Self-seeding Christmas decorations to keep kids busy
DECEMBER can be an exciting time for children with Christmas approaching – but with no school to keep them busy, finding things to keep them occupied can be tiring.
This fun activity will bring Christmas, the outdoors and bored children together!
What you’ll need:
Cookie cutters – as many shapes as you can get your hands on!
Suet – tell your parents to ask at your local butchery or in the meat section at the grocery store for a small bag, preferably already minced up;
Wild bird seed – the finer the seed, the easier it will be to squeeze into the different shapes and it will stick together more readily than the clumpier seeds;
Ribbon or string – look for a couple of different colours, depending on how colourful you’d like to make your hanging loops;
Wax paper – so you don’t ruin the wooden chopping board or the lovely new Christmas decorations;
Scissors – adult supervision at all times and no running with them!
Step 1
Gather all your goodies for a funfilled couple of hours making a mess – all in the spirit of Christmas – and rope mom or dad in to do their part for you by slowly melting about 500g of suet in a pot over low heat on the stove. Let it cool down a little, allowing it to get a bit thick so it’s not too hot to work with. But you should still be able to pour it so don’t let it stand for too long.
Step 2
Take one cup of birdseed and mix it into the melted, slightly hardened suet to make a thick, sticky paste.
Step 3
Lay a sheet of wax paper down on a chopping board and place your cookie cutters on the wax paper. The more shapes the merrier, unless you have a really small tree, then perhaps select just a few. Top Tip: Use cookie cutters that have big areas to fill instead of small or thin pieces to make sure the mixture holds together nicely. Pack the cookie cutters as tightly as you can with the bird seed mixture, pressing and squashing it in as firmly as possible.
Step 5
Use a straw to push a nice neat hole through the mixture where the string or ribbon will be looped through later.
Remember not to make it too close to the edge or you’ll risk the weight of the decoration breaking the loop when you hang it up.
Step 6
Place your filled cookie cutters in the fridge overnight unless impatience reigns supreme, in which case, place them in the freezer for a few hours to set properly.
Step 7
Once mom or dad are confident that the mixture has set properly, remove your cookie cutters from the fridge or freezer and gently push the birdseed ornaments out of the cookie cutters.
If need be, you can ask your parents to run a sharp knife around the edges to loosen them a bit.
Step 8
Cut your pieces of string or ribbon (about 15 – 20cm long) and loop them through the hole, tying a knot at the end.
Step 9
It’s time to decorate!
Hang your decorations on the Christmas tree and then, after Christmas, you can put them outside on the bird feeders for the birds to enjoy.
It’s not advisable to hang them on trees outside as our December and January weather is very hot and they will most likely just melt off the string and fall to the floor once a few birds have sat on them.