editors' tips: fairy rings
When I was little I was obsessed with fairies. Probably because my mother taught me how to make fairy rings, which are a special places for fairies to dance and feast. Making a fairy ring is an easy and fun thing to do with a child: the idea is simply to put flower petals in a circle outside, preferably near moss, which my mom always said was "fairy grass." Then you add a snack to lure the fairies into your ring (breadcrumbs are perfect fairy food), and you leave the ring alone overnight. Important: you can't check to see if the fairies have come until the next morning. If they have come (and of course, they always do) the petals will be strewn in a haphazard fashion from all the dancing they got up to and the breadcrumbs will be gone.
Most important of all to any child, the fairies will leave a token of thanks: it's usually something as tiny as a single candy placed in the center of the ring under a petal or leaf. Frankly it doesn't matter what the fairies leave: anything looks wondrous when you've been anticipating it all night.
I made many fairy rings as a kid. Now that I have my own little girl I have an excuse to make them again. Granted ours are hardly ever nearly as elaborate as the fancy one pictured here (since I don't usually photograph them for Cookie!), but you can get as basic or as carried away as you want. For this one, we collected acorn caps for breadcrumb bowls and added tiny ceramic bonsai houses (for fairies to sleep in after all that partying). My daughter also placed a marble in the middle to make things extra-magical. Morning of course brought a fairy gift: a single strawberry Mentos in tin foil.
Even if you don't have a garden you can still make a fairy ring: I've made them on decks in deep winter (snow fairies also like to dance and feast); I've made them out of pine cones and stones...Not only do fairy rings play to kids' imaginations, but they also show that even the smallest present can be a treasure.
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