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A huge thank you to everyone who entered our Animals at Play eco-friendly Christmas decoration competition. We loved seeing how much creativity, care and imagination went into each entry. From natural materials gathered outdoors to clever reuse of everyday items, your decorations showed just how playful and planet-friendly festive crafting can be.
Snow globe winter village
Made using recycled tissue paper and old Christmas cards, Morgan created a detailed papier-mâché snow globe with a cosy winter village inside. A wonderfully imaginative scene with lots of thought and patience behind it.
Wood and wool Christmas tree
This sturdy wooden tree wrapped in recycled wool is designed to last for years to come. Simple, elegant and thoughtfully made, it’s a great example of a decoration that can be reused again and again.
Pine cone nature decoration
Using natural materials, Daisy transformed a pine cone into a delicate winter decoration. Its simple, nature-led design perfectly captures the spirit of eco-friendly making.
Natural festive scene
Built from bark, wood and found natural materials, Thomas’s decoration is full of tiny details, from the fireplace to the decorated tree. A beautifully crafted scene that feels both festive and timeless.
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This competition asked you to design a secret egg hidden somewhere in nature, and your entries went far beyond the obvious nests and burrows. Eggs arrived disguised as pine cones, floating on leaf boats, perched on volcano ledges, tucked into cloud cover and even masquerading as chocolate Easter eggs to fool foxes. Thank you to every reader who took up the challenge and thought like a parent bird, fish, reptile or imaginary creature trying to keep their precious egg safe.
We were swept away by the response to this competition. Letters arrived from rivers across the world – the Thames, the Mississippi and many more unnamed waterways – each one brimming with personality, passion and a genuine love of the natural world. You gave your rivers voices that were worried, hop...
Somewhere beneath a grassy field right now, a tiny insect is building an underground loudspeaker. Male mole crickets engineer horn-shaped burrows that amplify their calls hundreds of metres into the night air – and your child can recreate the same science at home using nothing but cardboard and a phone. This hands-on experiment explores sound, shape and natural engineering in a way that is genuinely surprising. No screens, no special equipment, just a brilliant idea borrowed from nature.
