deck the halls with boughs of holly

Yesterday I went in to my daughter's kindergarten classroom to share some Irish Christmas traditions.  I focused on holly since that is a common decoration used in Ireland during the holidays.  You can read about what I did last year here.    This year I decided to have the children make tiny hanging arrangement with fresh cut holly and greens.  I used recycled baby food jars and tied some green floral wire around them as a handle.  I loved how the children came up with the great idea to float the holly berries in the water- it looked beautiful! After they made their arrangements they choose ribbon to tie around the jar and also used some tiny cards (that were punched with a holly cutout) to write Merry Christmas in Gaelic.  For the snack I made some holly wreaths with m&m berries.  We listened to some Irish Christmas music and it was a really fun way to spend the morning.

Nollaig Shona Duit

My daughters pre school asked if any parents wanted to come in to share a family tradition. Since my husband comes from Ireland I decided to go in to share an Irish Christmas tradition, decorating with holly. Since holly is poisonous I brought some in to show the children but used faux holly for our project. I found these wonderful clear, plastic ornaments at Michael's craft store. I also picked up the silk holly and red glittered berries along with some white glitter. At school I showed the children pictures of houses decorated with holly, taught them how to say Merry Christmas in Gaelic, and then gave them directions for making the ornaments. The children painted the fabric holly leaves with watered down glue and sprinkled them with glitter. When they had dried I pushed them in the ornament with a long wooden skewer and added some red ribbon and "Nollaig Shona Duit." I also brought in some Irish Christmas music to listen to while they nibbled on cupcakes that I decorated with candy holly (spearmint leaves and red m&m's.)