Christmas crafts, or any kind of craft may be something that fill you with fear. But as a non crafty person who often found crafting with her kids (they are bigger now) a bit scary, who works with small children still, I can tell you that they are not as bad as you think and there are simple crafts you can do around about Christmas time, that are easy but also work well. I have done some of these with my own children, and also with the children I work with.
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Crafts can be a bit messy, but if you plan a bit and are organised, you can keep mess and stress to a minimum.
We have a painting/decorative craft, a baking activity and a Christmas decoration you can make, all of which I would say are easy Christmas crafts in terms of mess, stress and creativity skills needed.
Gingerbread shapes you can eat or hang as decorations:
You don’t even have to make your own gingerbread dough for this. You can buy ready made dough in most supermarkets, which you simply need to roll out to the right thickness and create your shapes. If you want to make your own, this recipe works well, but we also have a gluten free recipe we use at home that works fine too.
You need about 250g of gingerbread dough, which you can roll out to half a centimetre in thickness. Then use any Christmassy cookie cutters you have to cut shapes out. Use a straw to make a hole in an area for hanging ribbon if you plan to use them for decorations. Bake them as per instructions on your recipe or ready bake packet.
If you enjoy baking with your kids, you can let them help you with this bit, but for my toddler group I pre bake the cookies and decorations for ease.
Once they are baked and cooled, you can use icing which you can make or you can buy ready to go tubes of icing, which is easier for little hands to manage, and sprinkles to decorate them, if you plan to eat them, or hang them as decorations. Let your children loose with their icing and decorating skills and let your own creativity flow and decorate a few too. Thread ribbon or pretty string (you can use wrapping paper ribbon, twine, or material ribbon, depending on your aesthetic. I find they last about 2-3 weeks on a tree, if you don’t plan to eat them. If you do want to eat them you can keep them in an air tight tin for up to a week. They also make a fun gift, hand made and thoughtful.
Snowflakes falling, or decorating your living room:
These are fun to make, easy, but you will need glitter and glue (top tip, get a piece of plastic table cloth, to cover your craft area and use a big tray when working with glitter and children)
This snowflake craft, I am fairly sure all UK chidlren did and still do at school, but a reminder of how to might be helpful.
You will need: Thick white paper. Card is best because it’s not too floppy but you can use slightly thicker paper if you prefer but you will need to fold it so don’t use too thick card. I use A4 and can make two large snowflakes or four small ones. Find something round that you can draw a circle shape with and draw circles on your peper or card. You can draw whatever size you want, big or small. Cut out the circles.
Now the fun begins because you are going to create snowflakes and as we know, no snowfake is the same as another. Fold your circle in half, then half again so it’s a 1/4 circle shape, then fold it again one more time.
Take your shape and proceed to amaze your children by cutting small slits and holes along the folded edges and outside edges of the shape. Don’t cut too deep or across the whole thing and leave space in between the cuts on the folded edge (otherwise it will fall apart) and when you unfold it you should have something like this.
You can then make a small hole and add some string, ribbon or thread, to hang them up, or you can use them to decorate Christmas cards or you can let your children loose with paint or glitter to make them sparkly. They are super easy and each one is as unique as a real snowflake. You can also make fake snow at home, if you really want to get into a wintery theme, with some sensory play, we use this recipe to make snow at work, and it’s fun, and does actually feel cold like snow and you can make it into shapes.
Glittery Pine cone decorations:
You can find and use pine cones from where you live, out and about that have fallen to the ground if you have the right trees near you, but you do have to make sure they are critter free and also completely dry, to use them, so if you prefer, you can buy bags of them*, and they are great for all sorts of crafts and also using for Christmas decorations.
All you need is pine cones, ribbon or string, glitter paint, or normal paint (use washable paint, when crafting with children, always) and some clear runny glue and glitter. I use eco friendly glitter which is biodegradable, to reduce the impact of plastic on the planet. You can get that from most good craft stores these days or online*.
Take your pine cones and tie your ribbon or string firmly around the top stem of the pine cone. Then basically let the children paint, glitter and glue to their hearts content. I find adding paint, then a layer of glue, then glitter, works best but let them be creative. I still have the painted pine cones my children made at nursery, many years ago, as treasured Christmas decorations, and they make a great gift to give to grandparents a handmade Christmas decoration. If you give them a spray with strong hairspray when they are fully dry, the glitter will have more staying power and leave less mess.
Hopefully these easy Christmas Craft give you the inspiration to get crafting with your little ones and make some fun things and some memories. If I, the most uncrafty person I know, can do it, then anyone can, I promise!