Christmas quickly approaches and vacation time for children as well. We therefore wonder how we are going to entertain our children during the Christmas holidays.

Christmas holidays are the best moment to share activities between adults and children.

The first of these Christmas activities is to get back into the mood for the magic and the festive spirit of Christmas by visiting shopping malls organizing beautiful Christmas windows; which are an eternally renewed delight for the children and their parents.

Some shopping malls are also organizing Christmas stores consisting of a path to the lighting, Christmas decorations, displayed scenes from Christmas movies, train sets and toys simulating real situations; static or interactive decorations as a fire truck and fire fighters helping the victims of a fire or the express of the King’s Cross railway station platform 9-3/4 bringing Harry Potter and his friends at Hogwarts.

A little further on, after seeing Rudolph surrounded by elves and goblins relaxing on a fairy forest, we enter in the fantastic house of Barbie; which contains 35 rooms decorated for Christmas. Do not disturb her, she is hosting a Christmas party.

Another three steps and we will enter in the victorian area of this Christmas dream: hundreds of beautiful teddy bears are playing in a green grass area. Ten meters after them, we are approaching a bedroom where luxurious old fashioned porcelain dolls are sleeping in their cradle.

At the end of this path, we meet Santa Claus, sitting on a golden seat and waiting for our children to communicate their Christmas wishlist to him.

A picture of Santa Claus holding our child on his laps closes this magical Christmas journey that reminds us the taste and the atmosphere of our own childhood. This fairy journey will also become our first Christmas memory of the year.

The second activity will be the Christmas decoration of our house and the Christmas tree. Is there a better Christmas activity than this one; which our children will remember when they will grow up and become parents? It will certainly give them the desire to perpetuate these traditions.

I remember the first time I decorated the Christmas tree with my mother and she told me to not to touch the flocking which simulated the snow because she thought that it would cut my fingers. I did not believe her… When my son helped me to decorate the Christmas tree for the first time, I told him not to touch the flocking and within one second, the taste and the atmosphere of my own childhood Christmas holidays came back to my memory.

When the tree and the house are decorated, we will install the crib that represents the Nativity scene. Children have not lost their primary instincts and the scene will usually be more secure than beautiful, as if they wanted to protect the baby Jesus twenty centuries after his birth. Let them install the Christmas crib while we supervise their work.

The scene of the nativity is also the opportunity to educate children about the birth of Jesus and the meaning of Christmas; and it is a fun way to learn history.

Another Christmas activity to share with our family is to walk on the streets to discover the gardens decorated with Santa Claus on his sleigh or climbing along the front of the houses, the lights on the municipal Christmas tree as well as participate in Christmas Events organized by the municipality.

After a long and tiring day, we will enjoy a warm evening by watching a Christmas movie with our children, drink hot chocolate and eat waffles or cookies.

These are some basic activities that will create, for us and our children, Christmas memories that will last for a lifetime.

Perhaps you’ve heard a lot of buzz of late about the newest toy phenomenon sweeping the nation. Of course, I’m talking in connection with Zhu Zhu Pets. Pronounced like “Zoo Zoo Pets” these are battery operated hamsters that run on wheels around hamster trail tracks that the owner sets up for them. The company is billing them as just like a real hamster, but without the mess.

Plainly, which’s a selling point meant to appeal to the folks of the target market, the children, because I do not really think that the kids themselves care a whole lot in connection with the mess which real hamsters, or any real pets, leave behind.

Zhu Zhu Pets look real enough, and yes they do scamper very cutely around the little habitrail tracks that are sold in parts, in a modular style, through the company. Still, what is the true purpose of a pet? It’s companionship. It’s interaction. It’s being able to hold the little animal up to your chin, to snuggle it against your cheek, to feel warmth and movement and a heartbeat. To see little eyes searching back at you with awareness when you search into them. This is what staves off loneliness, this is what provides companionship, this is what makes us love our pets, our real pets, and not just play with them.

In decision, Zhu Zhu Pets are quite decent for what they actually are – a cute toy which can provide hours of entertaining fun for a child with a good inventiveness. But just like a pet without the mess? Sorry. That hasn’t been invented yet.

Edwin Jacobowitz has just spent the afternoon doing up a two-storey colonial-style house in New Jersey. It’s been hard work. First he had to wire the house for electricity, applying a chandelier in the dining room and spotlights elsewhere. Then he wallpapered five rooms, each with a separate printed design to the owner’s specification. After that he laid red oak floors throughout, glazed the windows and put the roof on, laying shingles in a patterned effect. By the end he’d built up quite a sweat.

Mr Jacobowitz’s afternoon may sound like Extreme Makeover on amphetamine, but the reason he can accomplish it all in one afternoon is that he works on a scale unfamiliar to most builders and interior designers. Mr Jacobowitz is a master of the miniature; dolls’ houses to you and me. He runs a family business which has made manifest the fantasies of little girls and boys, and their parents, for more than 30 years.

