Rangers Christmas Tree Decorations

It's important not to stick to the easier, safer options as a Ranger leader.  They need to get the opportunity to push their boundaries and with that in mind I decided not to do the usual gentle Christmas food type crafts this year.

So I sourced a log from the local wood thinning exercise in the summer, a bought a saw, and borrowed a wood saw frame and asked my ex-husband to pop round and give me some advice and cut up some wood rounds in advance so if all else failed we had something to get up going.  Wise words of his were - "that saw is rubbish borrow this one" and "don't drill on your kitchen work surface!"

So 10 rangers arrived at my house (I couldn't even begin to imagine sorting this out in the small carpeted church hall we meet in) and they sawed.

Some got stuck in, others were very tentative and really found it hard but they got there in the end and each has a wood round.

 They drilled, right through the wood round, my bread board and onto the wood under that!!

 I had borrowed pyrography kit from Guide HQ and set up a 3 place station, I wasn't prepared to supervise more than that at once, these tools get really hot.

 And they, and I, were really impressed with results.

 The reindeer was the original idea I gave them but they had a go at other things.

 One made a full family of reindeer for her family

I'm really pleased with how well they turned out, how they faced the challenge, were safe and sensible and of myself for being prepared to do something that was a challenge for me too.