Christmas Parade Angels

Christmas is my favorite time of year, in my home, I refer to it as it's own season and to me it is.  There is a certain amount of wonder and awe that goes or comes with such a beautiful time of the year as Christmas is.  Whether it's the excitement of seeing family who live just around the corner but for some reason Christmas is the only time of year you get to see each other.  Or maybe it's the joy of children throughout the month as they wait and anticipate whether or not they have been good enough to have pleased that magical spirit that dwells deep within the hearts of the ones who love them most and they pray, oh do they pray that they get what they have asked the spirit of Santa for.
For my children we don't have a lot of presents under the tree for Christmas, we used to back when we had two steady incomes and fewer children, living expenses weren't so tight, times weren't so tough.  Unfortunately, this is the time of year when the wealthy buy lavish gifts they will only look at once and the poor cry themselves to sleep because they don't get to provide their children with all that their little hearts desire.  I always found it difficult when my oldest was a lot younger, she had a best friend who always seemed to have the latest and greatest toys, games, electronics and we were struggling to have food, she was technologically behind and her friend was technologically advanced (for their age).  Through it all, the ups and the downs, one thing has never changed in my thirteen years of being a mother, and that is that my children are to dig deep down to the bottoms of their hearts and are only allowed to ask Santa for three things.  I have always explained to them that there are many children around the world who don't have much at Christmas, and even on years like this one for us, there are children somewhere who are getting even less.  We have always donated to Toys for Tots, which I think it a great organized event geared to bringing children of low income families some presents at Christmas.  For the past few years my oldest daughter has traded her last request in for a good gesture for someone else.  I am so much more proud of her than she will ever know.  I'm so happy that has sunk in for her and she is willing to "donate" a Santa gift to someone else.  I hope she carries that with her forever, it's a rarity nowadays.  And although she doesn't ask for a third thing some how the magic that began with a man delivering homemade wooden toys to doorsteps long long ago has always seemed to make this house happy with their requests both written and the unspoken desires of the heart.
I am getting completely off topic and I apologize for that, but when it comes to Christmas I seem to get carried away babbling on and on and on.
So, last Saturday I was given one nights notice that my children could participate in the Christmas Parade Float that their school was doing.  I was thrilled, I emailed the vice principal and asked about the float to see if we could be on it and she said yes.  But there was a catch, of course, we had to be angels or shepherds.  The girls all picked angels so I decided I would make four.  I went to the local Walmart in Watertown, NY and I purchased a glue gun in case I couldn't find mine(still not all organized from the move back to the country), glue sticks, six pairs of white gloves, five white tuques, four sets of "oversized" white long johns, or long underwear as my Grandmother-in-law calls them.  She's so cute.  I went to the Dollar Tree and bought a few stains of gold and silver garland, four gold wreaths, and four sheets of bristle board.  I was ready to start work first thing in the morning.
I kept posting photos on Instagram of my process (feel free to follow me).  I started with the gloves, at first I was going to sew the garland on but quickly decided I didn't have the time for that so I put one dab of glue on the glove and attached the one end of the garland.  I then wrapped it around the gloved and glued the other end to the first glue dot.  I added more glue just to make sure there was enough and that it wasn't coming off.  If I had to do it over again I would have put a little dot of glue on the opposite side of the wrist just to make sure.  Remember to leave a little extra so that the garland doesn't get too tight and pull off when trying to fit the glove around the part of your hand that's the biggest.  I would measure that part and leave another inch just to be safe.
Next I moved onto the wings.  First I folded the bristle board in half so that the it was short and wide not long and narrow.  Then I drew one wing, because the board is still folded in half when you cut out the wing you will have two once you unfold it.  So, I cut it out and then hot glued the gold and silver garland on, around the entire outside.  I was actually very happy with how they turned out although my children and I decided they looked a little like teeth.  Still looked great.
 Next was the halo for my little angels.  I had purchased some gold garland wreaths, I totally could have made them on my own but this worked well since I was on borrowed time and didn't have much to spare.  Had I made these I would have just hot glued garland to the toque like I did with the wrists of the gloves.  But alas, I had these perfect halo looking garland wreaths and really the plastic ring frame on them made it stand up perfectly.  For this step I did have the kids wear their toque then I put the garland wreath atop their heads and started hot gluing, lots and lots of hot glue for these babies.  It was fun though.  If you try this at home make sure you let your child know to tell you immediately if they feel their heads are warm.  Luckily my toques were thick and we never had an issue, I likely wouldn't have done it if they were cheapies that are made of barely anything.  
 I affixed the wings to the top of the long johns shirt next.  By now you should have the garland dry and you can attach the wings to the shirt where the fold was.  I put three rows of hot glue and then zig-zagged the glue back and forth from top to bottom then back to the top.  You want to make sure that you are attaching the wings so that if you were to fold them along the same already folded crease they would be "hugging" your child.  Otherwise you will have wings that are trying to close towards the back and they might not stay open very well.  The correct way, your child will be preventing them from folding closed and that's what you want.  I had my children wear their shirts for this part as well, that way the wings were easily seen.
 I didn't do anything to the pants.  Had this been a concert or something for school or church I would have had some garland around their ankles but as it stood they were putting these on over top of their snow pants and I didn't see the point of doing the pants.
 All in all I think they turned out really well for a couple of hours work with only 24 hours notice.  I really like them and the vice principal did too.  She actually complimented them so much that she hinted at a Christmas concert at another school she takes part in and I offered these to her (the classroom only had four children, it seemed pretty perfect).  I was so happy, she actually told me I need to be in charge of the float next year.  I thought that was pretty great too.  Made me happy to hear she loved my costumes so much she wanted me to do the float planning and costumes next year. 
I have tons of great ideas I can't wait to do.  Hope you enjoyed this post.  Feel free to comment and/or share it :)   Have a wonderful day everyone.  Merry Christmas Season

1 comment:

  1. New follower from the 2014 blogger challenge. Can't wait to see what you have in store.
    Love Vicky
    http://aroundandaroundandupsidedown.blogspot.co.uk/

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