christmas – Kids' Blog

Christmas Storytime at Cummings Park Library

admin17 December, 2013

Santa’s special helper Max has been busy delivering some of our Christmas Storytimes in the Western suburbs (and she even put in a good word to Santa about all the good boys and girls who have come along to the 12 Storytimes of Christmas)!

Cummings Park Library customers packed into the children’s area on Monday evening to enjoy some Christmas stories and songs. Thank you for coming, it was wonderful to celebrate the festive season with you all.

There’s still one more evening Christmas Storytime left on Thursday 19th December, 6.30pm at Kilbirnie Library. Come along and have a merry old time with us! We hope to see you there.

Christmas Fiction

admin16 December, 2013

The Christmas Holidays are a great time to relax and read all of your favourite books. What better way to get into the spirit of Christmas than to read some Christmas fiction!

Check out these new Christmas–themed books:

The Christmas Surprise by Yvette Poshoglian

Dance class #6: a merry olde Christmas by Beka

The Nanny Piggins’ Guide to Conquering Christmas by R. A. Spratt

Redcap’s Christmas by Susan Cason

Robyn the Christmas party fairy by Daisy Meadows

The Smurfs Christmas by Peyo

Where’s Santa?: Around the world by Louis Shea

Christmas crackers by Jeanne Willis

My funny family gets bigger by Chris Higgins

Christmas Storytime at Karori Library

admin16 December, 2013

The 12 Storytimes of Christmas are underway. Visitors at Karori Library enjoyed a festive family storytime on Thursday evening with stories read by Santa’s special helper Max. Thank you very much to everybody who came along to celebrate the merry season with us. There are still more evening Christmas Storytimes to be held at some of our other libraries – don’t miss out! We’d love to see you there.

Christmas Storytime at Miramar Library

wcl staff13 December, 2013

It is almost time for Christmas, and if you feel as excited as we are, come and visit us at Miramar Library on Monday the 16^th of December at 6:30pm, we are having a special CHRISTMAS STORYTIME!

Mrs Claus will read you fantastic picture books and sing with you beautiful Christmas songs.

Come along dressed up in your favourite Christmas costume or your pyjamas, and get into the spirit of Christmas…

HO HO HO !!!

Online Christmas Craft insipration

admin6 December, 2013

Can you believe that Christmas is literally 19 amount of days away?! Neither can we!! It always seems like we get to this time of the year and suddenly have eight hundred and sixty three different things that we need to get done before the 25th of December: decorating, buying presents, doing baking… the list goes on!

So, we thought – why not compile some of our favourite Christmas craft activities that are not only extremely fun – but are also practical in some way! Here are some festive craft ideas for decorating, creating presents, and just having a fun time making stuff.

Why not make your own wrapping paper using some paints and a potato (or two)?

How about tackling the almighty ginger-bread house? This easy design uses Graham Crackers – you can use any plain square biscuits such as Nice or Thins instead.

Or you could make a sequined wreath to hang on your tree.

Speaking of decorations, why not try making some peg angels?

And you could make some Christmas Cookies as a gift for family members.

What about bundling the family up and making stockings out of socks? Just make sure they’re clean first!

You could make some cool keyrings, necklaces, or broaches out of this amazing stuff called shrinky dink as presents too!

We hope this has given you some ideas to help you have a crafty Christmas season – we’d love to hear about the crafts you’ve got planned for the next few weeks!

And did you catch our post about all the Christmas craft books we’ve got?

Don’t Forget… We have special Christmas storytimes happening in all our libraries between 9th – 19th December. Check out out kids events page for details.

The 12 Storytimes of Christmas

admin5 December, 2013

We have a treat for you – a special way to celebrate Christmas at your local library.

Between 9-19th December all Wellington City Libraries will be holding festive family storytimes full of fun, music and stories about this special time of year. Perfect for 4-8 year olds, come along in your favourite christmas costume or pyjamas.

These events are free and bookings aren’t required -just turn up!

Brooklyn Library: Monday 9th December at 7pm

Central Library: Wednesday 11th December at 7pm

Island Bay Library: Thursday 12th December at 10.30am

Karori Library: Thursday 12th December at 6.30pm

Khandallah Library: Thursday 12th December at 6.30pm

Mervyn Kemp (Tawa) Library: Thursday 12th December at 6.30pm

Wadestown Library: Thursday 12th December at 7pm

Johnsonville Library: Friday 13th December at 6.30pm

Newtown Library: Friday 13th December at 6.30pm

Miramar Library: Monday 16th December at 6.30pm

Cummings Park (Ngaio) Library: Monday 16th December at 6.30pm

Ruth Gotlieb (Kilbirnie) Library: Thursday 19th December at 6.30pm

Christmas is coming…

debbie25 November, 2013

Hey guys – December is almost here, and there is only 1 month till Christmas!! So you have just enough time to think about making an advent calendar that you can countdown the days until Christmas Day.

I found this great website that has some neat ideas for making advent calendars that are a bit different. Why not try making one out of matchboxes, paper bags or toilet rolls. You can put a little chocolate surprise into each one. There are heaps of different ideas – I really love the little houses so make sure you have a look.

Don’t forget the library has heaps of Christmas crafts books as well which makes creating your own special Christmas treats easy and fun.

New Non Fiction: Ideas for the Holiday Festive Season and Summer.

Katie22 November, 2013

10 Minute Crafts for Summer.

Summer’s around the corner. This new addition to Wellington City Libraries will give you craft ideas for summer you can complete in ten minutes. Use this book to make a fluttery butterfly peg, create a kite and race you very own raft.

Let’s Make Faces.

Feeling bored around home? Why not rummage through your household items and use this book to get ideas on how to make faces in unexpected places using everyday objects.

Noah’s Ark.

Lucy Cousins, the creator of the Maisy has adapted from the Bible story: Noah’s Ark into a picture book that young children will enjoy. Cousins stays true to her creative style with using simple language and vibrant colors that is sure to fascinate and entertain children. This serves as a good introduction to Bible literature. Also great for children that are a fan of the Maisy books.

Christmas Jokes.

Christmas is around the corner. How about some Christmas jokes to share with the family? You will laugh yourself silly (or youle laugh yours-elf silly!) with this collection of christmas jokes that is bound to tickle your funny bone. This is one Christmas joke book that you would have to be Christmas crackers not to issue this book out during the holiday period.

Also check out The funniest Christmas joke book ever if you are in the mood for more Christmas jokes.

Party Cakes to Bake and Decorate.

If you are looking some baking or make tasty treats fro Christmas, check out Usbourne’s new book on how to bake and decorate party cakes. You might even find an idea for an alternative gingerbread house, (See Gingerbread Cake recipe) over Christmas and house and star decorations that fit perfectly with the Christmas theme. The recipes for multicolored meringues look fantastic and girls, you will be tickled pink with the pink layer cake recipe. Overall this book is jammed packed with simple and scrumptious party cake recipes that anyone can bake.

For more cooking and baking ideas over the festive season, also check out this year’s previous blog post on Ready. Steady, Cook.

Top 10: DVDs for November

admin18 November, 2013

Looking for something to watch? Try one of these, the top 10 most popular DVDs for November. (Actually, just for fun, this month we’ll post the top 24 DVDs – lots to chose from!)

1. Strawberry Shortcake series

2. Dino Dan series

3. Ninjago, masters of Spinjitzu series

4. The cat in the hat knows a lot about that! series

5. My little pony, friendship is magic series

6. Dinosaur train series

7. Thomas & friends series

8. The Garfield show series

9. Babar and the adventures of Badou series

10. Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated series

11. Hotel Transylvania

12. Wreck-It Ralph