Your guide to activities and fun things to do with your preschoolers, toddlers and kids in Long Beach, CA

On Friday we brought home a Christmas tree and trimmed it. I like looking at the gorgeous theme trees in magazines, but for us it's always a messy family Christmas tree, decorated with a haphazard assortment of ornaments we've collected over the years. Among them are a crocheted angel given to me by a family friend years ago, the vintage elf we picked up at the Rose Bowl flea market, and a little mouse in a matchbox that came from a church bazaar.

When I studied the tree after we put up the ornaments and lights, it still looked a little bare, so I decided to make some simple ornaments with Bella. We started with heavy red and green card stock (construction paper would also work), holiday cookie cutters, glitter paint and paintbrushes. I traced around the cookie cutters and cut out shapes, then Bella painted the ornaments with pearly silver and glittery gold paint. After the paint dried, I used a hole-punch to make a hole for the hanger.

Last year at a friend's house, Bella painted a salt dough gingerbread man and wreath. The nice thing about salt dought is that you can have the Christmas-cookie experience without all the cookies.* To make salt dough, combine 2 cups of flour with 1/2 cup salt. Stir in 3/4 cup of hot tap water. Roll out the dough and cut out shapes with cookie cutters, then use a chopstick or toothpick to poke a hole for the hanger. After the ornaments air-dry, kids can paint them in Christmas colors and hang them on the tree.

*It's not that I don't like cookies. But we celebrate two birthdays and Christmas in a single month, so at some point we are all sugared out.