Whether you celebrate Hanukkah, Christmas or Kwanzaa, the holiday season is upon us. The holidays provide families a great opportunity to spend time together doing things they normally wouldn't have time to do. Children are enthralled with the lights, decorations and the sometimes endless holiday activities. With all the excitement, it is a great time for Au Pairs to help the children they care for make some fun holiday crafts. Below are a few fun craft ideas for this holiday season. 

Santa Advent Calendar Craft

Advent calendars have been a long standing tradition in many families. Children love the chance to eat a piece of chocolate or add to Santa's beard each day as they wait for Christmas. To create this fun Santa advent calendar you will need 24 cotton balls, crayons, markers or paint, tacky craft glue and a pattern from Kaboose. Follow the directions and have fun!

Clay Menorah

Nothing symbolizes the Festival of Lights more than a Menorah. The nine prong candle holders come in all shapes and sizes while holding deep symbolic and religious meaning. Help your children create their own Menorah with some clay, a ruler, butter knife, acrylic paint, cardboard and Hanukkah candles. You will need an afternoon or evening to make your very own Menorah and then plenty of time to let the clay harden. Follow the directions and enjoy!

Easy Coffee Filter Angel

Another inexpensive and fun holiday craft is making ornaments for your home, office or Christmas tree. Coffee filter angels are especially easy to make because most families already have the filters. In addition to the coffee filters, you will need cotton balls, gold ribbon, white and gold chenille stem (also known as colored pipe cleaners), scissors and a hot glue gun. Follow the directions and good luck!

We’d love to hear about your favorite holiday craft. Feel free to add your suggestions!

Have you ever found a piece of broccoli wrapped in a napkin in the garbage?

Some children just do not like fruits and vegetables. No matter how hard you try, you can't get them to eat the things that are the healthiest for them and their growing bodies. Plus, if your children spend their days at a child care center, there is an increased chance they won't eat as healthy as they would if they were cared for in your own home.

Because parents, Au Pairs, and child care centers all face the same problem, we wanted to share some ideas on how to help your children eat more fruits and vegetables.

Below are some great tips we found on how to help your children not only eat, but enjoy fruits and vegetables a little more.

1. Healthy breakfast
Fill your kids up on their fruit for the day at breakfast
a. Banana on toast, maybe with peanut butter
b. Cereal with fresh or dried fruit
c. Pancakes or waffles with fruit toppings
d. Fresh fruit smoothies and a yogurt and sliced fruit combo

2. Hide vegetables in a sauce
a. Grate and chop zucchini, carrots and spinach into pasta and cheese sauces
b. If they absolutely refuse to eat vegetables no matter what and pick them out the sauce, puree them and then add to the sauce

3. Add to dessert
a. Add fresh fruit pieces to Jello, yogurt or ice cream for a healthy treat
b. Puree fruit to use as homemade topping in place of chocolate or caramel syrup
c. Let your kids make their own fruit parfaits

4. Put vegetables into the meat
a. Grate vegetables in meat dishes
b. Hide grated vegetables in meatball, casseroles, meatloaf, shepherd's pie and lasagna
c. Try an all-vegetable lasagna
d. Make all-vegetable "hamburger" patties

5. One pot, many vegetables
a. Making homemade soups stews and chili are all easy ways to increase your family's intake of vegetables and fruit (yes, fruit!) Everything and anything healthy should go into the pot. Puree vegetables that the kids don't like and add them to the stock to use as a thickener
b. Make gazpacho, a fruit soup using mangos, yellow pepper, yellow tomatoes, carrot, cantaloupe, cucumbers, papayas, raspberry vinegar, honey and vanilla extract

6. Mystery foods
a. Use the kids' favorite cookies, cakes and breads as a cover for fruits and vegetables. Make sweet breads and desserts with vegetables - zucchini bread, sweet potato pie and pumpkin pie
b. Slip fruits and vegetables in all kinds of things: applesauce in cookies, zucchini in chocolate cake, and grated carrots in pasta sauce

7. Fast and healthy food
a. Homemade pizza. Give the kids tons of healthy toppings to choose from such as tomatoes, peppers, mushrooms, spinach and pineapple. Let them make their own pizza
b. Tacos or fajitas can be a great way to get kids to add vegetables in various forms - diced tomatoes, salsa, etc
c. Stir fries - sugar peas, snow peas, spinach and carrots
d. Omelets - salsa, tomatoes

8. Keep fruit and vegetables handy
a. Keep washed fruit in a bowl nearby
b. Have ready-to-serve individual fruit cups in the fridge
c. Make up vegetable-and-dip packs for snacks
d. Serve fruit and vegetables as a side dish at meals

If you have any other tips about how you help your children eat healthy, let goAUPAIR know by leaving your comments below.

*Tips provided by 4MomsAtHome.com