I’m really excited about this gift idea from the always brilliant Sarah Jane of Sarah Jane Studios. I’ve been looking for something for a sweet and precocious little two-and-a-half-year-old and I think this Nutcracker Suite Puppet Theater will suit her perfectly. (This is a child who, during the Royal Wedding festivities last year, carried the back of her mother’s long skirt in her little hands through a store saying, “I’m Pippa.”) I can just picture her making Clara, Fritz, and the other characters from the Nutcracker Suite dance around on her own little stage.
The downloads are available here for only $7.50. You’ll need some good quality white cardstock to print the illustrations on or, if your printer won’t let you use heavy paper, you can print the pieces on regular paper and then glue them to cardstock. The set comes with full instructions, but just know that you’ll also need a few extra items to put the theater together: a cereal box for the theater itself, small brads (the kind used for scrapbooking), small wooden dowels or BBQ skewers, a safety pin, and tape.
My plan is to make life easier for her busy mother by printing out all the illustrations and assembling everything ahead of time rather than just sending her the pieces. That’s my plan, anyway. We’ll see how it goes. I’ll tuck in a CD of Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker Suite and send the package on its merry way. And I think I’d better make one for me—I mean Lily—while I’m at it.
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