The festive season is an infectiously joyful one, even for the most curmudgeonly of folks out there. As temperatures fall and nights draw close, Christmas feels all the warmer for the sharing of light and love between family and friends. Of course, this year will be harder than most, thanks to the necessary tightening of purse strings across the land.
As the magic-maker in your own household, you’ll likely have the thankless task of pulling Christmas together for everyone around you – and making it more special than ever before for your children. If you’re short on budget-friendly ideas for entertaining the family this Christmas, there is one brilliant idea that could bring everyone together: building a Christmas grotto in your garden or garage. But how could you go about creating such a magical space for family and friends?
Grotto Essentials
First of all, there are some basic essentials to creating any grotto that you need to source. The quintessential grotto experience, of course, involves your children sitting on Father Christmas’ lap for a photo opportunity and maybe to receive a pre-Christmas gift. As such, you’ll need a suitable throne for your Father Christmas – and a suitable volunteer for the role of Father Christmas!
It follows that you’ll need a Father Christmas outfit, and some helper outfits for any non-visitor adults helping out on the day of the experience. You’ll also want to arrange a sack for gifts, and some appropriate decorations – speaking of which…
Setting the Vibe
Getting your grotto’s atmosphere right is devilishly simple, especially with a crafty approach. The snow of the artic circle can be achieved with white felt, cleverly bunched up in corners and around Father Christmas’ throne. Old Amazon boxes can be wrapped up as fake gifts and stacked all around, to make Father Christmas look all the more at home. Tinsel and other garlands can be used to great effect to bring the grotto fully into winterland.
Outside the Grotto
To really sell your DIY grotto experience, you should also pay some attention to the area outside it – and the chief line of approach for yours and your extended family’s little ones. There are loads of fun and creative ways to go about this, that require little more than an afternoon of crafting.
Fake snow is a must and can be achieved again with felt. Outdoor Christmas lights can lead the way from your drive, or even form their own path to wherever your grotto has been built. You could craft your own signs to the grotto, with statements like “no reindeer past this point” or “Lapland this way” to set the stage all the more.
A nice touch would be to hang candy canes on the signs, or even on trees and hedges between the path and grotto! This would add to the magic, being a Willy-Wonka-like suggestion that the kids are seeing something special.
