Using technology to bring Santa’s magic to life!

December 9, 2016 By Pippa

Here are three Santa “gadgets” to explore this Christmas

Well I didn’t think I would write a post on the technology side of Santa – given my love of snail mail and the good old fashioned elements of Christmas. But here I am. I’m not really a fan of the phone calls from Santa … but I haven’t experienced these or read a good review, so perhaps that’s a judgement I shouldn’t have yet.

There are two really great “tracking” sites for Santa’s visit on Christmas Eve full of amazing facts, songs, fun and games to keep you all entertained and interested. Plus there is an app that actually lets you create a video of Santa visiting in your home. You get a few options of what Santa does in your home and it’s all done against the backdrop of a photo of your home. It actually looks pretty good and authentic to me. I’ve made a video to show you (although I think I should have made it at night time to make it most believable) … what do you think?

So is this fantastic technology helpful or just gimmicky (well clearly the latter – but to what extent?). Do we need to actually see Santa or track his travels or is the belief in him magical enough and all the discussion and wonder it brings with it? Does looking into the sky imagining his travels beat any tracking there could ever be? Technology allows us to do so much, but what really is required …?

Anyway have a look at these if you fancy – I’d love to know what you think.

Santa visiting our home …

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/santa-visited-me/id784700426?mt=8

Santa tracking sites:

This one looks like one for the more “techy” minds out there … from what we’ve seen and read it’s a pretty well put together and special site.

http://www.noradsanta.org

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And this from Google – beautifully put together and full of the magical north pole aspects of Santa

https://santatracker.google.com/village.html

Using Christmas, and more importantly Santa to help our children with their creative thinking

November 25, 2016 By Pippa

Creative thinking is the jewel in the crown for young children. It is also the fore runner of problem solving and intelligent thinking and the importance of it cannot be underestimated.

Christmas is the perfect platform from which to dive into the magical/ mystical waters of Santa Claus and his menagerie. Creative thinking at your finger tips!!

What we have learnt about brain development is that structured formal learning really only begins at age seven, there is a very clear and marked change in the way the brain develops at this point. SO the more creativity you can encourage before this the more you will help your child’s development in the world of the new “Knowledge”

So how can we use Christmas, and more importantly Santa to help our children with their creative thinking … a few key tips from Annie Bonifant, teacher of Gift & Talented Children, NZ

Children’s own play is far more creative than anything we can design for them so resist piling in with your knowledge. The fact finding or formal learning comes later.
Encourage creative thinking using all your open ended questions such as “I wonder what, why, how…..? If we did this I wonder what would happen? For example: ...
Allow your child to go into a world of their own. The oldest or an only child will more often have the imaginary friends, they have more time alone to develop this and are seeking company. Leave children alone and create this space for them. Imaginary friends and places are the very best.
Let them make the rules for games you play there’s plenty of time later to have to learn and stick to the letter of the law. Enjoy the moment and run with them, who cares that the red card is on the yellow pile! Let yourself go too.

Supporting future-oriented learning and teaching: A New Zealand perspective

During the latter half of the 20th century, international thinking about education began to shift to a new paradigm. This shift was driven by an awareness of massive and ongoing social, economic and technological changes, and the exponentially increasing amount of human knowledge being generated as a result. International thinking began to seriously examine questions about the role and purposes of education in a world with an unprecedented degree of complexity, fluidity and uncertainty.

Knowledge Age/”21st century is seen as something that does things, as being more energy-like than matter-like, more like a verb than a noun. Knowledge, in the Knowledge Age, involves creating and using new knowledge to solve problems and find solutions to challenges as they arise on a “just-in-time” basis. These ideas about knowledge have emerged in the world outside education-driven in large part by economic, social and political changes, often facilitated by new technologies.

Author(s): Rachel Bolstad and Jane Gilbert, with Sue McDowall, Ally Bull, Sally Boyd and Rosemary Hipkins, New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Report prepared for the Ministry of Education.

Santa loves a Christmas cake … and so might you!

November 25, 2016 By Pippa

Crowe & Co Foods is a family business with a great tradition in baking the finest fruitcakes in New Zealand since 1972.

