Christmas Quiet Time Bags

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Both of my kids gave up naps when they were still pretty young.  With my oldest I lucked out; she was content to play with some of her toys in her room for a half hour, with momma checking on her every so often.  It wasn’t a nap, but at least she had “quiet time” and that helped some.  And since her baby brother still napped then, I got a half hour to myself each day.

Then the youngest gave up naps.

He thought it was way too fun to keep leaving his room during quiet time…  Which meant I spent my half hour putting him back in his room over and over and over again.

Something had to change.  Thankfully I stumbled upon the idea of quiet time bags/boxes!

 

That’s a whole post in itself.  Our quiet time bags and boxes (we have some of each, whatever the items fit best in) have evolved over the time that we have had them.  But today I want to show off the Christmas quiet time bags I’ve started!

I have to thank my son for the idea, really…  At Halloween time  (the day before Halloween) he asked for a Halloween quiet time box.  Momma couldn’t pull that off in such short notice!  But I did come up with a very small one for Thanksgiving and started thinking of what could go in a Christmas one.

I opted to make 2, to eliminate squabbles over who gets the Christmas bag each day.

Since this momma is cheap thrifty,  I just used gallon-sized zipper food bags for the Christmas quiet time bags.  (For our other quiet time bags I have reused zipper bags that toys have come in, and even one from a set of sheets.)

 

The first bag has a maze from a Christmas coloring book (I glued it to cardboard to help it last; they can use their finger to do it.), a felt tree with tiny pom-poms and felt “ornaments” to decorate it with, a puzzle made out of an old Christmas card, and 2 small Dora ornaments.  There is also a homemade memory game using Christmas stickers (click here for how to make your own) and a set of “presents” drawn on cardstock with the numbers 1-12 for them to put in order.

Christmas busy bag

The second bag contains a set of stacking boxes that can be put together to make Santa, a cardboard “pie” to be put back together, a small Christmas board book, and a snowflake matching game. (Once again that Christmas coloring book was handy!)  There is a snowman from the same coloring book that I glued to cardboard and made construction paper pieces for so they could create their own snowman.  Thinking of my oldest, I included the start of what my mom always called a “God’s eye” ornament, where you wrap yarn around 2 craft sticks.  Finally, there is a red baby sock, stuffed with cotton balls to pull out and then “stuff the stocking” again.

holiday busy bag

I was pretty happy with the bags when I finished putting them together last night.  I figured I could add to them as other ideas pop into my head…

This morning one of the bags acquired 2 Christmas finger puppets I forgot we had and later found in a box of Christmas stuff.  The other bag got a cardboard lacing tree.  All you need is a piece of cardboard cut into a triangle.   (You can’t tell, but I colored it green and added a few ornaments with crayon.)  Punch holes along both sides of the tree and add a piece of yarn to thread through the holes like garland.  Christmas busy bag

 

So, since I’d love to add a few other items to keep them interested (and busy) with their new Christmas quiet time bags, what would you include?

 

 

Shared on Delicate Construction, Ladybug Blessings, Milk and Cuddles, No Time for Flashcards

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Comments

  1. Cut green foam circles in various sizes. put a small hole in the middle. Include beads and a pipe cleaner and they can thread Christmas trees. It might be better as a craft the first time and then they can take it apart and experiment.

    • Definitely sounds interesting…. I think you are right, it would be good to do it all together one time first. I’ve found that to be true with a few quiet time ideas I’ve had. Otherwise, they just leave it in the bag.

  3. Those are some cute ideas! Not sure what else I’d include. Maybe just a few more felt things like ornaments or gingerbread men or maybe a lace-up candy cane.

    I was wondering if you’d like to link-up this (and any other Christmas-y post you have and want to link-up) to our 12 Days of Christmas {Goodies} link-up? If you don’t have time or don’t want to, I totally understand, but I thought I’d ask. 🙂 This is just a really cool I idea I think others would enjoy seeing.

    Have a great week!

  4. When my girls were little I used to clean out a plastic juice container (one of the single serves) fill it with rice and then hide mini ornaments of different shapes in it. They had to find all of them on the list. I took a picture of each and then made a list and printed it out from our computer. They loved it!

    • Love that! I actually made 2 for traveling in the car… Never thought of doing one with tiny Christmas items…. And having a picture of the items is a smart idea!

  5. What a great idea! My guy is three and just starting to maybe give up naps. We’re both not sure yet. So far, he’s been pretty content to play on his bed or look at books. But I see one of these in our very near future.

    • Some days mine could just look at books. Other days…. And the quiet time bag isn’t the only thing he will do in that time (because I’ve increased it to almost and hour now…), but it’s a good jumping off point for them both.

    • I’d love to put in some coloring pages! Unfortunately I can’t trust the crayons in one of their rooms…. We have had a few recent incidences where the Magic Eraser came in handy!

  8. I love this idea I have done some busy bags and never thought of doing a Christmas inspired one. Thank you for the idea. I am a newest follower and will be coming back.

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