pirate cookies!

During the night, on Christmas Eve, Jim's favorite Pirate cookie captain goes on an adventure and meets Santa. In the morning, Jim finds a wonderful new Pirate ship with a wooden captain with a cutlass and a peg leg to pilot the ship.

There are number of fun ways to expand upon the reading of the story with your children.

Baking

This year why not be creative with your cookie decorations? You can make unique characters instead of just regular Gingerbread men. Make pirates, ninjas, astronauts, cowboys and cowgirls, and all kinds of "people" using your cookie cutters.

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Crafts

Using the same basic Gingerbread cookie cutter, you can create your very own pirate salt dough ornaments.

We made our own ornaments using:

• 1 cup flour
• a little more than 1/2 cup of water
• 1/2 cup of salt 

We stirred the mixture till it formed a dough and then used a rolling pin to roll out the dough on wax paper. I recommend sprinkling a little extra flour so that the dough doesn't stick to the wax paper or the rolling pin.

I didn't bake the ornaments right away but let them air dry for a day. I finally baked them at the lowest setting on my oven checking them every half hour. I let them bake for about 2 hours.

One of the characters in the story is called Dots. 

The next day we painted them and finally added the ribbon so we can hang them from the tree! 

Family Discussion Time

After reading The Gingerbread Pirates, use the following questions to spur conversation with your children:

• What was your favorite toy or present to find under the Christmas tree? 
• What adventure would your Gingerbread men go on? 
• What type(s) of cookie(s) do you leave for Santa? 
• What are your favorite type of cookies? 

Do you have a favorite Christmas story to read with your little ones?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Ornaments

Materials 

• Toilet Paper Rolls (2 needed for one set of ornaments) 
• Green Paint
• Paint Brush
• Googly Eyes
• Materials for masks (tissue paper, felt, construction paper, ribbon) 
• Glue 
• Ribbon (for hanging) 
• Hole Punch

Steps 

1. Gather materials.
2. Paint toilet paper rolls (inside and outside).

3. After they dry, cut in half.

4. Cut material for masks.
5. Glue masks onto toilet paper rolls.

6. Glue googly eyes onto masks.

7. Punch holes in top of toilet paper rolls.

8. Cut and then tie ribbon for hanging through holes.

9. Hang on tree.

My husband was a fan of the cartoon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle so when I saw Happy Hooligan's craft, I knew it would be perfect for my son to make for him.  As we were already painting some toilet paper rolls green for trees, this was a breeze to add a few more to be painted.

There are lots of different Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Ornament crafts to make for your tree.  Check out these three different options.

Your Modern Family

colacerise on Deviant Art 

I heart arts n crafts 

Personally, I have seen a few minutes of the original series but haven't really watched any of the sequels or reboots. There is a huge selection on Amazon of DVDs as well as toys.  (affiliate links)

Crafts: Icicle Ornaments

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Materials

• Pipe cleaners 
• Beads (about 12 per pipe cleaner) 
• Pencil 

Steps

1. Select the color or colors or pipe cleaners and beads you would like to use for this project.

2. Provide your child with a tray of the beads.

3. Put on one bead at the end of each pipe cleaner and twist.

4. Your child should now string on about 10 beads onto the pipe cleaner.

5. When your child is finished, attach one bead onto the end and twist to ensure they do not fall off.

6. Twist around a pencil to create the 'icicle' effect. Take care when wrapping around pencil, so that too many beads do not bunch up in one place.

7. Remove from pencil, keeping the twisted shape.  My son told me that the icicle ornaments looked like worms as they were being pulled off the pencil.

8. Hang on your tree.

Depending on how long your child takes picking out what beads to use, the entire project should take an hour or so.

I was inspired by Happy Hooligan's Icicle Ornaments and the Kids' Craft Room has a different approach in their Sparkly Icicle Ornaments.