Jean Vant Hul - The Artful Year: Celebrating the Seasons and Holidays with Crafts and Recipes--Over 175 Family- Friendly Activities

No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Front cover photography by Lenka Hattaway Back cover photography by Jean Vant Hul Cover design by Daniel Urban-Brown LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA Vant Hul, Jean. The artful year: celebrating the seasons & holidays with family arts and crafts / Jean Vant Hul.First edition. Pages cm Includes bibliographical references and index. EISBN 978-0-8348-4037-9 ISBN 978-1-61180-149-1 (alk. paper) 1.

Handicraft. 2. Holiday decorations. 3. Family recreation. 4.

Seasonal cooking. I. Title. TT157.v2855 2015 745.594'16dc23 2013048889 To families celebrating together! CONTENTS This book contains page references throughout. These have been retained from the original print edition for the readers reference. Celebrating an Artful Year with Children The art of mothering is to teach the art of living to children.

ELAINE HEFFNER IN OUR HOME , we celebrate the seasons and holidays through art, crafts, and cooking together. We mix the familiar (gingerbread cookies) with the unique and creative (stained glass garlands), and were always trying out new ideas and combinations. Celebrating the seasons and holidays is a traditional way to embrace creativity together as a family, but its also much more: engaging in arts and crafts as a family is a fun way of decorating, preparing for, and learning about the holidays we celebrate while cultivating creativity and family bonds. Instead of buying all of our decorations and materials, we prefer to take the time to make our holidays more fun and meaningful by doing at least some of the preparations ourselves. The rewards? Memories and mementos, creative growth in our children and ourselves, and lots of fun! Art is often considered a solitary pursuit (although it is actually quite enjoyable to do with others), but crafting is traditionally done together (think quilting bees and sewing circles, abuzz with conversation as participants create together or side by side). I think of seasonal and holiday crafts and cooking as wonderful excuses to work with others toward a shared goal, with each member participating at his or her own level.

The baby in the high chair can bang spoons while watching and listening, the toddler can help mix, the preschooler can measure out the dried cranberries, the older child can help read the recipe and gather ingredients, and the parents can both supervise (if needed) and help create. And at the end, we have fresh-baked oatmeal-cranberry cookies that we can sit down and enjoy together. There is more savoring, bonding, learning, and memory making in this creative process than when we come home and pop open a box of store-bought cookies. Not that we wont do that, too, but the family connections in the first scenario are treasured and definitely worth making an extra effort for. In the past, families often created and connected more naturally. But now, with the fast pace of modern life, overscheduled families, and stores that sell every possible holiday item, we are hard-pressed to find time together.

We need to be more deliberate about making this happen. This is a book for families. When we become parents, we want to create special celebrations for our children. Although we ourselves stopped trick-or-treating and decorating Easter eggs as young adults, likely we will plunge back into the spirit of the holidays with enthusiasm when we have children of our own. We want to pass on cultural traditions to our kids, and we want to celebrate with them. The crafts, activities, and recipes youll find within these pages can be enjoyed by any family, no matter the size, ages, or stages of life.

Many of the activities are easily adaptable. Families with younger children, just figuring out which traditions to welcome into their lives, may need to temper their enthusiasm according to the needs of babies and toddlers. Older children can do more themselves, needing little more than guidance and encouragement. But even if your child can do something on his or her own, I encourage you to engage in these activities together as a family, building relationships and traditions in the process. We are so harried as parents, trying to juggle the impossible (fulfill our dreams, earn a living, build a career, raise children, navigate the modern world) and at the same time teach the art of living (well) to our children. We do the best we can with the resources, traditions, and energy we have at our disposal.

I believe the best we can includes celebrating the cycles of life in meaningful ways with our children, funneling the enthusiasm and excitement for the holidays into family harmony and special learning experiences. We all have the same amount of timeat the end of the year we have each just spent a year. Why not make it an artful year? In doing so, we cultivate a family environment, make memories, and form stronger family bonds while crafting, baking, and celebrating; pass on cultural traditions while continuing to evolve and try new things; nurture creativity, arguably the most important skill of the twenty-first century; consciously enjoy and celebrate all that makes each season and holiday unique; raise children who can connect with others and with nature, who know how to live life fully, and who can in turn pass on their favorite traditions to their children. I embrace the cycle of the year and use my own creativity to tease out the artfulness of the season and of my family. I seek ways to celebrate that are easy and enjoyable for everyone to do together, with the goal of growing creatively as we celebrate and connect. Thats me. You are your own best expert on your family traditions as you blend old and new and take your own family year to new artful heights.

Anything and everything can be artful, creative, celebrated. Celebrating 101 When we plan celebrations, many of us think of a party. But we can also celebrate by noticing, sharing, capturing, and creating. The simple act of noticing and appreciating can be an act of celebration. We celebrate autumn when we go on a fall foliage drive. We celebrate spring with a nature walk to see the crab apple in bloom and new life unfurling around us.