All right, here it is: we’re making Christmas crafts. Yes, really. And it’s not because I am insanely organized. Far from it. It’s because I know that Christmas will come and we will not be organized, December will fly, and there we will be, with no Christmas presents to give to special teachers and other relatives.
As I’ve mentioned before, my daughter and I are rapid-fire crafters. We don’t like to spend a lot of time creating crafts with intricate details – let’s just say that no one will be getting fancy lacework for Christmas, as least not made from our hands. This also means that if we want to make seasonal crafts, I need to plan them well so that they are simple enough to complete and intriguing enough to sustain her interest.
What are we making for people this year?
Well, we’ve already made jam. Freezer jam and canned jams are two of our favorite Christmas gifts to make, and since these get done in the summer time they are also nice and early. Preschoolers can help by pounding berries and by cleaning the bowl, of course. If you have a craft-oriented preschooler, your child can also create little labels or containers for the jams as well. Decorate a fabric bag or a paper bag with a child’s collage art. This makes a great jam bag.
We are also making felted Christmas stars. My daughter loves water play, and felting wool involves wool, warm and cold water, and soap. You put the wool in a bag and rub it in water and soap until the fibers mesh together. Then I will cut out star shapes and we will hang them with ribbon.
Yesterday I created a melted beeswax and olive oil mixture that we are going to use on some Christmas ornaments. We’ll get wooden cutouts from our local craft store, decorate them with pencil crayons, and then we will wax them so that they look like they have been varnished. I hope that they will have a lovely smell, too.
To make our Christmas cards, I have silver-backed paper that will be the base of the card. Then, we have painted some newspaper in various shades of green, and we have a star-shaped hole punch. We’ll make a collage of the newspaper and cut out the stars. Glue and paint and tearing paper: all good fodder for preschoolers.
Of course, there is also the annual book that we create. This needs to be scanned and it needs to go in to the printers, but it is nearly completed. This year my daughter dictated a story to me, then we used a combination of her illustrations and a fabric collage to make the pictures.
Do you create Christmas crafts with your preschooler? What do you make?
Image courtesy of Billy Alexander at Stock Exchange.