Holidays – Page 28 – Pollywog's Place Blog

Delicious Homemade Treats to Gift This Holiday

Published on December 17, 2024December 10, 2025 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog1 Comment

Do you have a limited budget? Or maybe you want to give gifts, but you aren’t sure what to give?

We love gifting foods for Christmas as everyone loves food… some are special treats that we only make this time of year so that makes them extra nice to give. We made several treats for our 2024 Polar Express Party and many of them were made as gifts to take home and enjoy… they are always a HIT!

Here are some of our favorite gifts to give (and receive):

Fudge – so many varieties
Chocolate candies – flavors for everyone!
Chocolate-dipped pretzel sticks
Christmas Breads
Homemade cookies (some of these recipes could be adapted to a ‘gift in a jar’ type recipe.)
Hot cocoa mix (you can find several cute ways to gift it on Pinterest)
Sourdough Bread
Sourdough Boules (the varieties are endless but our recipe has some of our favorite variations)
Sourdough Stars and Knots (you can use any type of filling you desire… we love using Nutella, Rosella jam, or Chocolate)
Sourdough cinnamon rolls… so good!
Smoky Walnuts

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DIY Advent Games: Engage Kids This Holiday Season

Published on December 12, 2024December 5, 2024 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog4 Comments

Hey, it’s me again…

After I made the DIY Bingo cards I decided to go ahead and finish crossing off some more things on my To-Do List… some of them have been on that list forever as I only pull my Polar Express folder out once a year.

We have a pile of fun games that you can play at your next Christmas get-together or you can use them anytime during this Advent/Christmas Season. Many of these can be used even without printing out this packet, if you are unable to do so.

Reindeer Games Download

We will be using a lot of these during our next Polar Express party as well as some outside games like Corn Hole and Washer Toss, weather permitting. The kids are super excited and I’m so happy that they look so nice. I hope someone else might find these helpful.

God Bless!

Advent Celebrations: DIY BINGO Game and Crafts

Published on December 5, 2024December 17, 2024 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog5 Comments

Hey everybody!

I pray you all are doing well, I’ve not been on the blog in a bit as I have scheduled quite a few posts already as we are trying to focus on the Advent Season here. As we prepare for Christmas we are also doing some preparations for St. Nicholas Day and for our annual Polar Express Party… so much fun!

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Embracing New Family Traditions in Homeschooling

Published on November 14, 2024November 18, 2024 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog5 Comments

Thanksgiving is in a couple of weeks and that means Advent starts soon after… where oh where does time go?

If you’ve been around my blog for long then you probably know that I try to do Advent studies with our Homeschool in place of our regular homeschool activities… this year is no different. I really want my family to be able to FOCUS on the REAL REASON BEHIND THE SEASON… not just the HOLLYWOOD VERSION. This gives us time to enjoy our family and helps to eliminate some of the stress from trying to get it all done.

We’ve been making some gradual changes in our home that may or not be for you. We have cut back on the number of gifts that we give and we try to be more intentional on the gifts we give. Often we will purchase ‘experience’ gifts that we can enjoy together as a family.

Free Printables for Holiday Shopping plus some tips for buying for special needs kiddos!

We also have different activities that we do every year like our POLAR EXPRESS PARTY which gives the kids a chance to show off some of the skills we’ve been working on using real-life activities. Below are some of the books that I recently ordered for our Advent Activities… some of these may actually end up incorporated into our Polar Express Party but not sure exactly how yet. We have some links to FREE materials further down in the post.

Free Printable Shopping Guide – Makes Christmas Shopping So Much Easier!

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Free Printable Shopping Guide – Makes Christmas Shopping So Much Easier!

Published on November 11, 2024November 13, 2024 by Susie @ Pollywog's Place Blog2 Comments

If you haven’t printed this out then you should do it NOW! Take a few minutes to fill it out and then snap a picture of it so you will have it on hand for shopping trips or those times when you find a great deal but aren’t sure if something will fit someone or not… not to mention that it saves a TON of time if you have friends or family asking what sizes everyone is wearing now… it’s FREE so grab it now!