Pinatas of the Past

Someone yesterday was asking what to do to celebrate the coming Solstice with a group of children. It got me reminiscing about our Solstice pinatas when the girls were little. Every year we would make our own pinata by covering a balloon, or more than one balloon, with newspaper, flour and water paste, and colored tissue paper. Each year the design was different.
If we were in a place where we could have a fire, the scraps of the pinata would be gathered up after it was broken on the Winter Solstice, to start a bonfire as soon as it started getting dark. Paper mache burns very well.

So, since I'm feeling nostalgic for the days when I had two little girls who could take turns hitting a pinata (with Blaze being the only little one around the house now, we don't do pinatas very often), I have gotten into the old photographs to show some of the pinatas we made in the past.


1994 was the earliest pinata making.
Ula and Nika (Ages 5 years old and 3 years old) working on the Sun shaped Pinata









1995's pinata was a snowman made using 2 balloons:







The following year we did a crescent moon:






Even the grown-ups would get a turn, because our pinatas were usually stronger than they really needed to be and it would take extra strength to break them.


Then there would be the scramble for prizes


The Christmas Ornament Pinata was the last one we made ourselves.