Christmas Cards
Although Christmas for kids is often more about presents than the decorations, making Christmas cards is a fun way for kids to get creative while teaching them about the giving aspect of the holiday. By making their own cards children can learn how sentimental a simple card can be. The big greeting card companies have yet to publish anything that compares to a four year old's heartfelt finger-painting of a heart with "Grandma" written in it.
While having a variety of materials is key to any child's project-making session, it is especially true for a kid's Christmas cards. Don't just leave them with some card stock and crayons: give them materials that really let them express themselves. You might include:
- dried flowers
- dry macaroni
- family photos
- felt
- finger-paint
- glitter glue
- glue
- googly eyes
- ribbon
- safety scissors
- seeds
- stencils
- stickers.
Kids' Christmas Ornaments
Decorating the tree is often a highlight of the season for kids and can be even more significant if they decorate with their own Christmas decorations. Christmas decorating with children can become a family tradition as you annually add new kids' Christmas ornaments to the tree.
Some of the most common kids' Christmas decorations include paper and popcorn chains and paper snowflakes. The following are some alternative ideas for kids Christmas decorations:
Christmas Wreaths for Kids
Take paper plates and cut out the middle of the plates, leaving a rim about two inches wide. These serve as the base for the Christmas wreaths. Children can paint the plate and then glue materials on top. What you use to create kids' Christmas wreaths is up to you, but materials could include:
- old jigsaw puzzle pieces spray painted red, green, silver, and gold
- colored tissue paper
- feathers
- pine-cones
- popcorn
- origami paper
- hard candies.
One popular Christmas wreath for young children is a wreath of hands. Draw an outline of the child's hand on several pieces of construction paper and cut out the paper hands. Glue the hands onto the wreath base, with the fingers pointing out.
Reindeer and Kids' Christmas Decorations
Candy canes make great reindeer when Christmas decorating with children. Use the handle of the candy cane as the reindeer's face. Glue a small red bobble to the end of the handle for the nose, and further up glue two googly eyes. Behind the eyes wrap a small piece of brown pipe cleaner and twist it into antlers. Presto! Instant Rudolph!
Younger children can use traces of their hands and feet for Christmas reindeer. Trace an outline of both the child's hands on construction paper and cut them out. These will be the reindeer's antlers. Trace and cut an outline of the child's foot. This is the reindeer's face.
Glue the antlers to the top of the reindeer's head (the heel of the foot is the reindeer's nose, so glue the hands over the toes). Now glue craft eyes and a big red nose onto the face. If you glue the finished ornament to heavy card-stock and string a ribbon through it, you've got another Christmas ornament!
Christmas Stockings
Because they are closely associated with gifts, Christmas stockings are an important symbol of the holiday for kids and can also be a fun craft to hang on the tree. Cut out two pieces of felt in the shape of a stocking. Young children can glue the two pieces together. Older kids could sew the two pieces together to form a stocking with a pouch.
Use ribbons, glitter glue, and sparkles to decorate and attach ribbon to the top of the Christmas stockings to hang them from the tree.
Christmas Decorating with Children
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