Building Christmas Excitement with Hallmark Northpole – #NorthpoleFun #ad

This shop has been compensated by #CollectiveBias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #NorthpoleFun 

Can you believe that Christmas is right around the corner?  I mean, it’s less than 3 weeks away! I am so excited to celebrate the holiday with my family, especially my little elf, Avery. While this isn’t Avery first Christmas, it is the first year that she really gets the whole idea of Santa.  Because of this, I really want to make this year special and start some fun pre-Christmas traditions.

One night last week, while shopping (ALONE!) at Walmart I spotted the Hallmark Northpole  products in the Christmas section.  It was all SO CUTE! I couldn’t resist, and I grabbed a few (or more than a few) items.

What did I get?

• Once Upon A Northpole Christmas story book + Find me Santa Snowflake
• Magic Snowball
• Northpole Communicator
• Bake like an Elf baking tools with recipe cards
• Snowby Ornament
• Sprinkle Bell

I told you…I couldn’t resist, and I knew that I could use these items to help build Avery’s Christmas excitement level!

When I got home I tucked the Snowby ornament and Magic Snowball away (those are stocking stuffers) and put everything else under the tree for Avery to find the next morning!

One tradition I wanted to start is reading a special book every night leading up to Christmas. The Once Upon A Northpole Christmas book is perfect for that, and the Find me Santa Snowflake is very cool and will be perfect for the times we spend the holidays out of town (We’ll use it here at home as well)

I also wanted to start a tradition of baking cookies for Christmas.  My nana and my mom always baked cookies with me for the holidays and I wanted it to be a tradition that Avery and I could share as well! Avery and I looked through the recipes in the Bake Like an Elf kit and decided on Grandma Gilly’s Winter Magic Sugar Cookies!

Avery was so excited to help, and kept saying that “All big girls stir the dough!” and “Big girls ALWAYS get to make cookies” She also thought it was so fun to measure the ingredients in elf shoes, elf mittens and jingle bell portions!

I wanted to do something a little different, so we made blue and white marble snowflake cookies! I followed the directions on the recipe card, then cut the dough in half.  One half was put aside while I added a few drops of blue food coloring to the other!

Next I made small balls of each color dough, stuck them together and then rolled it into one big ball, to create the marble effect! We popped the dough in the fridge to chill until it was ready to work with.

We cut some out and baked them plain–those we’d decorate with sugar glaze and “Frozen” sprinkles as Avery called them.  The rest we decorated with our special Sprinkle Bell!
It was so cute! Though I do recommend using a baking sheet that has sides.  Ours is flat and there were lots of little sprinkle balls rolling off the pan and onto the floor. (Daisy was thrilled!) The Sprinkle Bell was easy for Avery to use to get just the right amount of sprinkles on her cookies!

Avery made some gorgeous marble snowflake cookies “Like Queen Elsa makes” while the other batch baked.

I was really happy with how they came out! The recipe was slightly different than the one I typically use, and the cookies came out fluffy and kept their snowflake shape well!

After baking it was time to call in to Northpole with our Northpole Communicator. This is quite possibly the coolest Christmas toy I’ve ever seen.  You dial in once a day and chat with the folks in Northpole, including Santa himself!! I’m certain that  this alone will get Avery super psyched for Christmas! Today Santa asked Avery about her friends, and what makes them special!

How do you get your little ones excited about Christmas?  Do you have any special traditions?

For ideas on the perfect Hallmark Northpole gifts for kids (and kids at heart) of all ages click HERE and follow #NorthpoleFun

And don’t forget to watch Northpole the movie,  on the Hallmark channel.

Oh, and before you go, please check out this cute video about Hallmark Northpole and the Magic of Childhood. (I may have cried, and I may want a pet Reindeer.)