Wednesday, December 7, 2011

When Santa (was glued together) & Got Stuck Up the Chimney


When Santa got stuck up the chimney
He began to shout
You girls and boys won't get any toys
If you don't pull me out!
My beard is black
There's soot in my sack
And my nose is tickling too!
When Santa go stuck up the chimney,
Achoo! Achoo! Achoo!

This is one of the Christmas songs that one of my client's preschool is learning. Apparently it is very well known in Britain and not so much over here. I have no idea what tune it is sung to but I found a cute video on YouTube to replay. http://youtu.be/UIY-V2efNW8 To aid my client's learning I downloaded the cute video onto my iPhone for her to have a accurate version to learn from (I tend to change the tune every time I sing it). I also created a Santa, a sack and a chimney. I have a glue gun and I know how to use it! Also my sewing machine. It took about a hour to gather the stuff and build it, so no big time investment needed. Just have to know where your stashes are.

Stuff needed to make a simple Santa (not for heavy use):

Sock in desired skin colour (mine is tan)
White felt-trim
Black felt-boots & belt
Red felt-nose & mouth
Red flannelette (for the suit & hat)
White fake fur trim (beard)
silver paper ribbon for belt buckle (I said it wasn't for heavy use!)
white ribbon
felt pen for eyes
fiber fill or anything light enough to stuff it.
The sack is stuffed with fiber fill and a wad of loosely bunched tissue paper (for noise appeal), glued shut & tied with a narrow white ribbon
sewing material-machine or needle & thread
glue gun

I used a sock that I had used the other one for a doll. Cut it off at the ankle--or it was already cut I can't remember. Stuffed it with fiberfill (had to hunt it down) and sewed the base. I cut out a t-shaped shirt/pants combo & sewed the sides and underarms. Sewed the triangle hat. The pants are just the shirt cut to waist-the sock ends at the waist so I put fiberfill down the legs. The coat is glued shut and the white trim covers the glue mess (though it is visible on his left leg where the glue gun stuck to the fabric). Everything else is glued on. Oh, the eyes are felt pen dots. Real extravagant eh? I freehanded cutting everything. The hat white spot is only that, a spot. The belt, neck and wrist trim wrap completely around him. The neck is sucked in with button thread and held in place with the glued on neck trim.
The chimney is a one litre milk carton cut just short of Santa's height. I covered it with brick printed paper (googled "brick" & scanned through the images until I found a black & white brick pattern) then I cut & pasted to fill the letter size sheet. Printed it off and then placed it on a book with textured cover and did a red crayon rubbing, with some spots heavier than others. Cut & glued it to the milk carton to fit. Viola! A chimney for Santa to get stuck in!

She appeared to enjoy pulling Santa out--she was laughing & smiling over and over again. Today in preschool she participated and looked like she was saying some of the words. (She has a profound speech delay amid small & large motor issues but otherwise is typical).

It was easy to make and is holding up to the handling rather well. I have another client who spotted it in my workstuff bin and played with it. I can't remember any of the songs his class is learning that would relate to Santa so just "ho ho hoed" and prevented him from trying to take the hat and boots off. A success really, visual aids don't have to be expensive or etsy quality, just durable to sustain the play time. I'll be keeping this for next year because it turned out better than I thought it would and I keep things "just in case" (I refuse to call it hoarding).

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