Santa often writes about his love of Mrs Claus’ baking in his letters, he refers to the “sweet smells” coming from her kitchen window in the North Pole. Her baking is one of Santa’s guilty pleasures we think!

If you fancy an amazing Christmas Cake this year, look up Sherry from Crowe & Co in NZ. She uses an old family recipe to create her masterpieces. They look mouth wateringly incredible! Delivery anywhere in NZ – sadly no reindeer to fly them to Australia (yet) though.

We bet Santa will stay for an extra second or two at this house!

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Advent Calendars

November 16, 2016 By Pippa

How special is your Advent Calendar?

I hadn’t ever thought much beyond the chocolate advent calendars you buy at the supermarket … until last year when my eyes were opened to the glory & wonder of all that Advent Calendars can be! Let’s just say I was very quickly hooked!!

So now I’ve added “Mummy’s Advent Calendar” as one of our special Christmas family traditions. Hopefully as the years go by it will become something that the family will grow to look forward too as December 1st draws nearer – “what will she do this year!?”

Like anything so many options, and knowing me and my personality I wanted to start something with a bit of “flex” in the idea so that I could change, adapt and develop my family’s advent calendar every year – but an element of it would always feel the same. So, I fell in love with a “blank canvas” sort of approach.

With this as my starter every year I can do something slightly different that will work into my evolving style and taste. This style of blank canvas style is a perfect size for a family to share and adaptable enough so that not every day is a chocolate or present. I want my family’s Christmas to be about giving and caring for others as well as about us. So plenty of room for a bit of everything!

My colour scheme this year is “scandi” inspired (I’m so on trend!) and simplistic with the colours of red, white and gold being the focus. I think the “opening” time for 2016 will be at 6pm … hopefully when Daddy is home and we can have a family moment together.

This is what my curated selection of goodies is this year:

*A sprinkling of candy canes & chocolates (of course)

*Some special Christmas crayons (in preparation for our family craft activity)

*Good Dead Cards – there are 3 of these, and in each we have to complete the task for the day as family; collect ten pieces of rubbish from a public area and throw it in the big; do something for Fred one of our lovely elderly neighbours; choose one toy each to donate to a charity (not the one you like the least!)

*Santa letter – get our special letter/s to Santa and “post” them in our magic family envelope (and hopefully one day there will be a magical reply)

*Craft activity – each person is to write/make a Christmas card to someone special who lives far way – I’m a big believer in the magic of the written word and the hand delivered post. One big family night of colouring, pasting and writing!

*A hair clip or two – unicorn & darth vader & gold sparkles (I have two girls and some pretty amazing hair clips in my “stocking filler gifts” on my website this year that they have been dying to get their hands on)

*Photos – I choose 5 of the best family photos from the year and printed them on a square ‘instant photo’ frame and then glued them onto red foam board and attached a cute string and wooden clip so that they could be hung on the tree. Each time we open one we will talk about the moment from the year and reflect and be thankful

*Gingerbread men – I brought some sweet little cookies from a local deli and wrapped them in 3 little bags and tied them with red bows. One in each bag for all of us including the dog!

*Game – I found some really sweet little Christmas charades cards and split them into a few cutely wrapped little bundles

*Christmas story book – there is one little parcel which has a clue to find the “new” Christmas story book for the year (it will be hidden somewhere fun)

*O and on the 24th I have the special Christmas decoration for 2016 that my mother-in-law stitches the family every year … but equally it could be a special bought treasure for the tree

PHEW!! That is 24 done and dusted. I had a lot of fun deciding on all of these!!

This is my advent Calendar for 2016 …

Christmas is a special time of year and I hope our advent calendar will create family moments of “together-ness” each night that often get lost in the normal day to day routine and rhythm of life. And that these will be memories we all treasure.

I wonder where and what I will do next year?!

Some final thoughts

Where do you buy a blank canvas from?

I sold my white advent calendar on my website but, I am completely sold out … so these are my picks for other really beautiful ‘blank canvas’ style calendars:

leoandbella.com

woodandtale.com

Do I have any other ideas, or ideas for next year? Funny you should ask …

*Perhaps a large puzzle might be fun … a Christmas scene with the pieces carefully curated so that as the girls pull them out the image really forms. Perhaps I could even make one, or get one made? And a sprinkling of chocolates I think!

