After Christmas - Fun With Cardboard Boxes

The day after Christmas, or Boxing Day as it's known in many countries around the world, is a great day to make use of all the empty boxes left over after Christmas.  It might not be the intended purpose of the day, but as the point of the holiday open for debate, I figured it could be as good a tradition as any.

Not to mention, it was a bumper year for excellent boxes at our house.  My sister, alone, sent three boxes, one inside another, thanks to some confusion with the shipping guy.  The children snatched those immediately...

...claiming to be making some sort of snowman disguise.

I have yet to see the finished product, but the project has provided quite a few hours of engrossing entertainment for them all.

I've been busy myself, taking down the tree, and boxing up the Christmas decorations.  But, I couldn't resist taking a few hours to make use of the children's scraps, along with a few smaller boxes...

...to try out a 3d dinosaur puzzle template I spotted over at instructables.com.

The template is actually for a 6 foot, wooden, dinosaur puzzle.   I printed it half-sized to make allowance for the amount of cardboard, and floor space I had to use.  

Wood would probably be more stable. The boys helped me sure up some of the weak, bendy spots on our dinosaur's legs, and spine with craft sticks and duct tape, and we were able to get it to stand - if not very well. 

As for the puzzle itself, it was very much like putting together one of those little boxed sets, only without all the splinters, broken pieces, and sanding.  And, the large size made it a lot of fun to pose and play around.

So, what did you do for Boxing Day?