Local kids get festive during ‘Christmas in July’ event
Mrs. Claus and Beasley Acuff are captivated by a Christmas in July creation. (Theresa Lewis Photography)
Christmas twice a year? That was the case this past month when Bakersville’s Christmas ‘Neath the Roan Program and Mitchell County Cooperative Extension 4-H teamed up to create “Christmas in July” for two groups of area kids.
The program offered courses for 5-7-year-olds and 8-12-year-olds. The youngest group colored gingerbread houses and created gingerbread stories.
The children used their creativity to create a sentence to complete the story. Using a felt board, they made a story using houses, roofs, Christmas trees, snow, clouds and the sun.
The second story used the same components but they were glued onto a board to be entered in the Mountain State Fair.
Children also painted with rolling pins and decorated gingerbread men.
Mrs. Claus made an appearance. She’ll help kids and their parents identify categories to place their creations in the Mountain State Fair for a chance to win ribbons.
In the sessions for the older group, kids made colored pencil art and painted designs on rocks. They made foam core gingerbread houses, too.
They made roofs with colored mat boards and decorated clay objects. Using a combination of mediums, they made each gingerbread man unique.
They took home materials to make a gingerbread family. The family, of course, comes complete with dogs and cats.
4-H intern Jessy-Kate Glenn, 4-H program assistant Jennifer Swann, Bakersville Area Merchants’ Association marketing assistant Abby Cook, Christmas ‘Neath the Roan photographer and volunteer Theresa Lewis and 4-H volunteer Sharon Runion-Rowland helped make the program possible.
The Mountain State Fair is Sept. 9-18 at the WNC Agricultural Center near Asheville. It’ll feature crafts made by local students.