Christmas is such an exciting time for children, it is not just that one day of the year where gifts are given and received. It is the anticipation and the preparation as well. Any part of Christmas that you can include your children in will make it that much more memorable and exciting. I have found a lot of great ideas for including your child in decorating this holiday season which I am going to share with you.
Handprint Christmas Tree – This is a wonderful craft to do with younger children. You will need green, brown, and yellow construction paper, pencil, scissors, glue stick, and decorations for your tree. Decorate the tree using glitter, stickers, crayons, paint; small craft store pom-poms would be cute as well. They recommend that you trace your child’s handprint and then cut it out and use it as a template for nine more handprint cutouts. You glue the handprints in an overlapping pattern, four at the bottom, three above that, then two, then one on the top. Fat at the bottom and narrow at the top just like a real tree. The addition of a yellow star on top and a brown trunk on the bottom and there you have it. Now let your child decorate their very own tree! Craft Idea found here.
Cotton Ball Santa – What fun your children will have making a Santa with a beard of cotton balls! You start with a paper plate and then add some paint, googly eyes, a pink pom-pom from the craft store for the nose, red craft foam for his hat, and cotton balls for his beard and hat tassel. Younger kids may need some help cutting out his hat but other than that it is something that kids of all ages will enjoy and it is also super cute. You could even give them away as gifts to friends and family members. Craft Idea found here.
Sugar Cone Christmas Trees – Here is a decoration that is really sweet! I imagine there will be a lot of finger licking going on while making this Christmas tree. This is a fun project for younger children. You will need sugar cones (the pointy ice cream cones) and ready-made or homemade icing colored green with food coloring. Start with a paper plate or something to catch the excess decorations and spread the icing on the cones. Have the children decorate with candies of your choice. M&M’s, licorice ropes, sprinkles, gumdrops, and any candy you think will look festive. You can get really creative with it and your kids will have fun eating the decorations too. Craft Idea found here.
Coffee Cozies – These are so cute and can be used as gifts for teachers or neighbors from you or your children. Using inexpensive woolen, colorful socks cut off the ends of the socks and use the middle part. Make sure you get a sock large enough to go over those nice disposable cups with lids. You can use buttons and felt glued on for a snowman or you can get self-adhesive felt stickers from the craft store. What a neat idea and so very festive and Christmassy! Craft Idea found here.
- Button Ornaments – These are the cutest ornaments for older children to make. The younger ones would need help with this one but it is really adorable. Using pipe cleaners and various sizes of buttons you can make several different types of ornaments. You may need a little felt, glue, and thread to finish these off but basically they are buttons! The site offers the detailed instructions for these but they donot sound too hard at all. Craft Idea found here.
- Crystal Snowflake – This one is a cross between a terrific Christmas decoration and a science experiment! The snowflake is made from pipe cleaners and suspended down into a jar or glass container large enough so that it doesn’t touch the sides. You combine a mixture of Borax, blue food coloring, and boiling water and let your snowflake hang in this overnight. As the water cools it creates the crystals! What fun to get up and discover what happened to your plain pipe cleaner snowflake over night! Craft Idea found here.
- Button Wreath Ornament – Another sweet button ornament which calls for using copper or floral wire, satin ribbon, seam binding, and some needle nose pliers. The site says not to worry if you don’t have that many buttons around at home because the craft or fabric stores offer them up by the bag full. This is such a sweet ornament for your tree; it has a nostalgic feel to it for me because it reminds me of my Great Grandma’s button jar that we played with when we were young. I am going to give all these button ornaments a try! Craft Idea found here.
Light Up Christmas Tree – This Christmas Trees lights come on in the sunlight. Cut out a Christmas tree from green construction paper and use a hole punch to punch out a hole everywhere you want a light to show up on your tree. You will need a multiple color pack of tissue paper which you can easily get at the dollar store. Have some kid safe scissors on hand for your children to cut out small squares of tissue in all colors and then using a glue stick, glue them on the back of the tree over the holes you punched. After it dries you can hang it in the window and let the sun come shining through and watch your Christmas lights glow! Craft Idea found here.
Homemade Christmas Ball Ornaments – This is an easy decoration for a child of just about any age with a little supervision. According to this site you can purchase clear glass or plastic ball ornaments from craft stores. They recommend watering down your glue to make it thinner. Taking the top off of the ornament you can then pour the glue into the ornament and swirl it around to coat it and then pour excess glue back into the cup. Then do the same thing with glitter, pour into ornament, swirl, and then dump it out. After letting the ornament dry fully place the top back on and use a pipe cleaner for a child safe hook. This could be used as a gift for grandma and grandpa! Craft Idea found here.
- Gumdrop Pops – I think these gumdrop pops are just precious! You can create them to put in cellophane packages and use as edible package decorations, stocking stuffers, or you can put them on display. They are made of gumdrops of course along with sprinkles and other small candies. There are step by step instructions on how to make Santa, a snowman, holly, Christmas trees, and even mushrooms. It takes a steady hand for those sprinkles I would think but what a cute outcome! Craft Idea found here. Craft Idea found here.
Pom-pom Christmas Tree – What a sweet, soft little Christmas tree this is. What a great decoration for the little ones to make. This tree is made using a cardboard Christmas tree cut out of a cereal box or other light weight cardboard. You will need some Elmer’s type glue and different colors and sizes of pom-poms. You can make your tree the traditional green adding the other colors of pom-poms for the lights or make a not so traditional tree. Or maybe your children are like mine and love the pink, purple, or silver artificial trees they see at the stores and they want to duplicate. They will have fun making these trees no matter what they choose. Craft Idea found here.
These are just a few of many holiday decorating ideas to create with your kids. It is a wonderful way to be with your children over the holidays and to create fun decorations and wonderful memories together.
Guest Post Author Bio:
Jack Meyer is a regular contributor for http://www.nannybackgroundcheck.com/. As a detective he wants to spread the knowledge of terrible things that can happen when people don’t fully verify the credentials of a caregiver or any employee. He also writes for various law enforcement blogs and sites.
