Nuclear family, blended family, dysfunctional family…every clan is one of a kind.

Which is why we love the Modern Play House ($20.56) and Modern Play Family ($14.14) kits from MoMA. Your brood can create a miniature house with over 50 design options for walls, furniture, flooring, lighting and décor and a bespoke family (2 adults, 3 children, 2 dogs, 1 cat and a doghouse) with the 150+ mix-and-match hair and accessories pieces.

Now that’s putting family first.

Modern Play House and Family (sold separately) at Amazon.ca

Hot Cross Buns ordered?

Baskets assembled?

Husband’s bunny costume picked up from the cleaners? (Don’t laugh, Ben Affleck has one.)

Now how about dinner decor?

Cotton yarn, glue and balloons are all you need to make these jaunty decorative eggs, and, alas, there will be no need to hide them.

Okay hubby, hop to it!

For step-by-step instructions, click here.

We all want to foster creativity in our kids, just not on our white upholstery.

Now you can relax and let your kids be kids at the new Vancouver art studio Collage Collage.

Canisters of fun art supplies (day-glo pompoms!), modern books and gifts surround a huge custom-made communal table that serves as a craft centre. Kids get one-on-one instruction, sometimes inspired by a famous graphic designer like Italy's Bruno Munari.

Now that's something to hang on the fridge.

Drop-in classes, $10. Birthday parties available. 621 Kingsway (at 15th and Fraser), Vancouver, 604-569-1929, www.collagecollage.ca

If your tot asks “Why? Why? Why?” more than a fourth year Philosophy major, give her something to really ponder with the creatively crafty This Is Not A Book by Kerry Smith.

Unlike traditional “connect the dot” activities, this illustrated guide requires imagination and input from little minds, with brain-tingling tasks like recording time travel and using the book to make an original action sculpture.

You may not have the answer to life’s eternal questions, but now you’ll always have a response to “I’m bored.”

This is Not a Book, from $11.68 at Amazon.ca

Tear them away from Rock Band for three seconds.

Modern Kid Office is a funky collection of art-oriented items like flourescent pencil crayons ($6), ’70s hypotrochoid drawing kits with retro Bic pens ($9) and 3D drawing sets ($8) that’ll keep them occupied with far less damage to your eardrums.

Now if they would just fetch your coffee for you.

Purchase Modern Kid Office at www.cocoacrayon.com

All kids love to paint on their clothes. And you have the laundry pile to prove it.

Give them artistic license with paint-your-own rain boots kits by MyDesgn that come with white boots, paints, brushes, plus paint removal pads so they can do the clean-up this time (and paint them all over again). 

MyDesign boots, $38 at EIO, www.eiokids.ca

One too many rum eggnogs made you miss the One of a Kind Show and a fight with the flu meant you couldn’t crawl out of bed for the Eastside Culture Crawl either.

There’s no reason you can’t still get your hands on something handmade.

Poppytalk Handmade is a choice collection of handcrafted goods—from dishware to jewellery—curated by Vancouver blogger Jan of Poppytalk. Like a virtual Portobello market, the site showcases select artisans and designers every month from near and abroad with links direct to their Etsy shops. Just launched, its hefty Holiday Market is chock-full of fancies.

Among our favourites featured: Torontonian Miss Crowland’s custom silhouettes ($8-$95), Jen Khoshbin’s hunting trophies made of patterned paper ($345), Alicia Bock’s painterly pictures ($5-$45) and Alyssa Ettinger’s porcelain pottery that looks exactly like knitwear ($39-$150).

You promised to hand make gifts this year. This is your loophole.

The Holiday Market runs now until December 12th.

www.poppytalkhandmade.com

You’ve been known to make origami animals out of restaurant napkins in a pinch, but even the most artsy mom can use some help.

Which is why we flipped for the ingenious Vancouver-based Craft Caravan that mails your kids new creative projects every month.

April’s project includes planting nasturtium seeds in a decorated box and painting flowers with paper doilies.

Supplies (they even included the dirt) are non-toxic and often recycled, and everything comes in a shiny green envelope that even Dad could tackle with the kids pre-dinner while you pour yourself a glass of wine.

Now that’s crafty.

$9.99 per month. For more info, visit www.craftcaravan.com