Christmas Crafts 2011

Christmas is a festive holiday filled with love, care, affection and galore. Celebrated with immense zeal and gusto, Christmas is the most significant festival commemorated by Christians all over the world. Celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ, people engage in different traditional activities to mark the occasion. Preparing for the midnight Mass, putting on new clothes, decorating homes and Christmas trees, purchasing gifts and presents for loved ones and children, and cooking traditional Christmas dishes are just a few attractive activities that people get engrossed in. While busy in all these customs, give your home an out-of-the-usual look by preparing some unique Christmas crafts. Inexpensive, easily accessible and versatile, these crafts are different from those bought from the over-priced boutiques and shopping complexes. Take a look at the different Christmas crafts listed here and give your festival a special cheer and feel.

 

 

A fun and exciting craft to make at home for the little ones: the gingerbread man. It’s easy to make and kids adore it. First, you need to get a print out of the gingerbread man. For a long lasting template, use a card stock or cereal cardboard instead of regular paper. Now place this template onto the material that you are using as base (craft foam or manila file folder), trace around it and cut out the shape. Decorate the gingerbread man as per your wish and liking using paint or sketch pen. Glue the base to the decorated gingerbread printout.

 

A great and fun way to bring to life the legendary snowman is by using an old CD, a juice lid can, and a few other items that are easily available. Here’s what you need to do. Take an old CD that you’re not going to use and cut out the lid of the juice can that will be used as a head. Spray paint both on either sides and let dry. Glue the eyes using buttons or anything of your liking, then the nose, using neatly cut out foam, draw the mouth of snowman by using a sketch pen. Take a red chenille stem and cut it to fit around the top of the the lid. Glue together two small pieces of pom pom to finish the ear muffs. Now glue the lid of the can to the CD. Cut a small piece of fabric and tie it around the neck to make the scarf. Cut another chenille stems in quarter. Take two pieces and twist one around the other to form a stick arm. Repeat to make the other arm. Now glue the arms on either side of the shoulder area. Finally, glue buttons on the front and finish.

 

It’s a simple little recycling craft that needs nothing but a few old Christmas cards, Popsicle sticks or craft sticks, glue, scissors, and some rice/beans/sand to use as filler weight to support the puppets. Cut out the shapes of different Christmas characters from the old Christmas cards. One stick is to be used for each puppet. You can even paint the sticks as per your liking and let them dry. Now simply glue the cut out characters on top of the sticks; one cut out on each stick. Stick the sticks together in a vase filled with rice/beans/sands and then decorate.

 

Easy to make, recycled bottle cap Christmas cards frames, as the name suggests, require a few bottle caps and a few Christmas cards that you received over the years. Also required are glue, scissors, glitter, and a pencil. Collect as many caps as you want to make the ornamental photo frames. Metal caps on soft drink bottles, caps used on plastic water bottles or prescription pills bottles will do. Next on the list are a collection of Christmas cards that have fairly small pictures which will fit right into the small caps. Centre the cap over the picture that you like and trace around it with a pencil. Cut a little inside the line as the traced one won’t fit into the cap. Put a dab of glue into the cap and press the picture into the place. Now take a chenille stem and wrap it around the cap, twisting the two ends together at the top and making a loop. Dab a little glue around the inside of the bottle cap rim and shake glitter all over the glued area. Shake off any excess of glitter and keep it aside to dry. In the same way, make as many frames as you want and hang them on the needles of the Christmas tree.

 

 

Get some wood from your backyard and with the help of an adult, cut simple letters using a saw. You can create words pertaining to Christmas decoration, such as “joy”, “hope”, “noel”, or “Christmas”. Decorate the letters in red or green colors and adorn them with glitters to match the décor or theme of your home. The smaller wooden pieces can be used as miniature trees, gifts, trinkets and stars. Embellish them and attach them to the letters so created, to give a 3D effect.

 

Bright and elegant, peacock feathers make a great Christmas decoration. Get some long and colorful feathers and a foam wreath, easily available at any craft store. Ideally, the foam should be green in color. In case you don’t find a green one, paint it green so that no white color highlights through the feathers. With the help of adhesive glue, attach both the peacock sword and peacock eye feathers to the wreath. Carefully wrap them around the front and sides of the foam. Fill the leftover gaps with simple green feathers. Tie a beautiful red ribbon to the wreath and your peacock wreath is ready for hanging on the door.

 

For this, you will require plastic pushpins in clear or white color, small Styrofoam balls, some satin ribbon, and glitter spray. Carefully, insert enough pushpins into the Styrofoam balls until they are fully covered. Using satin ribbon, create loops for hanging the balls. Secure the loop into the ball with the help of a pushpin. Spray the balls with glitter spray to create a sparkling effect. Leave the balls aside for drying. Once dried, hang the shining snowballs to your Christmas tree.

 

First, collect the materials required to make this glittering and amazing craft - 3 basket style coffee filters, 2 cotton balls, 6-8” length of silver or gold ribbon, 1 white chenille stem, 1 gold chenille stem, scissors, and hot glue gun. Take a coffee filter and place the cotton balls in its center. Grab the coffee filter with your fingers with cotton balls in the center to create the angel’s head. Place the second coffee filter beneath the opening end of the first coffee filter and tuck a little filter into it. This will make the angel’s dress. Tie a piece of gold or silver ribbon around the cotton balls to make the neck. Tie a bow.

 

Fold the third coffee filter into half and fold it further length-wise. Tie the white chenille stems around the center of the folded coffee filter and spread out the wings. From the excess white chenille, make a loop to hang the angel onto the tree. Using the gold chenille, create a halo by wrapping it around a round item, such as a paint bottle. Cut off the long end of the chenille, leaving 3”. Glue the halo to the neck of the angel, so as to position it over the head. Also, glue the wings to the back of the angel.