Basya Tsybukmakher
Among all the pre-holiday tasks, there is one your children will most certainly remind you about: making "kartisei bracha," notes with wishes for a sweet new year (and of course, the wish must be backed up with something sweet :)).
I will tactfully say nothing about the fact that sweet greetings for 30+ classmates, especially if you have several children of school or kindergarten age, can put a dent in the family budget... because there is simply no getting around this "sacred custom" among children in Israel :) and of course, they will remind you of it at just the right moment!
So here are a couple of ideas for minimizing the cost of making dozens of greeting cards—and I mean not only the money, but also a resource no less precious: Mom's time!
First point—what goes into the greeting cards (usually a "toffee" candy):
whatever you do, don't fall for "I'll do it all myself" and don't hand the sticky "gold reserve" over to the children! The ironclad rule "Mom attaches the candies to cards that are already finished" will help you keep at least a third of the candies from disappearing during the creative process :)
Second point—the notes with wishes themselves:
First of all, if you like streamlining things (and are the lucky owners of a photocopier), you can persuade your child to write a greeting without the recipient's name 1 time, and then make copies of it in the quantity you need.
If, however, you are fond of good old handwritten letters (or better yet, are glad the children will spend the next half hour practicing their calligraphy :)), you will need to give them paper to write on. These could be special, pretty little Rosh Hashanah notepads, but since we are talking about how to cut costs, I strongly recommend ordinary colored "squares" of note paper.
A couple of ideas for decorating these notes quickly and beautifully:
1) A busy mom's favorite—a little envelope folded from a square and "sealed" with a sticker:
You can put not only a candy in it, but also other sweets of a suitable shape—a hard candy, a wafer, and so on.2) An envelope variation that requires very little cutting:
3) The "apple" and "honey jar" shapes are always popular. They are also easy to make from square note paper (you can take several sheets at once and cut them out together). The candy is attached with a stapler!
And you can use the scraps for a craft with younger children:
And if your daughter's tender soul calls for something even "cuter," you can make lollipop flowers (I didn't have a single lollipop at home, so we made a mock Chupa Chups lollipop :) for illustration):
UPD: and a couple more interesting ideas from (and for) older children—a pocket note with a pomegranate and collage notes:
Wishing one another a sweet year is, in fact, an ancient and sacred custom among our people, so thank G-d that our children do not let us, harried and busy as we are, forget it :)
Wishing you successful preparations for Rosh Hashanah and lots of nachas from your little ones!