Everyone loves to see decorations at Christmas, even the birds. Especially if those ornaments are edible for the birds. This time of year is especially hard on our little feathered friends, who are trying to find food that isn’t so abundant now.
This fun little project is super easy, great for the kids to help with and the finished product is super cute and so welcomed by the birds this time of year.
This really requires very few things to get going and even if you don’t have any bits, they’re easy to find .
First you will need string for your fruit to hang on, and apple and an orange, some peanut butter and some wild bird seed.
The first job is to slice the fruit into 1/2 inch slices. this might be something to get an adult to help with if you’re doing this with children. Everything else is child friendly.
Next we start to thread the fruit. I used an old crochet hook to pull the string through the fruit, but a large plastic bodkin needle would be a great substitute.
Bring the string in and out of the fruit slices in a sewing action. Remember to leave a gap between the slices so that they hang nicely. I alternated the orange and apple slices, but if you only have apple, that looks great too.
Keep threading the fruit onto the string until all the slices are used up. make sure to leave a long enough ‘tail’ of string either end of your garland so that you can tie it up later.
Now comes the messy bit. Dip the apple slices into the peanut butter. I used the smooth peanut butter as I found it easier to work with, but you can use whatever is in your cupboard. Resist the urge to eat it at this point, apple and peanut butter is delicious, just save these for the birds ?
Now you can dip the sticky peanut butter into the seeds. This has a duel effect. Firstly, the seeds stick perfectly to the peanut butter. Secondly, it makes it a lot easier to resist eating your project?
Keep going until you have dipped all of your apple slices and you are finished.
Time to find somewhere to hang your garland outside for the birds where you can admire your work.
I have to say it looks great on our tree outside, but any tree or trellis would do.
Go on, get creative and feed the birds at the same time. Plus with the added bonus of keeping the kids entertained for a while.
Merry Christmas
Sam x