Ready for your crafty Christmas? Christmas crafts for kids both big and small start with characters and cards. And cake. Mmm, cake. Or in this case, iced gingerbread biscuits, since they can be individually decorated by all your little crafters, making everyone feel they’ve made their own unique contribution to the season. Toddlers will love licking the bowl and the spoon!
{ Guest post by Emily of Whooops A Daisy }
Let’s start with characters. Christmas is about traditional themes and everyone loves tradition, so who or what has to be included? Decorative favorites in most homes are the snowman, the elf, Santa himself, snowflakes, reindeer and trees. All of these can be gingerbread characters too if you have the right cookie cutters.
The great news is that you can use the same basic set of materials to make all these Christmas crafts. Be prepared, though. If you ask “Who’s your favorite Christmas character?” and the response is “Batman!” “Dinosaur!” or “Unicorn!” then it’s best to make sure these beloved characters find a place in the proceedings. Luckily, with a bit of imagination the same materials can be used to make them too.
Littlest ones will happily get creative with very basic and inexpensive items, so here are a few essentials. Christmas means cotton wool – er, snow, that is! Vital for snow scenes, snowmen and Santa’s beard. Colored paper and card, with perhaps some felt too. Stick to red and green with a bit of gold, silver, white and black, rather than buying loads of colors. Cardboard tubes, such as the inside of toilet roll, are a must have, and paper plates are so versatile, so make sure you have plenty. Painted, they can form the base for the face of all the characters, while the crimped edges can be trimmed off to make a cool Santa beard stuck on top of a plain plate.
Cardboard tubes make simple body shapes for snowmen, elves, Santa and reindeer (has to be Rudolph, of course). Shape the top to make ears for the elves, but all you need to do for Santa and the snowman is to add cotton wool as appropriate – a beard and eyebrows round the top for Santa for instance. Santa and elfish hats are made identically; a rolled cone of paper in the appropriate color. Reindeer antlers take a bit more work so the youngsters might need some help. Snowmen can have scarves and stuck on noses.
This basic tubular body shape adapts easily. The principle can be used for decorating eggs in eggcups: create the body round the cup and then add a conical felt hat to keep the egg warm. Or crochet a rectangular shape, fold it, stitch the sides and then stuff, add dangly legs and arms, plus festive hats, noses or antlers. Shapes don’t need to be complicated to summon up the character.
Older children can make name place settings with clay dough that can be hardened in the oven. They can be decorated with pompoms, which can be made by winding wool round cardboard rings. Youngsters love contributing to the celebrations, so use their decorations wherever practical, as Christmas card holders, place settings, bunting or Christmas tree decorations.
Glitter. Meh. It’s naughty not nice. Look for alternatives that don’t wreck the environment, whether that’s your living room or the planet. Strips of beaded ribbon, buttons and sequins make lovely decorations for felt or paper Christmas trees.
When it comes to making cards, snowflakes are tops. The easiest way to get glitzy, starry, snowflake cards is with colored card, a selection of stamps and some metallic stamp pads. The cards can be sent as they are or used as the background for paper cutouts of trees, reindeer, Santa and elves. Christmas stickers are also great for decorating cards and making pictures, and what toddler doesn’t love stickers?! Little ones will have so much fun making their own cards for their friends!
Author Bio
Emily Dick is a mom of one, three-year-old Daisy. Daisy is the inspiration behind Emily’s venture into the world of writing and blogging, parenting website Whooops a Daisy. Here, she helps parents find great products for their children of all ages, whether it’s a first birthday gift or a new board game.
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