Craft Ideas for Christmas

Not all candy canes have to be edible in order for your kids to enjoy them. These candy canes will improve your kid's dexterity, because they have to fit small beads on a pipe cleaner, and chances are it will keep the occupied for a while because they will want to make more than one, two, or even five candy canes. You better have some places in mind to hang these!

Materials You Will Need

• 1 Package 12" x 6mm green pipe cleaners.
• 1 Package 6×9 mm red pony beads
• 1 Package 6×9 mm white pony beads
• Scissors

Steps to Make The Decorative Candy Canes

Step 1 - Use scissors to cut the pipe cleaners in half.

Step 2 - Slide one bead (whichever color your kid wants) onto the pipe cleaner. Bend the end of the pipe cleaner around the bead so that it stays in place.

Step 3 - Alternate colored beads for the length of the pipe cleaner.

Step 4 - Bend end of pipe cleaner around last bead.

Step 5 - Bend into candy cane shape!

Step 6 - Decorate tree and house with candy canes. If you let your kid hang them where they want, then it will feel like their contribution to the decorations, which will give them a kick throughout the whole season.

These are super simple to make, and every kid will get a kick out of making and wearing them.

Materials You Will Need

• Brown and white construction paper
• Pencil
• Scissors
• Googly eyes
• Glue
• Stapler
• Gumdrop (Acts as a nose)

Steps In Making a Reindeer Hat

Step 1 - Cut out a strip of the brown construction paper. This will be the 'hat' part, so make sure it has enough width to put eyes and a nose on with a little bit of breathing space around each of those. Bend and fit the strip around your kids head and cut off any excess paper so that the hat will fit their head perfectly.

Step 2 - Have your kid trace their hands in the white construction paper and cut out their hand shapes.

Step 3 - Glue the googly eyes and gumdrop on the middle of the brown construction paper.

Step 4 - Staple the ends of the brown construction paper together to form the hat.

Step 5 - Staple the white hand cut outs on the inside top of the hat. The thumbs should be pointing inward.

Step 6 - Let your kid proudly wear their reindeer hat.

Christmas comes with plenty of good, and the Grinch is part of the spirit of Christmas. As you make this Grinch you can talk about how the Grinch's heart became bigger, and why, which will really help your child understand the meaning of love and giving.

This is one of those craft ideas for Christmas for older kids, as it can be a difficult craft for kids who paint outside of the lines, but the end result will be their very own (possibly unique) Grinch, and they will love that.

Materials You Will Need

• Standard light bulb
• Tracing paper
• Pencil
• Acrylic paint in holiday green, light yellow, burgundy, and red
• Sponge brush
• Permanent marker
• Clear matte spray sealer
• Glue gun
• Ribbon
• #2 shader brush
• Decorative snow

Steps In Making Your Grinch Christmas Ornament

Step 1 - Paint a washed and dried light bulb with 1 coat of holiday green paint. Let dry. Do a second coat.

Step 2 - Paint the metal part of the light bulb with the red paint. Let dry.

Step 3 - Paint in the face area with light yellow paint and then a mixture of 2 parts water/1 part paint of the holiday green. This will give a pale green/yellow look and help to separate the face from the rest of the head.

Step 4 - Trace out a picture of the Grinch face onto the tracing paper using a pencil, then place the design against the face of the light bulb and trace directly onto the light bulb. Use the permanent marker to help outline the traced features.

Step 5 - Paint in the eyes using the yellow paint and paint in some pupils with the burgundy color. Let dry.

Step 6 - Using the #2 shader brush, shade the nose, mouth area, and eyelids with holiday green. Let dry.

Step 7 - Hot glue some ribbon to the red part of the light bulb so that you can hang.

Step 7 - Put glue on bottom and top of the red metal part of the light bulb and attach snow.

Step 8 - Spray whole thing with clear matte spray. Let dry.

Step 9 - Hang on Christmas tree.

We all get a ton of Christmas cards during the holidays, but not all of us have the room to display them. Get your kid to help you create a card holder that looks like Santa so that you can place all of your cards in one place.

Materials You Will Need

• Red paint
• Cotton balls
• Glue
• Scissors
• Black and red marker
• 2 paper plates (thicker plates)
• Ribbon

Steps to Make A Christmas Card Holder Featuring Santa

Step 1 - Paint the inside of one plate (where you would eat) red. Let dry.

Step 2 - Cut the other paper plate in half.

Step 3 - Place half of the paper plate onto the full plate to act as a beard. Glue rims together and let dry.

Step 4 - Use black marker to create eyes. You can color in some eyebrows if you want with the marker as well. Then use the red marker to color in the lips.

Step 5 - Cover the whole 'beard' with glue, being careful to not put glue on the lips, and then press the cotton ball into the glue.

Step 6 - Cover the sides of the plate with glue as well as a rim for the bottom of the Santa hat, and then place cotton balls on glue. The cotton balls should form a straight line across about 1/4 of the way down from the top of the paper plate. This will leave enough red to give the illusion of a hat.

Step 7 - Place one dab of glue and one cotton ball on the top of the plate to represent the top of the hat.

Step 8 - Punch a hole in the top of the plate and pull ribbon through to hang the Santa face.

Step 9 - Place cards inside beard and hang where everyone can see.