December Crafts
Paper Stars
This is a good open ended activity, you can make them quite small, or add more loops to see what shapes you can come up with.
You will need some scissors, glue and some pegs or paper clips to hold the strips in place whilst they dry.
We used some old programmes that had nice colours and were slightly thicker than paper.
We cut some strips. You can experiment with different widths, lengths and colours.
Dab some glue on a bigger strip and a smaller strip, and then secure with a peg or paperclip to dry.
Next glue two together to make a heart shape, do this six times.
Arrange the hearts together and glue the heart to the next heart where they touch.
Next make some V shapes and stick them to join to pairs of hearts, secure this with a peg whilst it drys.
When you have added a V shape to each of the hearts it will form a star in the middle.
These can be used as mobiles or hung on a wall, backed with tissue paper and hung at a window.
You can experiment with adding different shapes, different numbers of loops, pinching the ends of the heart shapes to make points….
Hanging them up creates interesting shapes and shadows.
Felt Hearts
These make lovely tree decorations or gifts.
We folded a piece of paper in half to make our heart shape and then cut out two hearts from scraps of felt.
We sewed around the edges with some embroidery thread, leaving a loop of thread at the top to hang it by.
We stuffed ours with some offcuts of felt that were to small to use for anything. You could use cotton wool or anything fluffy.
We decorated ours with a piece of dried fern. We stitched this on but you could use glue to make it easier.
Nature Candle Holders
These can be made outside, or you can collect some materials on a walk and bring them home to make. You will need some natural materials such, twigs, leaves, ferns, ivy, holly, fir tree, rose hips….
You will also need some jam jars and something to attach what you have found to the jam jars. We used elastic bands, raffia and some pieces of yarn.
If you’re using string or raffia to tie the materials in place, it’s good to work in pairs, this way someone can hold whilst the other person ties.
If you’re using rubber bands it fairly easy to add bits, without someone holding.
The pine needles smell beautiful once the candles start to warm them through the glass. Always make sure you never leave a candle unattended.
We made a few of each colour to stand in a row. These make a really nice Christmas display in a window.
You could try making a different one each day in the twelve days of Christmas!
Christmas Orange Candles
This is a great way to recycle candle stubs, bits of wax from the bottom of tea candles and half used birthday candles.
This is an activity that you can do indoors or outside.
Cut an orange in half and squeeze out the juice. Then try to scrape out as much of the fleshy parts as you can.
We made a fire outside to melt our wax, you only need a few sticks and it doesn’t have to be very hot. This can also be melted inside on your cooker.
If lighting a fire outside, remember not to have a fire if the ground is dry. Make sure everyone taking part is safe, and that you check the fire is completely out before leaving it unattended.
When the wax had melted, we waited for it to cool for a couple of minutes and then poured it into the oranges. We used some sticks to hold the oranges in place. We used the wicks from the birthday candles to make new ones. After a few minutes the wax starts to thicken, so if your wick has fallen to the side you can ease it back to the middle where it will stay in place.
If you are going to light a candle inside, remember not to leave them unattended. These make lovely candles to use outside. See our Making Learning Fun section for an idea how to use these for a seasonal celebration.
Fly Agaric Pin Cushions
These are easy to make and even quite small children can make these with a bit of help. All you need is some felt, needle and thread, some stuffing and some pennies to put in the bottom.
Draw a circle on your felt and cut it out. You could use other fabric but felt is very easy to use.
Cut 3 or 4 darts out of the felt. If you want to keep it really simple, you can just use the circle as it is, but this will mean you have a slightly flatter mushroom.
Sew up the darts and then turn inside out. Put this on to some white or lighter coloured felt and draw around to create the underside.
Cut a hole in the middle of your white circle, and then sew onto the top. When this is done you can stuff your mushroom, you could use scraps of cloth, cotton wool or stuffing.
Next cut an oblong of white felt to make the stalk and sew the shorter sides together to make a tube.
Next sew on the stalk, small children might need some help with this bit.
We stuffed the stalk and then put 4 pennies in the bottom to help it stand up. Finally sew on a disc of felt to the bottom.
You can either sew on some white spots by cutting out white felt circles, use spotted material or get some pins that have white ends to look like spots. If your stalk is too small to add coins, we used a button to help it stand up.
These make beautiful Christmas presents!
Home Made Recycled
Wrapping Paper
We used brown paper that came as packing. To flatten it you can either leave it under some books for a while or iron it. You could also use flattened out paper bags, takeaway bags or large envelopes.
We cut out a star shape from some cardboard packaging. We then used a stiff brush to dab paint onto the stencil. If you brush paint on, the bristles can go under the stencil. You could use a little piece of foam to dab the paint on with. Poster paint or paint from a tube works well.
Simple shapes are good to start with, Christmas trees, a holly leaf, a bell shape, a cracker, stars….
When our green trees were dry, we added some white trees.
By making your own paper and tying it with some paper string or raffia, it can be used again and again. Seeing some of our reused, home made wrapping paper each year, adds to the nostalgia of Christmas, like seeing homemade decorations. It’s really strong too and great for wrapping heavy items like books.