Originally I was planning on making jingle bell bracelets with the kids, but decided I'd rather not hear the jingling all the time. I came across another idea of making this jingle bell wreath on http://www.allfreecrafts.com, but I didn't want to mess with the heavy gauge wire and wire cutters with the kids, so I decided to combine the ideas and make jingle bell wreaths using pipe cleaners instead of the wire (after the fact, someone else posted this idea in the comments section of the site). We went to Jo-Ann Fabric's and Ty picked out a package of blue jingle bells (a variety of sizes) for him and a package of red ones for Koen. We already had the pipe cleaners at home. I first had the boys sort the bells into three piles: small, medium, and large. We started by stringing the large bells on the middle of the pipe cleaner. It was pretty easy for the boys to do it for themselves. We then strung half of the medium bells on one side followed by half of the small bells and then repeated that on the other side. Once all the bells were on, I twisted the remaining pipe cleaner around so it wouldn't come loose and viola! We had our jingle bell wreath ornaments!
I actually ended up making most of Koen's wreath as he bailed on the project, but Brielle loved the finished product! Of course, once it was finished Koen wanted it back, so we decided that he and Brielle could share that wreath.
After they were hanging on the tree, I asked the boys why they thought bells were a Christmas symbol. After the pat, "I dunno," answer, I explained that bells on churches rang when something wonderful happened, and Jesus being born was certainly wonderful!
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