Christmas is an excellent opportunity to spend some quality time together with your children, and what better to way to spend that time than creating decorations or other craft items for the festive period. As the nights draw in, those cold winter evenings can be spent creating a whole host of different decorations, and as well as being useful they will be fun to make as well. Here are a few ideas of Christmas crafts you could do. Some items will require adult help, or certain parts may need to be completed by an adult only, but the vast majority are perfectly ok for children to undertake. These are all easy to make and should take no more than 30 minutes.
Christmas Angel
Some people like a star, some people like an angel. If you prefer an angel at the top of your Christmas tree, why not make one? Simply find a used toilet roll for the body of your angel. You can paint it, cover it in tissue paper or you could use cotton wool. For the wings, parts of paper plates are perfect as they already have a curved edge. Draw one, cut out then use that as a template for the other wing. You could decorate the wings with glitter to give it a really impressive look. Then, attached the wings to the back of the toilet roll (a glue gun would work best). You could even make and add a halo. Toilet rolls are great, as they tend to sit easily at the top of the tree, although you can make your own with a piece of white card. Decorate the face with felt tips and there you have your perfect tree topper that can be used year after year.
Hanging Christmas tree decorations
These are a nice idea for gifts as well as for decorating your own tree. Get 3 Lolli sticks and glue them together in a triangle formation (a glue gun is probably best to ensure the lolli sticks stay together, so this bit should be done by and adult or under adult supervision for an older child). Now all you need to do is decorate it. You can stick on sequences, colour the sticks with felt tip pens or wrap them with ribbon. To hang, simply find a nice piece of ribbon or string, loop it around and then you are ready to hang your decoration. To finish the tree, you could either stick a sticker star to the top or draw one, cut it out and stick it on. If you wish, rather than having them as tree decorations, you could have them as free standing decorations. Find a brown peg and clip it to the bottom of the tree and it should stay standing!
Bauble decorations
- Peg snowmen.
This is quite a simple one, that doesn’t require much. Get some plain baubles in whatever colours you like. Buy some marker pens, metallic ones work really well. Decorate the baubles as reindeers or santas. You could even add glitter using glitter glue to them. Perfect for personalizing baubles as a gift or to put on your own tree. This one can more or less be done without adult help too – just watch the marker pens don’t get on your clothes.
Pegs on string are the perfect way to hang your Christmas cards. Why not decorate the pegs as snowmen? Use white pegs and add detail using a black marker. You can use a short piece of pipe cleaner for the scarf and add some small pompoms for the buttons.
Snowflakes
There are many ways to make snowflakes. A favourite is the one with a piece of white paper. Either cut in a circular shape or a square, then folded into quarters. Use scissors to carefully cut out parts of the paper, around the edges and in the middle of the paper. Keep the cuts small and simple. Open up and there you have your snowflake.
Another way to create snowflakes, is by using Lolli sticks again. Take three Lolli sticks and place them on top of each other in different directions, so that they all meet in the middle. Glue together, preferably with a glue gun to hold it in place. Decorate the different arms of the snowflake with glitters, sparkles, small stickers or marker pens.
Lollistick characters
Lollisticks are so versatile, and can be used in so many ways in crafts. One way that children will love is creating Christmas characters such as reindeers, snowmen and santas. You could even encourage your children to create a puppet show with them after they have made them.
To make a santa, paint the stick red, but stick a strip of masking tape across where you want the face to be, so that it maintains the natural colour of the stick. Remove the masking tape once the paint is dry and glue on some eyes, or draw them with a marker. Use the marker to also draw on other details such as the belt for the coat. Use cotton wool for the beard and glue on using a glue gun. You could add some small buttons to the coat with a glue gun, or draw them on with a marker.
For a snowman, paint the entire stick white. You could stick on or draw on a hat with a marker. Add other detail with the marker including eyes, buttons and a mouth. You could stick on something like a small pompom for the nose. Find a small piece of ribbon and tie around for the scarf.
For the reindeer, paint the entire stick brown. You can add detail with a marker, or stick on eyes. Use some small pieces of brown pipes cleaner for the antlers, and glue them on using a glue gun.
Now you have a lovely collection of Christmas characters!
