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Kids enjoy making craft items. They get a great joy out of creating the items as well as the satisfaction of having their creations displayed in their home. Christmas is a great time to get kids involved in making crafts. Your kids will be especially excited to decorate the Christmas tree with ornaments that they made with their own hands.
Most of us can recall making our own Christmas decorations when we were kids, it is a time-honored tradition. Stringing popcorn to hang on the tree, creating colorful chains out of paper and making photo ornaments are some of the most popular Christmas crafts for kids.
Popcorn Strings
Stringing popcorn is a great project for kids over 8. Children younger than 8 may poke themselves with the needle! The project is very simple to do all you need is popcorn, a needle and a spool of clear or white thread. Some stores sell colored popcorn which is even more festive for stringing!
To make popcorn strings:
1. Pop the popcorn and allow it to cool before trying to work with it.
2. Thread a needle with an extra long piece of the thread. Hint: Larger needles are easier to work with.
3. Tie a knot at the end of the thread large enough to keep the popcorn from slipping off.
4. Insert the needle through the center of a piece of popcorn and slide the popcorn to the end of the thread.
5. Keep repeating this until you have a string of popcorn long enough to drape around your Christmas tree.
Christmas Tree Chain of Colors
This is a fun and easy project for kids of all ages. All that is needed is: colored construction paper, scissors, glue, markers or crayons and glitter.
1. Have the kids cut strips of paper of about the same length. An easy way to determine how long the strips should be is to take a piece of construction paper and turn it sideways and make 8-10 strips by cutting from one side to the other. If you want your chain to have longer, narrower links, you can cut the strips along the long side of the paper. For kids too young to handle the scissors, have an adult cut the strips and let the kids decorate them.
2. Once you have an assortment of colored strips, have the kids decorate them with markers, crayons and glitter. They can color pictures, write their names or the name of their favorite Christmas carols. To apply the glitter, spread a thin layer of glue where you want the glitter to be and sprinkle the glitter over the glue. It is a good idea to place newspaper under the glitter to make cleaning up much easier.
3. When the markers or glue from the glitter has dried, you are ready to link your strips together. Form a circle with the strip of paper and glue the two ends together. Insert the next strip through the first one and glue its two ends together. Continue adding links until your chain is the length you want it to be.
Christmas Photo Ornaments
Kids especially love having their picture hanging on the tree for Santa to see! Making ornaments to display their photos is great fun. This is a quick and easy craft for kids of all ages. The ornaments can be as simply or as detailed as the kids want to make them.
The items you will need: Colored construction paper, glue, glitter, markers or crayons, yarn.
1. The first step is to have the kids create the frame for their photos. They may want to cut their frames into circles or squares, or more festive shapes like stockings, bells or Christmas trees. If you have Christmas shaped cookie cutters, these are great templates for cutting Christmas shaped ornaments. Just place the cookie cutter on the paper, trace with a pencil and cut!
2. Have your kids choose a picture of themselves to use on their ornament. Cut the picture to fit onto the paper ornament that they have designed. Have the parents do this for the smaller children.
3. Glue the picture into place on the ornament. Allow the glue to dry and then let the kids decorate the rest of the ornaments with the crayons, markers and glitter.
4. After the decorations are completed, punch a hole into the top of the paper ornament with a hole puncher and insert a strand of yarn through the hole. Tie the ends of the yarn together and you have a loop for hanging the ornament on the tree! Make one for all the family members and even the pets!
Make it a family tradition to make Christmas ornaments each year, just like coloring Easter eggs! Each year the kids will enjoy making new items and bringing the old items down from the attic to use again and again!
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