From the Archives: Mom's Sticker Book, Redux

Editor's note: This post from 2009 is one of the most visited posts at the blog. I "made" these sticker books as group holiday gift for my kids and their cousins two ago. They loved them (so did the grown-ups), and it makes a great gift for kids of all ages. The notebooks are still available from Frecklebox.com and you can buy stickers pretty much anywhere. Enjoy!

Last year, my daughter R. (then 5 years old) and my niece A. (then 6 years old) found my old grade-school stickerbook- a beat up, stuffed-to-the-gills spiral notebook that I used to house my precious collection of "smelly stickers", Smurf stickers, and very un-PC Garbage Pail Kids stickers. There are even a few errant Ronald Reagan stickers in there (in fourth grade, I was not yet a Democrat). The year was 1982, and with no DS or Wii to occupy my time, I was a sheltered nine-year-old who methodically added my latest stickers to my notebook. The kids were quite taken with this retro object- it was like they had found something from the Smithsonian. They asked if they could start putting their own sticker collections into books.




So for Hanukkah last year, I gave my kids and each of their seven cousins (ages toddler through 8 years) the materials to make their very own sticker books, 21st-century style. Each child got a plain spiral notebook plus a ziploc full of stickers I had chosen especially for him or her (plus a handful of vintage Smelly Stickers- which I snagged on Ebay- and some Obama/Biden stickers to mark their recent victory). This stupendously simple and affordable gift was a hit. R. spent all of the next 12 months filling hers with various stickers from our travels, and sometimes wrote in little "stories" in the margin. She has just one page left and is ready for her next volume.


This Hanukkah I am making the next installment of the present a bit more "special" by giving each kid their own personalized spiral notebook from Frecklebox.com (assorted designs, $9.95 each)


And they'll each get new stickers from Oriental Trading (try out the Super Sticker Assortment for $14.99)

Plus the requisite Stinky Stickers ($11.99 for a variety pack) from Amazon.com.

I highly recommend this as a simple, affordable, and fun holiday gift for kids- and something to help them make a "collection" of their own that their children will admire someday (and will say, Obama who?). Do you have other holiday gift ideas that involve helping children start- or continue- a collection of something?