Noël now!

Speaking French while celebrating Christmas with your kids?  You'll need these sites!

Your kiddos' jaws will drop when they get a personalized video message from this jolly old elf!

Writing letters to Santa Claus is so old-fashioned, don't you think?

Well, no.  Actually, I love snail mail, but since my children love their screen time, I'm thrilled to discover this website, "Père Noël Portable," which will send a personalized video message (for free) to your child in French or in English!

You input information about the child (age, hair color, eye color), what behavior issues you wanted her to work on this year (selecting from drop-down menus of everything from "obeying your preschool teacher" to "obeying your stepmother" to "eating all your vegetables" to "going to bed on time" and so forth--and these are just the toddler options, because there are different choices for different ages), what she wants for Christmas, and so on. You can also include photos and indicate what they represent--a trip you took this year, a new arrival in the family, and so forth.

The website then puts together a video of a jolly, gentle Santa greeting your child and researching her in his "grimoire" (complete with the photos you uploaded). Santa compliments the child on her good behavior (or chastises her for not being a good girl, if you select that option) and generally says lots of Santa-riffic things.

The versions of the video letter for older children are longer and begin with a tour through an area of Santa's Workshop at the North Pole.

sample virtual Christmas card in French from Domedaire

Then, your child can write back to Santa by sending him a free e-card in French via Dromedaire!

une lettre au Père Noël

Or, challenge your 21st century child to write and mail a real letter to Santa with his adorable free printable template!  The layout is cute and the structure makes it easy to fill out--the kid checks off how well she has been behaving (from "très très sage" to "presque sage"), draws pictures of two presents she's hoping for, and even offers gift suggestions for loved ones.

lots of other French printable letters are also available

Next, here's a fun resource for those of you who celebrate Christmas and speak French with your children: an online advent calendar with a song for each day! The sound quality isn't great--they are recordings from children's concerts, probably in school auditoriums--but the lyrics appear onscreen along with simple animations. And since it's a site from Québec, it also includes a song about the national dish, la tourtière!

Via that same site, you can also visit the Train de Noël, which features more songs by school choirs with onscreen lyrics and very simple animations.  Most are in French, with some bilingual ("Lumières de Noêl") and even some French translations of traditional English songs ("Promenade en traineau," for example, which we know as "Sleigh Ride").

You'd prefer to hear adults singing carols professionally?  Okay, then head over to La neige folle, a Christmas-season-only online francophone radio station (November 20-January 31), featuring holiday songs from the past 100 years.

(I meant to poke around YouTube to find some existing French holiday playlists and some clips of French children singing and celebrating Christmas, but that'll have to wait for another day!  Perhaps in the meantime someone will share their YouTube or other online resources in French about the holidays?)

The always-reliable momes.net offers a variety of high-quality Christmassy kids' activities and printables in French--recipes, crafts, songs, stories (including "Le Père Noël est en Prison"!) and other activities in French--while their parents can read the holiday activity suggestions at Vos questions des parents.  (After reading several of the stories to my kids, however, I should add that I'm underwhelmed.   But they're free!)

(I like to print out worksheets and coloring pages like this crossword puzzle and this word search and this roll-the-die coloring page, add a patterned cardstock cover, and make them into a personalized workbook for Griffin.  Our local copy shop can add a plastic spiral binding to keep them together, but staples or three-prong folders work well enough too.)

I'll close here for now--my kiddos are asleep, so I will seize the moment to wrap their presents without risk of interruption--but promise to keep adding relevant links to my "Noël pour enfants" page on Pinterest!  And would you please share your favorite French holiday resources and books in the comments below?

lots of fun French Christmas websites, in case I get more ambitious

Merry merry from Colorado!

the very hungry Gwyneth

We interrupt this regularly scheduled blog to bring you a report of Gwyneth's Very Hungry Caterpillar-themed birthday party!  (Since it's based on a classic children's book, this post is at least tangentially related to my blog theme, right?)

Party appetizer: grape caterpillar skewers

This is not a new concept, of course: just do a search for Very Hungry Caterpillar Party on Pinterest and an overwhelming number of ideas for decorations, foods, and favors will assault you with the ferocity of a thousand swirling Martha Stewarts sculpting a butterfly piñata out of twelve years' worth of carefully-stored-in-archival-quality-lignan-free-paper belly button lint, hand-dyed in a rainbow of hues from organic beet peelings, kale leaves, and harvested-under-a-blue-moon fairy wings.

Me, I'm not crafty like that.

Therefore, we rented a shelter at a local city park so we wouldn't have to do much in terms of decorations, and I put my energy into food, activities, and the favors.

(Mmmm...caterpillar food!)

