Our Gumdrop Tree

One of our favorite traditions is making our gumdrop tree each year.  The girls and I break toothpicks in half, stick them in a styrofoam tree form, and stick gumdrops on the toothpicks.  We always love this activity.


This is at least the 4th year that we've done this activity, and we've always used the same styrofoam tree form!  I thought that last year would be the last year for it, but it lasted one more year.  However, as we were building the tree, the top started to crumble.  So, the tree form will be going into the trash after Christmas this year.  I hate to use styrofoam, but using the same form for 4 years makes me feel a little less guilty about it :)


We were excited that the girls' cousin was visiting and helped us make our gumdrop tree!

A Magical Christmas & A Gumdrop Tree

A Magical Christmas was one of our advent books. 



Our go-along activity was decorating our gumdrop tree, which is always a favorite activity for the girls!  (we're still using the same styrofoam tree form...4 years in a row, but I think this is the last year for it!)
 
The girls were very creative with the tree this year!



 
Here's the finished tree!  They were so excited to be finished because I let them each eat a couple of gumdrops after they were done.



O(5) was upset that you couldn't see the cotton balls in the first picture, so I rotated it and took a few more...she is PROUD of this gumdrop tree!



 
She calls the top a "double decker extra."


 

Our Gumdrop Tree

This is the 3rd year in a row that O and I have made a gumdrop tree (using the same styrofoam tree form...I think we can get one more year out it before throwing it away).  This is usually one of her favorite activities, but she didn't love it quite as much this year.  I think the main reason it wasn't quite as enjoyable this year is because we had to rush.  Nothing is quite as much fun when you have to hurry, and it seems like we've been in a constant state of "hurry" for the past 2 weeks.  I'm ready for things to slow down!

To make the gumdrop tree, we broke toothpicks in half and stuck them in the styrofoam tree form.  We then stuck gumdrops on the toothpicks.

Gumdrop Tree

O was very excited about making our gumdrop tree last week! To make a gumdrop tree you need a bag of gumdrops, toothpicks (broken in half), and a styrofoam tree form. We used the styrofoam tree form that we used last year. One of the first things she asked was "can I taste the gumdrops like I did when I was 2?" I'll have to remind her that last year she thought the gumdrops were "ucky." (I'd forgotten that until I just read last year's post...I'm so glad I have our blogs to help us remember these simple moments). O was much more interested in "tasting" the gumdrops than decorating the tree. She's developed quite a sweet tooth. However, we don't allow her to have candy very often.

It was fun to have E sit with us and participate in this activity. In order to involve her, we decided to teach her the colors of the gumdrops (in English and Spanish) as we put the gumdrops on the tree. O thought it was great to show E the gumdrops while telling her the colors, and it was a good review for all of us to practice the colors in Spanish.

This was a fun and easy activity, and I'm looking forward to disassembling the gumdrop tree in a few weeks :)

Disassembling the Gumdrop Tree

O and I had fun disassembling the gumdrop tree a few days ago. It was almost as much fun as making it :) We threw away the sticky gumdrops and toothpicks and saved the tree form for next year's gumdrop tree.

Gumdrop Tree

For our 2nd day of advent activities, we made a gumdrop tree. To make this tree, we used a styrofoam tree form, toothpicks, and gumdrops. O had difficulty pushing the toothpicks into the tree, so that was my job :) We really had a good time making this tree while listening to Christmas music :) The whole time we were making the tree, I kept thinking that it would be so much easier if the toothpicks were cut in half. For some reason, I didn't break them, but just kept using the whole toothpicks. We had to stop working to eat supper (and O had lost interest), so we finished it the next morning. I broke the toothpicks in half, and it was 1000 times easier!!! I don't know why I didn't do it earlier. Obviously, my brain was turned off :) We also enjoyed tasting the gumdrops. O tasted a few and said "O not like it. It's ucky!" Then she'd try another one... More than anything she enjoyed feeding me red gumdrops!

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O is VERY proud of our finished gumdrop tree!

Photo Sharing - Video Sharing - Photo Printing