Mr Jacobowitz has moved his shop from Gramercy Park in downtown New York into Manhattan’s most famous children’s store, FAO Schwarz by Central Park.

On the first floor, sandwiched between Paw Parazzi pets and model paints, Mr Jacobowitz has pitched his dolls’ house boutique, peddling dreams seven days a week. You don’t have to be rich to partake: some kits start at $20 (£10). But the great thing about his store is that if you are rich, you can certainly spend. Step right up and buy a hand-painted Victorian four-poster bed, about the size of a cigar box, for $600. Or the Queen bed with silk drapes that he sold to a woman last week for $500 – her son had wanted it for a school project.

Most of the houses on display are classic American clapper board, the kind you’ll find all down the east coast. There’s a Boston house with dormer windows and arches above the doors and solid colonial residences that are straight out of the suburbs. The pride of the display is what Mr Jacobowitz describes as a federal style 10-room house common on Long Beach island, the Hamptons or Cape May on the New Jersey shore. It has 32 windows and 2,100 wooden shingles on the roof, each one hand laid. It costs $5,000 to buy ready made, but clients often double that amount once they have furnished it.

And that’s just the kits. The real beauty of what Mr Jacobowitz can offer is in the customised service. Take the woman who arrived in the shop at 9am and left at 6pm – she spent the entire day, bar one hour off for lunch, measuring, comparing and selecting fittings for the dolls’ house she bought. Or the former wife of the governor of Oklahoma, who has commissioned Mr Jacobowitz to make an exact miniature replica of the mansion they restored in Oklahoma City. Or the man who bought a special wedding anniversary gift for his wife who loved Proust so much that he asked Mr Jacobowitz to make a replica of the novelist’s Parisian apartment, modelled from pictures at the Proust museum.

His own favourite, though, was the time when a major Manhattan company contacted him and asked him to build a present for the retiring president. He loved his office so much, and had spent so much of his life inside it, they wanted to give him a miniature version of it, replete with antique furniture made to match, sofas in precisely the same material, and identical lamps and light fittings. It was presented to the president on board the cruise the firm gave him as a parting gesture. He was, Mr Jacobowitz said, overwhelmed.

A pattern by now is clearly emerging. The people who are most obsessed by toys, most wrapped up in childhood fantasies, are not children at all, but grown-up kids doing all they can to cling on to their dreams.

Making gingerbread houses is like a family tradition in many areas of the world. These edible centerpieces are popular amongst children and adult alike. Gingerbread houses are no longer restricted only for the occasion of Christmas, these are used for many other different kinds of celebration. The thought of a brown, yummy and gooey gingerbread house surely does make my mouth water. Making your own gingerbread house is more fun rather than buying it from any store. The joy of decorating and planning new patterns for the gingerbread house is something that cannot be described. Thinking and creating patterns for gingerbread houses requires a little effort but the end result is surely worth all the amount of time that is put in by the entire family. Take a look at these decorating ideas for gingerbread houses.

Decorating Ideas for Gingerbread Houses:
There are various ways one can use to make a gingerbread house look tempting and equally edible! The various types of chocolates and candies can be used creatively to decorate the house. Tiny green colored candies can be used for the yard of the gingerbread house. This acts like grass. Even smaller red or pink colored candies can be placed on these green candies that act as flowers amongst the green grass.

Make a paste of almonds and use food coloring to give it different shades. These can be used to create vegetables or flowers in the garden. Yummy mints can be used as floor planks or even on the window shutters. Mints can also be used generously on the roof. Tiny balls of candy can be used to decorate the doorway. These can accentuate the chimney and can also be used as berries on the bushes. Delicious melted dark chocolate can be poured over the roof. If you wish to avoid candies as decoration for the roof, you can sprinkle chocolate chips over this melted chocolate.

Make a combination of two mini candy canes. These will form the shape of a heart and can be used at the doorway. Marshmallows are appropriate for the walls of the house. These will give a brick like effect and being sticky, the marshmallows will also hold together very well.

Gingerbread cookies can be used to create people around the house. You can even use these to create window panes or furniture such as benches in the yard. Pretzel sticks can decorate a gingerbread house in many ways. These can be used to create railings, baskets, tables, chairs etc. Rice crispies can be used in an innovative manner to create a pebblestone path. A large marshmallow that is balanced on a humbug acts like a mailbox for your gingerbread house!

Sugar icing helps to glue different elements together. This icing can be poured over the roof and allowed to drip. This creates the effects of snow falling off from the roof. A small amount of icing can be placed into the hands of the gingerbread people so that it creates the appearance of a snowball fight. Brightly colored candies can be used for the window and roof edges so that it appears as if the house is lit!

These decorating ideas for gingerbread houses should give you an indication about the various possibilities that can be used. I am sure you won’t have the heart to devour the house very easily once you put in plenty of effort into the design!

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