dress-up beard

A few days ago we had some friends over and the children were playing Christmas Santa.  This game started off as fancy silk wrapped present delivery game and progressed into making a sleigh from overturned chairs for Santa to sit in as he (she) flew over familiar houses deciding where to drop precious gifts.  There was an Ice Queen complete with fancy dress and crown somewhere in there and when Naiya wanted dress up for Santa, I whipped up this quick beard.  (I have to confess that this idea wasn't my own.  I saw something like it somewhere recently but can't for the life of me recall where that was.)  Surprisingly, Naiya thought it was pretty nifty.  (I say surprisingly because often when I try to interject creations of my own into her games, they're promptly rejected.)

We used this felted wool yarn and simply tied it at both ends to fit around her ears.

We then cut a bunch of shorter bits and looped and tied them along the yarn until the "beard" was full.

These could, of course, be used for gnome or old man play as well, and another cord braided across and attached would serve as a cute little mustache!

I have some friends with boys who love dress up play and although we made this for girls, I was thinking it would be an especially great addition to a small gentleman's wardrobe.

It could even be attached directly onto a gnome hat!