Do you have a dog in your family … or perhaps you know someone with a fur baby. I think these dog advent calendars are pretty amazing. I’ve sent one to my brother for his fur baby!

*I brought an advent calendar from Fluff & Bubbles plus their “set of x24 different tea bags” and sent to a friend in NZ … I really thought these were pretty sweet. They have some gorgeous, affordable calendars you can add your own things too. Perhaps there monotone print out is a good idea – so pretty and pretty easy to do (a “work” printer would print the monotone out very well …)

*And if all this really does tickle your fancy, have a look through my pinterest inspiration boards for loads more ideas!

Does Santa really write our letters?

November 14, 2016 By Pippa

Who actually writes Santa’s letters?

personalised letter from santa

Well as much as we would love Santa to directly write these letters, the job he has ahead of him makes him FAR to busy to write letters himself (gosh just imagine the stress of delivering every child’s treasured present in exactly the right colour, box, shape and model in ONE night – from the North Pole!). So instead we work with special people who have a connection and empathy with Santa. And we have a new ‘special person’ to write these letters every year.

Last year our clever helper was a old colleague of mine who now lives & works as a hot shot creative copy writer in San Fran – so a real pro! She wrote the letters for us to perfection – and then, of course, Santa approved them before we sent them out.

This year another clever hot shot, based in New Zealand who is one of those writers that you just love reading pro’s from – she has this ability to always make you feel warm and smiley with what ever you are reading. She’s a professional writer too, so she crafted and crafted this years letters and we are so pleased with them. She’s a new Mummy, which is why I think the babies first Christmas letter is just so delicious and really special this year. Makes me want to have another baby just to be able to order it and keep in my memory box! (well nearly).

We take this job pretty seriously, so the people we choose to do this work, have to be the right fit, the right calibre and have the integrity and love for Santa that we do. And of course they have to be believers too.

Here’s a couple of recent testimonials we have received:

I have been sending ‘letters from Santa’ since my eldest grandchild was born in 2009. I now have 6 grandchildren. They all love getting their letters. There is nothing better than that phone call from each of them telling me they have a letter from Santa with so much excitement in their little voices. The letters are very popular with their parents too as they prove to the children that Santa is watching and they better be on their best behaviour!!

Christine, Nov 2016

“I love the Love From Santa letters because of the fantastic wording they use – it’s all about making my children feel special ”

Fran, Nov 2106

personalised letter from santa australia

Fancy a super cute personalised letter from Santa mailed to you in December for Free?

November 12, 2016 By Pippa

Our third ‘name of the day’ has been announced today … OLIVIA

What is this – does this mean a letter from Santa for Free – what’s the catch?!

We are giving away FREE letters to children with the “name of the day”. Perhaps it won’be be your child, it might be your niece, nephew, godchild, great friend or your neighbour. Nothing like a freebie that is magical too!

Today’s name is OLIVIA **

Tell me more …

Well … we are going through the naughty and nice list as we prepare Santa for Christmas … and there are a few names that just keep popping up! So we thought we would do something fun over the next few weeks with these names, and get us all into the Christmas spirit.

There are going be special names announced regularly on our Instagram and Facebook pages – people with those special names will be eligible for a FREE letter written from Santa (he won’t even suggest you pay postage! Good ole Santa).

Why would we do this ..? We want to spread the magic of Santa and share the delight of getting something mailed to you all the way from the North Pole, with details so personal only Santa could know … it’s pretty magical and we want as many children as possible to experience this this Christmas.

Today’s name has just been announced … have a look (or here)

The conditions of entry are pretty simple (and you will be reminded of these each day)

If you have a child with the name of the day, you know someone with the name of the day OR if you are called the name of the day (and you still want a Santa letter) we will gift one one of our cute personalised letters from Santa to you (we think its obvious – but you do have to have the name of the day to be eligible)

All you have to do:

1. Make sure you are following us on Instagram

2. THEN head to our website and order you letter, use the code associated with the name (OLIVIA) at the check-out and your personalised letter from Santa will be FREE. $0. Nothing to pay.

