Last-Minute Christmas Crafts

Taking a break from school during the month of December leaves us with plenty of time for Christmas crafts. I’m not a crafty mom, so all of our activities have to meet my 3 criteria:

• Easy to set up
• Easy to do
• Easy to clean up

Here are some fun and easy, last-minute Christmas crafts you can do using materials you already have in your home!

Homemade Christmas Cards

I love homemade Christmas cards that use handprints because they give me an opportunity to see how my children have grown over the years without messing with those expensive plaster kits from Pottery Barn.

You can make the handprints by tracing the hand onto construction paper like we did below, or by using paint to make a print on paper, which may create more mess for you to clean up be more fun for the kids.

Isaiah (age 3) made a handprint reindeer using a footprint for the face, hand prints for antlers, googly eyes, and a red pom pom for the nose.

Jasmine (age 6) made a handprint angel using a triangle for the body, a circle for the head, and 2 closed, upside-down hand prints for the wings.

Andrew (age 9) made a handprint Santa using a triangle for the hat, an upside-down hand print for the beard, googly eyes, and a red pom pom for the nose.

And just because it is Christmastime, and I don’t want to be a Grinch, we decorated the cards with glitter glue!

If you love handprint crafts as much as I do, check out this hand print wreath and this hand print Christmas tree.

If you have children who have outgrown having fun with handprints, you may want to try making these fingerprint gift tags.

Homemade Christmas Stockings

We’re also making homemade Christmas stockings this year. This one still meets my 3 musts for crafts, but it is probably best done in stages.  You may want to allot an entire morning or afternoon for it so you don’t have to use the H-word.  (Hurry!)

Supplies:

• paper grocery sacks
• scissors
• glue
• markers (or paint, so as not to be a Grinch)
• hole punch
• yarn
• stickers or other decorative items

Cut the paper bag in half so you have 2 sheets of brown paper.  Draw the shape of the stocking onto one of the halves.

Cut out the stocking shape.  Trace it onto the other sheet of brown paper. Make sure you trace the stocking so that any print that is already on the bag will end up on the inside of the stocking. Cut out the stocking shape.

Glue both shapes together around the edges to form a stocking. Remember to leave an opening at the top.  Allow the glue to dry.

Set out the paint, markers, stickers or whatever else you have on hand for decorating the stockings, and go do the dishes or fold laundry so as not to succumb to the temptation to micromanage your children.

We, who don’t want school teachers telling our kids to color inside the lines, must never say things like, “Wait! You’re sticking the red brush into the white paint. Rinse, people, rinse!” or “Hold up! You’re using way too much glue.”

Comments like that just take the fun out of fun and easy Christmas crafts.

Not that I’ve ever made comments like that.

Once your children have finished decorating the stockings, and they’ve dried (if necessary), punch holes around the edges, and use yarn to “sew” the stocking.

Lacing activities are great for building fine motor skills, and they’re also a good precursor to sewing, which is a very useful handicraft.

Here are some excellent posts about handicrafts from Simply Charlotte Mason:

7 Benefits of Homeschool Handicrafts
How to Do Homeschool Handicrafts

If you have children who are ready to use needle and thread, here are some easy Christmas crafts to sew.

Have fun, and remember, ‘Tis the Season to Control Your Inner Grinch!

Tagged as: Crafts, Family, Holidays, Ideas