Ah, Christmas is over and it’s time to pack away the decorations and return to our regular cleaning routine. But before you do, don’t forget to give your carpets a good christmas carpet clean!

We all love the holidays, but they can often leave our carpets looking a little worse for wear. From accidental spills to dropped food, it’s important to make sure our carpets are thoroughly cleaned before we get into the new year.

We find that just vacuuming out all the abrasive dirt and foreign material is a great start to ensuring the longevity of your carpets. But after a hard Christmas session, sometimes your carpet needs a little more.

Luckily, Drytron Carpet Dry Cleaning has your back! Our professional carpet dry cleaning services offer a deep clean that will remove even the toughest stains and odors. We use eco-friendly products to make sure your carpets are as clean as can be, while also being gentle on the environment.

Plus, our dry cleaning process is really quick and easy–you don’t even need to move your furniture! We’ll have your carpets looking good as new in no time, so you can move into the new year with a clean start, and that always feels good.

So don’t let those post-holiday messes get you down–let Drytron Carpet Dry Cleaning help you get your carpets back in shape. You’ll be glad you called for that after Christmas carpet clean!

As we enter the silly season and start feeling festive, it’s a great time to make your home look merry and bright. With school holidays starting, a fun way to keep them busy is making Christmas crafts together.

We’ve put together a few ideas for you to make with the little ones, or if they are old enough, help get them started and let their creativity flow. Ps. You don’t have to be a kid to enjoy these fun activities. Put some cheesy Christmas music on and get crafting!

Salt dough ornaments:

This is a lovely way to make special ornaments you can keep and hang on the Christmas tree year after year – and they also make extra special Christmas gifts. If you don’t already have Christmas cutters at home, you can pick them up fairly easily at most shops and supermarkets – and the bonus is, you can use them to make Christmas cookies too!

Of course you can also cut your shapes free form yourself – or trace around a cutout of some printed pictures you find online or in a magazine.

Here is a simple recipe:

Combine 4 cups all-purpose flour, 1 cup salt, and 1 1/2 cups of warm water in a mixing bowl. Knead until the dough is firm and smooth. Roll out dough and cut desired shapes (use a straw or a chopstick to poke a hole for hanging). Bake at 150°C until dry, approximately 1 hour; cool completely.

Once you have baked and cooled your ornaments, the fun begins. Paint them with your choice of colour and design, then tie a ribbon through and hang them on your tree.

If you have a baby or small child, a cute idea is to make fingerprint decorations for Grandparents. These can be painted and given to them as a special gift.

Gingerbread Shapes

My family has always found christmas gingerbread shapes are a fun, festive way to get into the holiday spirit. Making gingerbread shapes is a great activity to do with family and friends. You can find gingerbread dough in the store, or make your own from scratch. Once you have your dough, have fun cutting out gingerbread people, trees, and other holiday shapes. Decorate with icing, hundreds and thousands, and other edible adornments for a delicious and creative treat.

Enjoy your homemade gingerbread shapes with a cup of hot chocolate for a perfect holiday experience. Don’t worry if anyone makes a mess – these tips for crafty stain removal may come in handy right about now.

Festive treat jars:

Find yourself a medium sized glass jar: either a recycled jam jar or purchase some inexpensive jars from a discount store. You should also be able to pick up some fun things there for your children to decorate the jars with, such as Christmas stickers, stars and glitter. You can also make a reindeer jar, by using superglue to stick brown pipe cleaner antlers to the lids, with googly eyes and a fluffly pom-pom nose on the side to make its face. Once your jars are decorated and dry, full them with your favourite treats or cookies and tie a ribbon around them. These make great gifts for teachers or party favours for Christmas day.

Twig ornaments:

Everyone should have some twigs in their garden or on the street in front of your house. Send the kids out on a hunt for twigs while you get some work done. Once they have collected them, choose some wool, fine wire or twine and wood or craft glue and get creative. Break the twigs according to the size you want for the shapes you choose. Eg: Make a Christmas tree by gluing three twigs together to make a triangle and then use a small one as the base/stem of the tree. Or you can make a Christmas tree shape by placing the sticks a few centimeters apart, getting shorter as you move up the tree, and wire them or tie them together so they hang in the shape of a tree. Thread some coloured twine or wool around the twigs to decorate theme, and add any other decorations you have, like some old beach shells or a few pieces of broken tinsel. Tie some ribbon around the top and hang it in a window, or on your wall. If you want to paint your twigs too, then go for it! Another idea is to make some twiggy stars and paint them, or cover them with glitter, and hang them by your windows or door.

Christmas cards:

Homemade cards are very special and are appreciated by so many, especially Grandparents. If you have young children and want to go the simpler route, fingerprint artwork is a great option. Use finger paint and create a string of colourful fingerprint ‘lights’, these will brighten any card. Slightly older kids might enjoy making a paper Christmas wreath card, by cutting out different sized circles (which is great cutting practice too), using offcuts of wrapping paper. Feather the edges and stick them together in a circle with the edges fluffed up, to create a beautiful wreath. You can even recycle old Christmas cards by cutting out the pictures from the front and sticking them on some new cards, then drawing a picture or design around them. For the more advanced options, a pop-up snowman or Father Christmas is a fun option, or why not try making a Christmas village silhouette.

Once you’ve finished making and decorating your home with all your new crafty Christmas creations, prepare your home for visitors with Poinsettia plants and Christmas lights, give your carpets a clean and prepare for the silly season in style!