Tip of the Week - Start a New Tradition for the First Day of School!
I recently read about a charming tradition practiced in Germany on the first day of school and couldn’t wait to share it with Busy Bee readers! Children in Germany actually look forward to the start of the school year because they know they’ll be greeted that morning with a Schultuete, or sugar cone, which is an oversized paper cone filled with fun school supplies, candy and small toys!
This custom dates back to about 1810 when the sugar cone was filled only with sweets, but little trinkets like pencils, crayons and erasers are more popular today. Vintage photographs depict school children holding sugar cones that were as big as they were, overflowing with all sorts of gifts!
Busy parents like us can create our own version by forming a cone from a sheet of poster board and covering it with colorful wrapping paper. You can decide just how big you’d like the cone to be (and in turn how many things you’ll need to fill it!) by adjusting the size of the poster board! Tissue paper tucked into the top of the sugar cone is the finishing touch!
Some clever ideas for filling a sugar cone for your child include:
- Animal Shaped Rubber Bands (uncommongoods.com
)
- Flip Flop Paper Clips (lillianvernon.com
)
- Cute Hair Accessories (simplemeboutique.com)
- Personalized Pencils (lillianvernon.com
)
- Scented Colored Pencils (or Smencils!) (uncommongoods.com
)
- Vera Bradley Pencils and Highlighters (verabradley.com
)
Pencil Cases (boys: oompa.com; girls: littlemissmatched.com)- School Year Journal (modernseed.com)
And lastly, if getting crafty just isn’t for you, Chasing Fireflies offers a premade and prefilled colorful fabric cone! There’s one for boys and one for girls and the included trinkets are cute, fun and useful! (chasing-fireflies.com, $68)
Consider introducing your children to this very sweet tradition this September and be prepared for some very happy kids who will actually celebrate the first day of school!
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Tags: celebrating the first day of school, fun ideas for the first day of school, first day of school, school, first day, fun, kids, celebrating, schultuete, gifts, unique, traditions
Very cute idea! With my 5 year old starting K-5, I wanted to do something special to commemorate his first day! This will be a fun thing for me to create for him this weekend. As an aside, I make monogrammed decals and can create a custom decal with your child’s name or monogram that you can use to embellish ANYTHING- a toy chest, locker, notebook, lap tray, etc. Thanks for looking! http://www.electrasmonograms.com/