Can you guys post pictures of your nature tables?? I have four in my house... one in each of the kids rooms, the big on in the dining room and the smaller one in the livingroom. They look good, (esp the kids rooms) but I want more ideas. Help??

Oh and who does Father Christmas? Would he be one the nature table? We think of Father Christmas as Santa Clause... yep, my pagan, yoga loving kids believe in Santa... I just think it is too much fun to miss out on. But I like the idea of a nature loving Father Christmas as Santa. He brings all kinds of cool nature stuff... like tree blocks, and crystals for their stockings. Small wood animals and little maple sugar candies. I just love that idea... and I love to foster that in my kids. You guys??

Thanks!

Love Val

I just made a needle felt North Wind. I modeled him after a book I just read max called a Necklace of Raindrops. GREAT BOOK!! The author is Joan Aiken. Anyway my man is like father winter/north wind.

I have 2 nature tables. One that the kids destroy DAILY! and I just hung a 6 foot long shelf in the living room that I am using as MY nature table/shrine. It looks so good, I wish I could post a pic. Maybe you'll see it when you came down!!

Our nature table is portable right now, meaning we clean it up after playing with it and setting it up for the afternoon on the dining room table, lol. We don't have room yet for a full one. Soon, I hope.

Anyway, this pagan family calls Santa "Father Frost". He's modeled after the Russian beliefs, and his name in Russian translates to Father Frost. I typically use blue and silver as my primary colors, more winter than christmas. That being said, my 4yo is old enough to make the connection, and still uses the term Santa, lol.

In a few years we're going to start attaching traditions and beliefs from around the world to our holiday. It'll be in conjunction with geography lessons in school (we home school). I think this is one of my most genius ideas because it allows us to experience the magic and wonder of the idea of Santa, without feeling guilty for "believing" in a christian version. We'll include Santa on our tradition tour, but each year will be different so the magic lives, but the full on belief stays right where we want it to be, lol. I'm probably not making any sense. It's early, lol.