The Christmas Countdown is on! Tomorrow is the 1st of December and you will most likely be very aware of this if you have any little people in your house. The Christmas really excitement starts when they can open Day 1 on their advent calendar.

These days advent calendars are filled with chocolates or even toys but did you know the first advent calendar is believed to have been created way back in 1851. The traditional calendar, which has a surprise illustration behind each paper door, went into mass production in the early 1900s and continued to be extremely popular until rationing began in wartime. The first chocolate advent calendar appeared in 1958, but it was in 1971 that Cadbury launched its version and it went on to be the most popular one in the UK.

This week we’ve created a colouring in advent calendar which you can do with all the family! Simply print out our new Advent Colouring printable from our Tender Leaf Blog, then grab your brightest felt tip pens and colouring pencils to colour in your own Christmas countdown! We’d love to see your creations so please share them with us using the #tenderleaftoys hashtag!

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Also for the eagle-eyed Tender Leaf fans out there, how many of our toys can you can spot in our advent calendar? We’d love to know!

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Celebrate International Women’s Day tomorrow by making a paper dolls

decoration to hang in your room! It’s super easy! All you need to do is print out the page below from our blog, colour in the dolls, cut around the dashed lines then fold along the dotted lines!

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Turn this into a frieze for your bedroom by printing out a few copies and joining them together.

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This is an updated craft from last year which now features girls found on our toys including one

very clever and cool astronaut from our new Space Station Activity Board. Check her out here:

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Follow these simple steps to create an Easter headdress! All you need is square pieces of paper, a pair of scissors, card cut into a long strip to make a headdress and bunny ears (we used a cereal box), and split pins.

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Once you've used our step by step guide to create your paper flowers you will need to attach them to your headdress with each spit pin pushed through the centre of each flower (as shown in our photos).

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Now all you need are some chocolate eggs to eat too! Enjoy!

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There will be four days of public celebration for Queen Elizabeth’s Platinum Jubilee – An extended bank holiday, from Thursday 2nd to Sunday 5th June, and will ‘provide an opportunity for communities and people throughout the United Kingdom to come together to celebrate the historic milestone.’

And how proud will we all be of our wonderful Queen who is the only monarch in British history to celebrate a whopping 70 years of reign.

The Queen's Diamond Jubilee Pageant was allegedly the world’s largest outdoor party with more than 1 million people lining the banks of the river Thames to watch 1,000 boats sail down the river!

We have created some lovely free downloads to print out and enjoy with the kiddies, and as we are hoping that the sun will shine on our tea parties, we have designed 3 craft activity sheets for decorating your lovely tea tables and cup cakes!

Click on the images below and print out the invites and send to all your friends, and enjoy colouring in the placemats!

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Notebook

Advent colouring

International Women's Day

Happy Easter!

Join us in celebrating the Queen's Platinum Jubilee!