12 days of Christmas for Teachers

This year I really wanted to do something different for the kids teachers at school.  They do so much for the kids and play an important roll in their lives.  Plus, I wanted to teach the kids more about giving and finding ways to make someone's day a little brighter.  The giving to me was the most important part this year and the reason behind this gift idea.

I don't know how this got into my mind but we decided to do "The 12 days of Christmas" for all five of the kids' teachers (Karli has two), plus our beloved bus driver, Kris, who has been heaven sent to us this year and put up with my and getting three kids out the door by 7:50.

We brainstormed ideas and came up with 12 different things the kids could deliver to their teachers each of the 12 school days leading up to their Christmas break, delivering the last one and biggest on the final day before vacation. We headed to Target and the kids' were awesome about helping me pick out things.  We started in the dollar section and worked our way from there.

We found $1 Christmas post it notes, chapstick in the travel section, inexpensive nail polish, red and white bath stuff, etc.  We headed to the Christmas section and found $1 tubes of Hershey kisses and bags of (my favorite!!) mint M & Ms on sale. 

 After we ran out of ideas, we came up with more things that could be done at home.  Homemade strawberry jam we had in the freezer, a couple batches of our favorite holiday Andes mint cookies, and I made fabric bookmarks for another day.

It was great fun, stressful at times to remember every day, but the kids were always excited to come home and tell me about the adventure of the day.  Sometimes there would be a sub and we'd have to get really good about remembering which teacher needed two the next day.  Somedays one of them would tell me about a spot they hid the treat and I thought to myself, "Good luck Mrs. So and so...I hope you find that one somehow!!" Ethan was the only one that was able to keep it a secret the whole 12 days and it was fun to let his teacher know who is was on the final day.  Hailey's teacher found out on day two because she thought Hailey was be sneaky and had something fishy going on and Brynlee's found out about day four or so. ;-) The bus driver got hers handed to her by a different one of our kids each morning (that was so helpful with getting us to the bus on time....we didn't miss the bus at all on those 12 days...for once!!!)

For Karli's teachers, it was a bit different.  She goes to preschool four mornings a week but it was harder to deliver all those treats and it didn't line up with the kids' schools days as well, plus she got out for vacation sooner.  You'll see the picture of the bottom....I still made her two teacher's treats on the same day as the other kids, but we put theirs into one large basket each and gave them the basket after Karli's concert on the last day before break.  I think the basket was fun too because it looked so festive and decorative all in there together.  I would choose to do either way next year.

For anyone who would choose to do this, it would be much easier to do the tags in November or something and have them all done at once.  I had to wake up at 5:30am many days to get that mornings one done but it was worth it.  During the last couple of days, I just printed the poems on address labels and stuck the stickers on...that was so much easier!!  The ribbon and scrapbook paper I already had. 

 (Now is a GREAT time to buy all that ribbon on clearance).

The first four pictures are prior to the camera breaking...the rest are terrible due to taking them on my phone but you get the idea.  We really had a lot of fun coming up with this as a family, doing an assembly line to get them put together, the excitement of delivering them and finding a different way to "give" this year.  As they get older, I hope our "giving" lessons are more helping out at the homeless shelters or finding a family in need but for their current ages, this was really fun this year.

LOL....oh and forgive the poems...they were terrible...but my pregnant brain is feeling mushy and not so creative these days! Hahaha!

On the first day of Christmas, my student gave to me, A pack of post it notes, To keep things orderly.

On the second day of Christmas, my student (bus rider) gave to me, a little tube of chapstick,

in case it gets windy!

On the third day of Christmas, my student left right here, some festive nail polish, to wear through the New Year!

On the fourth day of Christmas, my student left for me, a tube of chocolate candy to eat when I'm hungry. (I know...that poem was lame!)

 On the fifth day of Christmas, I am bringing to you, bath soap and a scrubbie, as thanks for all you do. 

(Next year I would look for festive ones from Bath and Body works).

On the sixth day of Christmas my student left a snack, of chocolate minty cookies that could fit in their backpack.....(again, terrible rhyming!!)

I borrowed this picture for a visual....On this day we did these mint andes cookies, but we did some with the green andes mints and some with the peppermint crunch andes mints.  We alteranted the red and green topped cookies and put 6-8 in a celophane bag with a giant bow on top.  I heard this was the teacher's favorites. ;-)

On the seventh day of Christmas, my student left me some, cinnamon and minty packs, of flavored chewing gum.  (Wish I would have done green wintergreen gum to stay with the red/green/white colored theme).

On the 8th day of Christmas, one of my Windermere Hawks, left me a present of toast warm red socks.

(These were found in packs of two on clearance for $3 at JoAnn's...Old Navy had ones 2 for $5 too.)

Found these cute Martha Stewart boxes on clearance at JoAnn's (they came in a six pack for $3).  We filled them with M &Ms. 

On the ninth day of Christmas, my student left some gems, of red white and green, minty M&Ms.

On the 10th day of Christmas, my student left not took,

A couple fabric bookmarks for when I read a book.

We always make a bunch of extra little tupperware containers when we make jam for giving as gifts or with meals we deliver.  They come in real handy!

On the 11th day of Christmas, I really loved the most, a tub of strawberry jam,

 left for my morning toast...

That was followed by the final day of Christmas...a loaf of Great Harvest white (or wheat bread) to go along with the jam from the previous day.  This could be homemade if you are a good baker or have the time...I didn't have the time!

On the last day of Christmas, I was given a soft loaf of bread, to share

 with my family and keep them well fed!

The basket we gave Karli's two teachers filled with everything.  It was fun to see it all together!

Other ideas I have for next year: hot chocolate packets (cute at Target), tissue packs, a Book of Mormon if we got brave, a cute Christmas story, lotion, ornament, mittens.