It’s the most wonderful time of the year! While I’ve been busy working on making sure that the holiday season is cheerful and bright for the whole year ‘round, I thought that I might take some time to share with you a few ideas that I had for different crafts that you can do to make sure that your little ones are brimming with the holiday spirit. From decorations to Christmas present ideas, you can make them yourself or with your child, which imbues your holiday decorations with a special sense of family, love and personal tradition. Many families set aside seasonal days to bake and decorate Christmas cookies — and I’m certainly a fan of that tradition — but making traditions of your own like switching to a Christmas time crafting day can make your family tradition lasting and memorable as well. Think of it, when unpacking your holiday decorations every year, many of those things will have special memories attached to them, not just where you got them but the time around when you made them, and the bonding experience that you felt making your decorations with your child. After all, the holiday season is one of tender, loving reminders.
Snowman Clothespins
Take a clothespin and paint it white, use a sharpie to make two black dots for his eyes made out of coal and glue a tiny orange pom pom in lieu of a corncob nose. Tie a little colorful pipe cleaner around the hinge for a scarf so he doesn’t get too cold and repeat! If you hang a number of them on a piece of twine, you’ll have a festive garland to hang around your home or your Christmas tree!
Woodslice Santas
When picking out your tree, politely ask if the tree lot assistant has any extra wood slices from giving all of the christmas trees their fresh cuts. Usually they’ll have a few pieces lying around. Take some sand paper and smooth them down, especially if you are getting help from some little ones, you don’t want them to get splinters! Then, you can paint on Mr. Claus’ signature hat, at the top, and beard at the bottom, glue black buttons on for his eyes and a white pom pom at the top for the tuft of his hat! You can use these as decorative coasters or even drill a hole and run some twine through to make them into ornaments!
Reindeer Flower Pots
Take one small flowerpot and turn it upside down. You can paint on black eyes or glue buttons, and black or red buttons for the noses! Then, take some pipe cleaner and bend them into little antlers that you can feed through the draining hole in the top and tape or hot glue them into place on the inside!
Cinnamon Star Ornaments
These are simple, easy and have a rustic charm, just take five cinnamon sticks and glue the ends together in the shape of a star, and tie a piece of twine at the top so that you can hang them on the tree. Add festive ribbon or bells to give them a little extra individual flair. And they smell wonderful!
Santa Claus Paint Brushes
Take a medium sized, broad paintbrush for home painting and paint the handle red, on the metallic part of the handle, paint with peach and draw a little Santa face, with the bristles at the bottom for the beard. Either paint on a white dot for the tuft of his hat or hot glue a white pom pom for a little extra detail. With a piece of twine fed through the hole in the top of the brush, you have an adorable and unique new ornament!
Wooden Spoon Santa Claus
Similarly, you can take a wooden spoon and add cotton balls to the flat part of the spoon, glue on googly eyes or just paint your Santa’s face. You could also get creative and make wooden spoon Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, have fun!
Reindeer Party Bags
These are a classic, turn a paper bag upside down, and use the folded area as the face. Glue on googly eyes and construction paper cut outs of antlers and a red or black pom pom for the nose! These are simple and very child friendly and make very fun hand puppets!
Sponge Painted Frames for Your Personalized Nice List
At FreeNiceListGuide.com, you can order a free, personalized Nice List that includes a picture of your child, their name and a personalized list of reminders for ways for them to be nice during the holiday season! Further engage your children by buying wooden picture frames and painting them with red, white and green stamps and glitter so that they can frame their very own Nice List and hang it up somewhere in your home where they can see it!
Don’t wait until the holiday season to get your Christmas crafts going! By starting early you can help spread the Christmas spirit to your kids all year round!