The terms – simple really. The name and related offer is only valid for 24 hours from when it is announced. So that’s until 2pm Sunday 13th of November – Sydney time! We will only be giving away a maximum of 20 free letter per name, so it in this case – speed is the key …

Enjoy

9th November name of the day GEORGE

November 9, 2016 By Pippa

Our second ‘name of the day’ has been announced today … GEORGE

What is this?

Today’s name is GEORGE **

Tell me more …

Today’s name has just been announced … have a look (or here)

The conditions of entry are pretty simple (and you will be reminded of these each day)

All you have to do:

1. Make sure you are following us on Instagram

2. AND like us on FB

3. THEN head to our website and order you letter, use the code associated with the name (<insertname>) at the check-out and your personalised letter from Santa will be FREE. $0. Nothing to pay.

The terms – simple really. The name and related offer is only valid for 24 hours from when it is announced. We will only be giving away a maximum of 20 free letter per name, so it in this case – speed is the key!

Enjoy

Prepping your “Santa” brain

November 8, 2016 By Pippa

We’ve got some further continued Santa preparation for you …

It’s only the start of November, but we think it’s best that Santa’s helpers take a moment to just prep your mind for the start of the questions that are going to be coming your way about Santa SOON (if not already like me!). Hopefully you are lucky and you get asked the “soft” questions first!

Here’s the first few questions, the usual suspects, to at least give your mind some content! We will be posting more on this subject as the season kicks on. We will even address the really tricky question … is Santa real, and we have a super answer for you!

Four questions, that come around every year:

We don’t have a chimney so how will Santa get in to our house?

Don’t worry Santa has worked out how to get into most houses, it’s his job to deliver all the presents. He can use his magic! Optional extra: perhaps we could leave a key out of him?

How does Santa deliver all the presents to everyone in ONE night?

Well luckily for Santa he is magic, because it is a big job. He prepares all year for this. Optional extra: look at one of these two great sites to track Santa (and to helpful you explain best!). https://santatracker.google.com OR http://www.noradsanta.org

How do the reindeer fly?

They are magical reindeer … of course (I have no idea how they fly!). Santa trains them all year to be in their best and fastest form for Christmas.

How do you know which is the real Santa when you see so many in the shopping malls and shops?

Santa has a team of helpers who help him when he gets really busy, of course. Sometimes it will be the real Santa, and sometimes it will be one of his helpers

For every other question you can usually try one of these approaches:

As one of my cleverest friends always tells me about tricky situations with people on all sorts of topics … reverse the question, and get them to give you their answer first … so it would go something like this “what do YOU think darling?”

OR … it’s magic darling

And if all else fails … “you have to believe to receive darling”

+ CHANGE OF TOPIC / SNEEZE / PHONE RINGS!

Meet Santa’s clever helpers behind our puzzle & game collection

November 8, 2016 By Pippa

… there are not your ordinary puzzles!!

christmas gifts

Glottogon create products that they say are “designed to be loved, made to last and manufactured with thought to the future.” based in their Sydney studio they design puzzles, games and fun stuff for kids. Their ethos is to create truly entertaining products that inspire learning through fun, tactile and interactive play.

Sam, their head elf explains …

Kids love our bold, vibrant graphics.

Parents love that our products last longer than two minutes

We love nonsense, fun & chaos.

We love Australia – we live here, we design here, it all begins here.

We love eco** recycled paper & non-toxic inks.

We know that dreams & play can make the world a happier place … and we delight in making products that prove it!

*** our paper is “good paper” (at least Preps 3 standard) … meaning we know where the trees were grown and that they are from managed forests.

A large collection & range sold on our website … perfect stocking filler gifts for your family … hours of imaginative play together … beats an iPad (most days!). Shipping is flat-rate which means that it’s only $8.50 for as many as you like! (we thinking “shipping” is a bit of a pain, so we like this …)

stocking filler

FREE personalised letters from Santa being given out to lots of good little children!!

November 3, 2016 By Pippa

We have launched our special “name of the day” FREE giveaway today.

What is this?

Today’s name has just been announced … have a look (or here)

The conditions of entry are pretty simple (and you will be reminded of these each day)

All you have to do:

1. Make sure you are following us on Instagram

2. AND like us on FB

3. THEN head to our website and order you letter, use the code associated with the name (<insertname>) at the check-out and your personalised letter from Santa will be FREE. $0. Nothing to pay.

Enjoy