FINGERPRINT SANTA`s SLEIGH CARDS:

NOTE: Use this craft idea to make unique cards for special relatives. We made a whole batch of these one Christmas.

Materials: Blank cards (found at craft stores) or just use coloured paper card stock, paint, markers, art smock or old clothes to wear, plastic or newspaper to cover your table, waxed paper to hold your paint, paper towels for messy fingers, paint brush.

Step 1: Use red or green paint and have your child either dip his/her fingers in the paint or paint it on with a brush, and using thumbs create a sleigh.

Step 2: Wash hands and then use pointer fingers to create the reindeer. Two fingerprints per deer. Fit as many as you like to the card. Our cards only fit 1 or 2 reindeer.

Step 3: Wash hands and use pointer finger to create Santa's face.

Step 4: Once these dry have your child draw the runner on the sleigh, eyes and a nose on Santa, legs and antlers and a nose and eye on the reindeer, a rope to attach them all.

Step 5: Use white paint to paint a beard on Santa and then use red paint to add a hat.

Step 6: Once that has dried your child can draw a pom pom to Santa or embellish the card any way he/she chooses. Now they are ready to write it!

CRAFT STICK ANGEL:

Materials: Coffee filters, white cupcake liners, craft stick, marker, pipe cleaner, white glue, glitter, waxed paper.

Step 1: Flatten and fold two coffee filters to make a circle and then fold each one in half. Glue the craft stick to the first one and then cover it with the second one and this will be the bottom of hte angel's dress.

Step 2: Flatten and then fold in half two cupcake liners. Glue these above the dress leaving enough room on the craft stick to be the angel's face.

Step 3: Flatten and fold in half two more cupcake lines to be the wings and glue to the back of the dress.

Step 4: Glue a pipe cleaner to the back of the craft stick so the angel can hang on a tree.

Step 5: Once dry your child can draw a face on the angel.

RECYCLED SOCK STOCKING ORNAMENT:

NOTE: The Christmas stocking is a European tradition that has many stories of origin including the use of shoes instead of stockings or socks.

Materials: An old children’s sock (If you’re like me you’ve probably got some lone socks stored somewhere), glitter glue, fabric paint (optional), white glue, sequins, coloured felt, marker, scissors (sharper ones to be used by adults to cut the felt), needle and thread.

Step 1: Let your child decorate the sock using glue and craft supplies, glitter glue, and fabric paint (this one is optional).

Step 2: Let the sock dry.

Step 3: (Adult step) Use a needle and thread to make a loop of thread so the ornament can hang on your tree.

GIFT BAGS:

Materials: Plain white or coloured gift bags (you could also use plain paper gift boxes as well) which can be found at dollar stores, paints and brushes, paint stencils or stamps (optional, but this is what we used), art smock or old clothes to wear while painting, newspapers or plastic to cover the table you will be working at.

Step 1: Let your child decorate the gift bags using the paints and stamps (as we did) or simply by painting their own Christmas scene. Lay the bag flat (not opened) and paint one side only. You can paint the other side later on when the first side is dried. Another good idea is to have your kids paint hand prints onto the bags in Christmas colours. This makes a great gift bad for Grandparents.

PAPER CHRISTMAS TREES:

NOTE: The tradition of decorating an evergreen tree at Christmas started in Germany in the 16th Century. Show your child where Germany is using an atlas, globe or on-line.

Materials: A plate (for tracing), green Paper, tape, markers, stickers, glitter glue, etc.

Step 1: Trace a circle onto a piece of green paper using a pencil and a plate.
Step 2: Cut out the circle and then cut a slit just to the middle.
Step 3: Have your child decorate the paper using markers, crayons, stickers, glitter glue etc. to represent the decorations on the Christmas Tree.
Step 4: Roll the green paper to make a cone shape and tape it in place.
Step 5: Use as a table center piece!

STICKER COLLAGE:

Materials: Various stickers of dinosaurs, coloured paper, markers and/or crayons (Optional).

Step 1: Let your child pick the colour of paper he/she wants to use for this craft and him/her various stickers to make either a collage or a scene.

Step 3: If your child so desires have him/her add details or embellishments to the scene.

CHRISTMAS CARDS:

NOTE: Use this craft idea to make unique cards for special relatives or for teachers.

Materials: Blank cards (found at craft stores) or just use coloured paper cardstock, stamps, stickers, crayons, markers, spare pieces of wrapping paper or scrapbook paper.

Step 1: Give your child the craft supplies and the blank card and have him/her decorate the card in a unique way. The older your child the more creative he/she can be. Some simple ideas are to just use stickers or glue pieces of wrapping paper onto the cardstock. You could also have your child paint the cards or use paint and a craft stamp or stencil from a craft store. Use what you have on hand.

CLAY CHRISTMAS TREE ORNAMENTS:

NOTE: This craft takes some time and really is a project that could be spread out over three days (bake, paint, seal) but it is worth the effort as it makes some great gifts!

