Teachers Christmas Present Idea - Say it with a chocolate bar or two or three or..... !

Each year as Christmas draws near, amongst the other people I have to consider presents for, I  know that I need to think about what to get my kids' teachers. Being a teacher, I think of the gifts over the years that I have received and the ones I do like most were the book vouchers, or the items that I never thought I would get! Its always a surprise when a student or parent comes into school to give you a present. Its a warm feeling and it makes you feel good about what you have done for that student. You know you have left a good impression on both parent and child.
I have loved all my kids' teachers this year. They have all done a sterling job in teaching them and putting up with their little imperfections....little as in child little!! I would love to give them each a car, or a washing machine or something that I know would be super helpful in their lives. But since I am not Ellen D or Oprah, I will turn to the next best thing...my craft! I love to make things that will leave an impression, well, I at least hope to anyway.

This year, I was racking my creative brain, trying to think of something that would be outstanding. As time kept getting away from me and I quickly realised last week I had to come up with something good, I was reminded of an experience when I was studying for my HSC. A good friend came to visit with her mother and she gave me a card that had a creative message using lollies and chocolate bars. It was so cool, and it made my day. The experience has stayed with me all these years, but I so wish I had kept the card, so I could tell you what it said. I do remember Extra chewy being in the list, as well as a Twirl chocolate bar. Anyway, this was my inspiration for what I ended up doing. I thought about all the types of chocolate bars available to me (in Australia) and I wrote a little message to go with it. Here is a photo I remembered to take at last minute.

I then rolled the cardboard up and tied it with some green and white bakers twine. I have to admit, I was a little excited to have them go off this morning. I was happy with my efforts and I thought if this was coming my way, it would make me smile. I was ecstatic to find out that all the teachers loved their chocolate messages and were actually taking them to the staff room to show other teachers, woo hoo!! I did the same message for all of them, as their were 4 altogether (1 child had a job share situation). This is the message I came up with, with the types of chocolate bars in capitols:

Just wanted to take some TIMEOUT to say that I think you are a STAR and definitely not a FLAKE-y teacher. It has been a BOUNTY- full year and at times it was no PICNIC, but now the SUMMER (ROLL) is here you can DREAM and be BUBBLY which will give you a BOOST for next year. I know sometimes it seemed as though I was dreaming of MARS or maybe even living on the MILKWAY, but I was actually listening and am grateful for the BOUNTY of skills you taught me and that my knowledge is now (CHERRY) RIPE and ready for the year that awaits me. I think it might even be safe to say that maybe you have helped me become a bit of a SMARTIE(S). Thankyou also for putting up with the 'occasional' SNICKERS that I would make.

You are a MARVELLOUS CREATIONs.

Have a wonderful Christmas and a safe New Year.

Feel free to use this if you want to do something like this for a neighbour or family member for Christmas or any other occasion. I wrote out each card because I couldn't access the computer last night, but I would say that pasting out typed sentences would be the better way to go. I would also recommend a Sharpie, permanent marker, or white label stickers to cover up the parts of the chocolate names you don't need. For example, for STARBAR, all I needed was STAR, so I crossed this out the best I could with may thin Sharpie liner, but you can still see it from a distance. Its really not a big deal, but I would have preferred to be able to do that. Good luck with your version and leave a comment if you have any questions.