That every kid in the class thing | Elf donuts

Long time readers will know that one of our Christmas traditions is making something for every kid in the class. This was all very simple when we started with a sensible something for Max’s Kinder class of 16 children. Not quite so simple now that we have three classes totalling 81 children (plus teachers and random assorted others). But we persist because we love it – making something together is actually a very lovely way for the family to spend time together – and because I have a pathological loathing of candy canes. Shudder.

This year we made elf donuts. I’d seen these around last Christmas on Pinterest and I just knew they were going to be our 2104 every kid in the class thing.

To make the boxes

We started with some cute mini-kraft boxes from Blank. We added a little Elf Donut label that I made (click on the image below to download a pdf to print your own). Boxes are 51 x 51 x 51mm and labels print at 48.5 x 48.5 x 48.5 (95% of box). We also lined the boxes with grease proof paper to keep things nice.

To make the donuts

All you need is a box of Cheerios (we used the honey version so they would be yummy to eat on their own as a snack). They actually look elf-donutty enough without doing a thing to them, but you can make them extra fancy by dipping them in a little icing and then into sprinkles. The kids really enjoyed this bit! We also dusted some with a little icing sugar – you can have fun experimenting with different donut finishes!

For the icing

Mix plain icing sugar with enough water (not much) to make a slighly-runny paste. Add pink food colouring or enough cocoa powder to make a dark chocolate coating. We used tweezers to handle the little donuts when we dipped them into the icing and then into the sprinkles.

To finish

Add the donuts to the boxes and you’re done.

If you’re not keen to make multiples of these boxes for all the kids in the class, you could always make a few for dear friends or even one for the kids to set out on Christmas eve to say thank you to the elves…

Other ideas for Christmas gifts for little friends

What random Christmas traditions do you have at your place?