By Karen Parr-Moody
CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. – Middle Tennessee might get a dusting of white for Christmas – but there’s only a slim chance of significant snow, according to a National Weather Service report. That said, while children may or may not be gathering snowflakes, moms and dads can still gather ideas for when the snow and cold hits.
“There’s lots of fun to be had in snow,” says Karen Morrow, a mom of two who is originally from Massachusetts, where blustery winters are the norm.
Last year she came up with a flurry of ideas for enjoying homemade fun in the cold and snow with her two young boys. These ranged from making big, frozen orbs to snowflake observation kits.
“We had so much cold last year,” Morrow says. “We froze water in balloons and the boys played with them after we peeled the balloons off. I’m not sure that it’s the best idea to let your kids roll frozen balls of ice down the slide and smash them together, though!”
Giant, colored “marbles” are easy to make with balloons, water and food coloring./Photo courtesy of Pinterest.
The craft of freezing balloons filled with water has been making the rounds on Pinterest – and for good reason. You simply fill balloons with water, then for a special twist add food coloring. Once they are frozen, you cut the balloons off and – voila! – you have giant, frozen, colored marbles. (And since the temperatures are currently forecasted for freezing on Christmas Eve, such marbles would make beautiful decorations in one’s yard.)
Another easy craft Morrow does during winter is simple: She makes snowflake observation kits.
Morrow encourages her young boys to observe snowflake structure on dark pieces of paper she keeps in the freezer./Photo courtesy of Karen Morrow.
“I keep a few pieces of dark paper in the freezer to take outside and catch snowflakes,” she says. “They still melt quickly, but you can really see them well and get pictures. Especially when it’s warmer and snowing big, fluffy flakes. You can really see the snowflake structure then.”
And don’t forget to keep food coloring mixed with water in squirt bottles. In case we do get a big snow, these can be used as tools for making for “Picasso-like paintings” and coloring snowmen, according to Morrow.
Then there’s that old standby, snow cream.
“We put out clean containers, catch snow and add a can of sweetened condensed milk,” Morrow says.
Now, the only thing left to do is pray to the snow gods for a dusting – or a deluge – of the white stuff.
When there’s enough snow to build a snowman, Morrow’s two boys paint them by using food coloring mixed with water in squirt bottles./Photo courtesy of Karen Morrow.
Karen Parr-Moody began a career as a New York journalist, working as a fashion reporter for Women’s Wear Daily, a beauty editor for Young Miss and a beauty and fashion writer for both In Style and People magazines. Regionally, she has been a writer at The Leaf-Chronicle newspaper and currently writes about arts and culture for Nashville Arts magazine each month.