What to watch: Pinkalicious and Peterrific (Gingerbread House / Christmas Tree Trouble)
Where to find it: PBS KIDS
Run time: 23 min
Best for ages: 2 and up
Why We Recommend Pinkalicious and Peterrific
Pinkalicious and Peterrific is a highly creative show focused on two fun-loving siblings. In each episode, they can be found immersed in crafts, music, or imaginary play. Their recent Christmas episode is no exception. First, we see Pinkalicious and her brother Peter working on a gingerbread house. After the house gets ruined, the kids work together to turn lemons into lemonade and end up with a beautiful gingerbread Christmas tree. The second segment of this episode was my favorite. As Pinkalicious is helping her mom decorate the tree, she accidentally drops the box of ornaments, breaking them into pieces. Their Dad is able to buy a few ornaments but the tree is left looking sparse. Their mom suggests they make a paper garland for the tree out of craft paper and glitter. However, even with the garland on, the family is still missing their ornaments. They realize the reason the ornaments were so special was because they reminded them of particular memories and people in their lives. So they decided to make new ornaments out of other items that are special to them. In the end, they end up with a beautiful tree and the realization that Christmas is all about love.
You can find Pinkalicious and Peterrific airing daily on PBS. Episodes can also be viewed on PBSKIDS.org and the PBS KIDS app. In our house, my four-year-old daughter, Everly, watches it on the PBS KIDS Roku app.
Candy Christmas Trees
This episode inspires so many opportunities for fun activities with your little ones. You could build a gingerbread house, decorate your tree together, or make your own ornaments or garland. Since our tree is already decorated and our family tradition is to make gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve, we decided to make Candy Christmas Trees.
Estimated activity time: 30 minutes + (Everly enjoyed doing this for an hour)
Materials needed:
Ice cream cones
Frosting (see easy recipe below to make your own)
Candy and sprinkles for decorating
Easy Frosting Recipe
Stick of butter (softened)
2-3 cups of powdered sugar
Milk
Optional: food coloring if you want different color options. Everly, of course, wanted pink.
Directions: Mix butter and 2 cups of powdered sugar with a mixer on medium speed. If your frosting seems too runny, add more powdered sugar. If it's too thick, add milk one TBSP at a time. You will want it to be a bit on the thicker side to get the sprinkles and candy to stick. We wanted white and pink frosting so I removed half of the frosting before mixing in the food coloring.
We used plastic knives to spread the frosting on our cones and then we just decorated to our hearts' content. We each started with two cones but after Everly finished, she decided she wanted to make two more, one for Santa and one for Mrs. Claus.
One thing that really stood out to me about this episode was that there wasn't a focus on gifts. I don't even recall if they were mentioned at all. While we all love getting presents, I wanted to make sure the message of this show came through. While we were decorating our trees, I asked Everly...
Why is Christmas such a special time? (besides the gifts)
How can we show love to others at Christmas time?
Share the fun you are having with us on Social Media! Tag us @curiouscouchpotatoes when you try any of our activities.
Jeanette's Educational Insights:
Families have holiday traditions, some more some less. Identifying with your family's traditions helps a child embrace their role in the family and connect the generations. Whether it's who gets to put the star or angel at the top of the tree or light the first Hanukkah candle in your home; it presents an opportunity to discuss family and traditions. Another opportunity is to create a new tradition special to your core family. These conversations help children understand social structures and norms, which leads to better social skills once they venture out from the family. So as you get creative and you decorate the "trees", use it as a springboard to begin conversations about your own ways to decorate, family traditions, and what the meaning of this holiday means to you and your family. Another line of conversation is the theme of turning lemons into lemonade. While making a batch of lemonade to have with your treats, share how some things that don’t always quite work out can be looked at in a new way to still have a positive outcome. How many times has your child attempted something that didn’t look exactly like they wanted? Conversations around how mistakes often lead to new discoveries are amazing ways to learn.