During the holiday season it’s great to have your child participate in the festivities and introduce them to the art of giving. Even young children can have a lot of fun by making gifts for their families – especially with a little help from Mother Nature. Here are a few ideas:

• Sachets (a project we did during the “smelling” class of “Our Senses” Nature Tots session!) – fill a small mesh bag with something nice-smelling, like dried lavender, potpourri, or you could make a holiday-scented sachet using cinnamon sticks, dried orange rind, and cloves. Pre-made bags in a variety of colors can be purchased at a craft store, making it easy for little fingers to fill and pull the top together. Cut a 3×5 index card in half and let your child decorate it with markers and stickers. Punch a hole in one corner and tie to the sachet for a little gift tag.
• Leaf bookmark – press some pretty autumn leaves and then either laminate, or stick between two sheets of contact paper and cut into a bookmark shape.
• Leaf stencil note cards – paint the backs of various leaves and press onto blank note cards so it leaves an imprint. Include a few with matching-sized envelopes for a pretty and practical gift.
• Pomanders – Start with some oranges, lemons or limes and some whole cloves. If you want to hang the pomanders, leave room for ribbons. Mark crossing paths with narrow masking tape. Stick the cloves into the fruit, about a cloves’ head distance from one another; they’ll end up closer as the fruit dries and shrinks. Roll the pomanders in equal parts of ground cinnamon and orris root (a fixative found wherever potpourri supplies are sold), and wrap each in tissue paper. Let them cure for 4 to 6 weeks, before tying ribbon around them. Hang to give off a pleasant scent!