Rather than staying scrupulously faithful to the book --I didn't really want to prepare one apple, two strawberries, three plums and so forth all the way through a slice of pizza, a sausage, and a cupcake--I started with several book-inspired salads and appetizers.

"In the light of the moon, a little egg lay on a leaf."

Rather than serving the fruits separately, I just threw them into a salad.  

(For the dressing, I infused fresh ginger into a simple syrup and added lots of fresh mint.) 

Butterfly Pasta Salad--featuring farfalle pasta
(shaped like butterflies!)

"Then he ate through one nice green leaf,
and he felt much better."

Sandwich supplies

Dessert was easy: Caterpillar Cakes!

(store-bought cupcakes spread with store-bought icing
into which I mixed green and yellow food coloring)

As for the decor, I ran out of time to do what I really wanted (making yard decorations out of green paper plates stapled to chopsticks and inserted in the ground at appropriate lengths to look like the iconic famished creepy-crawly).  But since the party was outside, decorations weren't even necessary.

We did set the atmosphere with some insect-inspired children's music:

silly, catchy songs about bugs--educational, but the kids don't even realize they're learning!

And we did a craft: a "sticky table," using adhesive contact paper (backing removed) taped to a table. I provided little crafty doodads, like paper leaves, sequins, plastic grass from sushi plates, pompoms, pipe cleaners, and colorful caps from squeezy baby food pouches, and the party-goers made 3D scenes that stuck to the paper--even on a windy Colorado day!

la chenille la plus longue de Lafayette !

The "sticky table" scenes then became a fun background for blowing out candles
 and serving the cupcakes.

la chasse aux papillons

Our main activity (besides eating, of course, and running around like small wild beasts) was a butterfly hunt, which involved donning the antennas that Griffin had helped prepare,

pompoms, pipe cleaners, and plastic headbands from the dollar store

grabbing some butterfly nets (also courtesy our local $1 establishment), and running after tissue-paper-and-pipe-cleaner butterflies

take a small rectangle of tissue paper,
pinch the center together,
and wrap a piece of pipe cleaner around it
so that the antennas are sticking up

that another (tall) parent threw into the air on this very windy day.  

Gwyneth's fête was magical!  (Other than the fact that the birthday girl participated in almost nothing except the eating of the cake.  Oh well--she was only turning two.)

I also put a ridiculous amount of time and energy into creating the favors: spiral-bound workbooks about caterpillars.  With the help of Google and Pinterest, I printed out coloring pages, mazes, seek-and-finds, easy crossword puzzles, poems about bugs, and other activity sheets, then had them copied and bound.

(I hate all that plastic crap and candy that guests typically receive in the 
ubiquitous child's birthday party favor bags.)

Martha Stewart, eat your heart out!  I'll take a creative and (semi) educational kid's party with store-bought cupcakes any day.  (Although, apparently, it will take me 15 months to finish blogging about it.)

Bonne Année 2014!

Wishing you many wonderful adventures in the new year.  Stay warm!

cousins dans la neige

happy holidays and happy new year from G & G & me

Christmas tree decorating logic according to a four-year-old boy: if one ornament on a branch is good, then a dozen ornaments on one branch is excellent

Tatie Elizabeth's peanut butter bark: a family tradition (my in-laws and I spend a day in December making 10+ kinds of candy to distribute to friends, colleagues, neighbors, and teachers) 

Griff and Carl always offer to serve as quality control 

Christmas in Colorado: it's always permissible to pause in the present-opening to read a new book

nope, still can't manage to capture all four cousins smiling for the camera (especially after opening presents)

Gwyneth in the dirndl I wore in 1975

Christmas in Wisconsin (chez mes parents): Tonton Matt looks on approvingly as Griffin receives his very first football

Gwyn on Grammy's harpsichord

Wishing you good cheer, good health, good books, good friends, and good times in 2013.  Thank you all for reading this blog!

joyeux anniversaire, mon grand petit Griff!

My sweet, beautiful, curious, running-leaping-dancing-singing, bibliophile boy is four years old.  Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Griffin's first time on snowshoes, February 2011

Snakes and Ladders meets Twister?

Cracking a confetti-filled Easter egg on Granddad's head

Griffin's first pinata at the library's Dia de los Ninos celebration 

Springtime smiles at the park

Frolicking in the fountain at Festival Plaza in Old Town Lafayette 

He composes, plays, sings, and dances, often simultaneously.

Up to something...

Bear is in Griffin's tummy, just like Maman's bebe 

Skeptical of this whole petite soeur business 

Chasing a train

Construction, followed by destruction.  Repeat ad infinitum.  

Genuinely pleased to have a petite soeur to celebrate Noel with

Griffin and his cousin Carl (now six!) celebrate their birthdays.

Griffin's birthday party, shared with two friends with nearby birthdays, January 2012

And Gwyneth is already six months!