Materials: 1 1/4 cups of warm water, 1 cup of salt, 3 cups of flour, Christmas cookie cut outs (or use star cut outs), a rolling pin, a pen lid, acrylic paint, art smock or old clothes to paint in, newspapers or plastic to spread out on the table, white glue, an old paint brush, yarn.

· Step 1: Mix the water and salt in a bowl.

· Step 2: Add the three cups of flour and mix together with your hands. Then knead until the mixture is formed into a smooth ball. If the dough is dry add more water; if the dough is too wet add more flour.

· Step 3: Preheat the oven to 200°F (93°C) and place parchment paper onto your cookie sheets.

· Step 4: Roll out the dough using a rolling pin (you should add flour to the counter top so the dough does not stick) and then let your child press the cookie cutters into the dough to make the ornaments shapes.

· Step 5: Take the pen lid and press it into the dough where you would like a small hole to be for the yarn (to hang the ornaments up).

· Step 6: Place the cut shapes onto the prepared cookie sheet and bake in the oven. Times will vary depending on the thickness of your ornaments mine took over and hour. Let the ornaments cool before the next step.

"JOY" Art:

This is a multi-day craft but well worth the effort! We display these paintings every Christmas!

Materials: Canvas (from dollar stores), acrylic paint in hues of green, black paint and red paint, paint brushes, white glue mixed with equal parts water (or modge podge glue), black permanant markers, scrapbook paper or bits of wrapping paper with designs and patterns, coloured construction paper, child safe scissors, exacto knife (optional and for adult use only), cutting board (optional).

Day 1: Have your child paint the entire canvas in hues of green. Let it dry. Meanwhile cut out the letters JOY from bright construction paper (we used yellow). I let my kids choose their font and then enlarged it, printed it and lay it on the construction paper on top of a cutting board to cut out using an exacto knife. If you have one of those fantastic scrapbook machines that cut out shapes and letters from paper use that…it would be much easier.

CRAFTS

Sometimes the simplest things, like stickers, make the best craft projects, especially if your child is little.

You can make a Santa card with fingerprints or make a string of Chrismtas lights!

There are so many different Christmas Crafts to make and these are but a few. For even more fun ideas check out this Pinterest board: Christmas Crafts For Kids

Christmas

RECYCLED CHRISTMAS CARD COLLAGE:

NOTE: There are many ways you can recycle old Christmas cards. They make great gift label simply by cutting out the pictures and writing on the back (or gluing to coloured paper beforehand if there is writing on the back side of the picture) and then you add a hole punch to string a ribbon through. Another way to re-use the cards is to have your kids make the following card collage .

Materials: Old Christmas cards, stickers, wrapping paper, child safe scissors, coloured paper, glue stick, damp cloth for sticky fingers, (Optional) crayons or markers or pencil crayons.

Step 1: Have your child cut out pictures from old Christmas cards or from wrapping paper scraps (or help younger children).

Step 2: Have your child glue the assorted pictures to a piece of coloured paper using a glue stick.

Step 3: (Optional) Let your child decorate or embellish the collage using crayons, markers or pencil crayons.

Day 2: Have your child choose the three patterned papers he/she wants to use as the presents.Cut these out into three different sized rectangles. Now your child can glue the word JOY and the three presents to the canvas. I found that using a mixture of water and glue works best (not too watery). Create your solution in a paper cup. Try adding equal parts at first and then mixing with a craft stick add water or glue to get to a consistency that you like. Modge Podge Glue would work as well.

Day 3: Once this has dried your child can add embellishments using a black permanent marker (like a Sharpie). We outlined the three gifts and added bows. Now use black paint to add a wavy frame to the picture. We found the black made it pop as it looked too plain without it. Your choice. Once that dired we added some red polka dots to the black as well.

Day 4: (Optional but highly recommended) Add a coat of gloss to the canvas to seal it and make it last for years to come! Have your child sign the painting before you do this step. We forgot to do that!

Preschool

Craft Idea:

· Step 7: Have your child paint the ornaments using acrylic paint. Place decorated ornaments onto wax paper to dry and leave them to dry before you move on to the next step.

· Step 8: (Optional but recommended) Mix equal parts white glue and water together (we put ours in a paper cup) to make the sealant. You don’t need to do this part but it does make the ornaments more durable.

· Step 9: Paint the glue mixture over the dried decorated ornaments and place them on waxed paper. We did this in two stages. We painted the back first with the glue mixture (I had my kids write their names on the back using permanent marker and then added the year). Then we let them dry. My youngest wanted to dry them with the hair dryer on low which sped up the process a bit. Afterwards we painted the front and sides with the sealant and placed them on new waxed paper to dry.

· Step 10: Tie some yarn through the hole in each ornament to make a loop. Now you have some great keepsake ornaments to safe and give away!