Can you believe it is that time of the year again!? Christmas is coming and we are SO excited! I feel as if it is a little more exciting this year because Aliza can some what comprehend what is going on and it is Gianna’s FIRST Christmas. Aliza points out Christmas trees, Santa’s and even hits me with a HO HO HO! She helped me decorate the house and hang ornaments on our Christmas tree! She loved putting up the ornaments so I decided to make her, her own Felt Christmas tree! Along with being a great gross motor activity it helps to keep the little ones away from your Christmas tree 😉 You’re Welcome!

Materials (LINKS):

1 yard of green felt
Piece of brown and yellow felt
Felt Christmas ornaments- Found ours at hobby lobby or you can make your own
Burlap String
Velcro
Hot glue gun
Clear push pins
Scissors

DIY Felt Christmas Tree

Step One: Hot glue one velcro square to each ornament. Most velcro comes with adhesive (sticky backs) but because we were going to be taking these ornaments off and on the tree I wanted to make sure the Velcro was secure. The velcro comes with a soft and rough side, make sure you are using the rough side to stick to your Christmas tree.

Step two: Draw out your Christmas tree. I am glad I bought a yard of fabric because I completely butchered my first tree attempt. It was more challenging than I expected. I found it easier to make triangles from bottom to top. Once you feel comfortable, cut it out. Do not worry about all the marker, you can use the back side. It is also a good idea to make sure all ornaments fit on your Christmas tree!

Step three: I always use garland on my tree, so I decided to do the same on theirs. Turn your tree over and hot glue the burlap string across the whole tree. Also, cut out a star tree topper and trunk and hot glue those to your tree. You can now pin your tree to the wall 🙂 Put push pins all along the edges of your tree and you are all set!

Gross Motor Activity

Let the FUN begin! We love gross motor skills in this house! Running, jumping, climbing, balancing and strength are all examples of gross motor skills your toddler should be practicing. For this activity we worked on balancing, strengthening lower extremities, reaching and bending. We blasted jingle bells and decorated our Christmas tree! This activity is so much fun and something we will keep up the whole month of December. Need to distract your toddler for a little while, make them a Christmas tree, I promise you will not regret it! We were also able to work on our color recognition skills throughout this activity! Because there was not many colors and the two main colors were Red and Green, we practiced GO and STOP!

This is also a great activity for my 10 month old. This works on her dynamic sitting balance, reaching, core strength and upper body strength. She loves being a part of things that her big sister is doing, so it was a great activity for them to do together!

Gross motor development

Gross motor skills are important to develop the larger muscles of the body! When a child is young these are the muscles that help a baby hold their head up, sit, crawl and eventually walk. Between the ages 3 and 4 your toddler should be able to run around obstacles, walk a line, go down a slide independently, walk up and down stairs independently alternating feet, hop on preferred foot, climb and skip! If you notice any red flags in your child, for example your child walks funny, walks on their toes all the time, very clumsy and or skills regress you may want to talk to your physician. We as mamas know our babies and know when something is not right!

When Aliza was a baby I noticed something was different with her legs and feet. When I would stand her up she would stand on her heels. This made it extremely difficult for her to stand independently which led to delayed walking. When she still was not walking by 15 months I pushed for physical therapy. They showed me how to strengthen her legs and large muscles. Not only did they need to strengthen her legs but her core as well. Everything works together. After months of therapy and building these muscles she started to walk at 19 months. Now she is almost 3 and unstoppable !

Let me see your felt Christmas tree’s ! Tag me on social media @cota_mom !