Holiday Gift Ideas (4 & 5 Yr Old)

My daughter and I dipped large pretzels in chocolate (with sprinkles!) for a Christmas gift for everyone in her 4th grade class. We bought the large Snyder's pretzels (the chunky ones). I made a chocolate coating of 2 cups chocolate chips (semi-sweet, milk, or white) mixed with 1-2 tsps of shortening. You can do it in the microwave, 1 minute on high, stir, then 30 seconds, stir, repeat until completely melted. You can dip the pretzels (on top side only) or just drizzle the pretzels. We found the drizzling is easier. Put a cookie rack (the cooling kind) on top of a cookie sheet. Place the pretzels on the rack. Melt the chocolate then drizzle it on the pretzels. Sprinkle with decortive candies immediately as the chocolate begins to set up fairly quickly. These are always fun to make and receive.

Oh, and if you want to do a different twist on this, just get some great colored plastic spoons and dip the bowl into chocolate (milk or white) and then sprinkle. Give with an individual package of hot chocolate for a warm winter treat. These are good to give to mommies, too!

Hair stuff and little bracelets should be popular with that type of crowd! I would go bling for the dancers. Not too much, just a fluffy hair thing and a bracelet or a necklace and some stickers. With my family, we have a tradition of baking several varieties of cookies and then delivering them around the neighborhood, singing christmas songs and wearing santa hats. That is always fun and it delights our neighbors! I try not to take the cookies to their classes, however, 'cuz then it gets all squished in their backpacks on the way home.

Cute hair ties and bobby pins can be made by using a little glue(hot gun if you have it will stick the longest but not so safe for your daughter so craft/school glue can be used too) and a bobby pin and fabric,lace, sparkles etc. Baking with kids is one of my favorite things to do. Bake sugar cookies or short bread to decorate with sprinkles and frosting. If you stick a popsicle stick in before baking then they are great lolly pops! Buy colored cling wrap for holiday at the grocery store and wrap them with ribbon. If you are not a from scratch baker no worries buy the pre made Pilsbury cookie dough and just cut it in shapes or circles... Have fun.

My son is in a class of 3 & 4 year kids. He always gets goodie bags of multiple cheap things. When I was going thru the stuff he brought home from the halloween party I realized that moms were spending $5-$10 per kid on lots of little 'cute' things. My son does like the stickers and of course candy. I hate both because I'm scraping pumpkin stickers off the dining room table while he is bouncing off the walls like a pinball! I decided that instead of doing a cute bag with lots of little things that I'd come up with something for the kids to 'do' to celebrate or commemorate their event. Scrap booking is really fun and you could easily put together a fun 'kit' including a picture of all the girls together. My sister (who got ALL of the creative genes) used to do classes at one of the scrapbook stores in her town. She'd put together a theme and assemble all of the cute scraps of paper, ribbons, and other cute stuff in a baggie. She would get photo books from the dollar store that have 10 or less pages. The girls can take their cool 'grown up' scrapbook stuff home and use their own pictures and assemble all of the papers, ribbons, etc. Mom's would help of course but it's a project that's fun for both and it gives the girls a 'gift' they will actually be REALLY glad they have in 30 years! If you make it your annual 'gift' then girls your daughter dances with will have picture books to giggle over and share for years.