Christmas Decoration Workshop

Christmas and the weeks before it is a special time at Germany For Kids. Snow, ice-skating and crisp frosty air outside, hot drinks and cozy atmosphere inside Schloss Leizen. At this time our creative sessions turn towards encouraging the children to produce individual and unique seasonal decorations to take home as gifts.

As this is my first post on our blog, a quick introduction; my name is Ari and I’m the director of activities and creative expression here at Germany For Kids.

Our goal for both activities and also creative expression is to draw from a weekly theme / module so that everything the kids participate in forms part of a fun learning experience where they may not even realise they are acquiring knowledge and skills.

Naturally as we approach the holiday season, winter and celebratory themes are part of our schedule, when we have our Christmas decoration workshops, their are no goals, rather we teach age-appropriate techniques and skills and provide the resources for the kids to express themselves individually. In this way they produce unique pieces that give them a feeling of achievement and identity.

As you can see from the below slideshow, I take great care to prepare for the session, with multiple techniques of varying difficulty available for the children in our small groups to try. We also encourage the use of “found” items, things that may otherwise be left unused, plus natural materials including wood, fruit and spices for the Seasonal smell and atmosphere.

At the end of the session, children add their decorations to our traditional German “Tannenbaum” alongside decorations from previous groups, each (non-perishable) decoration is carefully labeled so it can be taken home as a gift and memento of their time at Schloss Leizen.

Fun Fact: Did you know the tradition of the Christmas Tree originates in Germany? it was brought to the English-speaking world by Queen Charlotte of Mirow (just 17 miles from Schloss Leizen), wife of King George III of England.

I hope that you like what you see in the gallery below, if you have any suggestions or ideas for us please leave a comment.

Published by

Aranka Churchill-Berec

Director of Activities and Creative Expression

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