A great pastime for the festive season is to get creative with some Christmas arts and crafts for the family. It can be a great way to keep the kids busy and also create some unique decorations for your home. There are plenty of simple Christmas arts and crafts you can do with items you might already have around the house.

Read our favourite family Christmas craft ideas below.

 

 

Clay star ornaments

You can make your own Christmas decorations by creating some clay star ornaments. All you need is white air dry clay, a rolling pin, and a star-shaped cookie cutter. You can also use string or ribbon, as well as paints and glitter, depending on how you want to decorate them.

First, roll out your clay so it’s around ½ cm thick. Then use the cookie cutter to cut star shapes out of it. You could also use different shaped cookie cutters to make snowflakes, snowmen, Santas or angels! If you’re hanging the stars on your tree, pierce the tops with something sharp to create a hole big enough to get your string or ribbon through.

Leave the stars to dry for one to two days on some greaseproof paper, turning them every so often. Once they’re dry, they’re ready to hang. You can add them all to one piece of string or ribbon to create a garland, or string them individually to hang on your tree.

Clay star ornaments can look lovely just as they are, or you can get more creative and decorate them. You can paint them with acrylics or make patterns with glitter glue. You could also dip the stars into paint or use felt tip pens to create a Christmas scene.

You could also use imprints for a more subtle decoration. Use letter stamps or a pattern stamp to imprint on the clay before it dries. You could print names on the stars if you want to use them as gift tags on presents.

 

 

Paper angel charms

Paper angel charms make are another easy Christmas decoration to make. For these, you’ll need a wooden bead, string, A4 paper or card, marker pens and glue.

Start by cutting a piece of A4 paper in half and then cut about a third off one piece (you can use the other half to create another paper angel). You can use coloured paper or patterned paper, depending on the sort of angel you want to create. The larger piece of paper will be the body of the angel and the small strip will be the wings.

Fold the larger piece of paper back and forth into a concertina. Once you have your concertina, fold it in half. Then fold the smaller strip of paper into a concertina and fold this in half too.

Then take your string or ribbon and thread the wooden bead through to create a loop. You can then put both the concertinas through the loop, with the small piece on top. Tighten the loop so the bead is secure above the paper.

Then fan out the ends of the concertinas to create the angel’s wings and body. You can stick the middle of the angel’s body together to create a larger fan. You can then leave the angel as it is or add a face to the bead with the marker pens. Use the top of the string to then tie it to your tree or create a garland of angels.

Pinecone Christmas trees

You can easily make mini Christmas trees just with a pinecone, cork, paint and glue. The first step is to glue the pinecone to the cork. You can then paint the pinecone a Christmas tree green. Make sure to get into all the nooks and crannies

You can leave it like that, or you can add some embellishments. You could use white or silver paint to add snow to the “branches” of your pinecone Christmas tree. Or you could paint different coloured baubles onto the tips of each branch. You could use a tiny paintbrush to add in Christmas lights, or you could use a small, thin piece of ribbon to wind around as a garland.

You could leave the cork brown, so it looks like a trunk or paint it a different colour. You could also add some fabric round the cork, so it looks like a Christmas tree skirt.

Christmas tree spiral

A Christmas tree spiral is a great decoration for your kid’s room and is really easy to make. You’ll need a paper plate, paint and paint brushes, coloured paper or card, a hole punch, scissors, a stapler, glue, and ribbon or string.

Start by painting your paper plate green. If you want to save time, you could always buy green paper plates instead. Once it’s painted both sides and dry, you can cut the plate into a spiral shape, like a snail’s shell. If you cut thick sections, your Christmas tree spiral will be shorter; if you cut thinner sections, it will be taller. 

Once the tree is ready, you can make your Christmas tree decorations. You can keep these simple by cutting out circles and adding glitter for baubles, or you can get creative with different shapes of ornaments. Remember to cut out a star or angel for the top of your Christmas tree spiral. You should cut out two copies of your tree topper, so you can stick them on either side of the string.

After you’ve created your decorations, you can put your tree together. Tie a knot on the end of a piece of string and staple it to the top of your spiral. Then glue your tree topper to the string, so the string is stuck between the two pieces of paper.

Using the hole punch, punch a hole into the top of your baubles and any other tree decorations. You’ll also need to punch holes into the Christmas tree itself – try and space them out evenly. You can then tie your ornaments to the tree using your string or ribbon. Once you’ve finished decorating your paper plate Christmas tree, you can fix it to the ceiling, so it dangles down into a tree shape.

 

 

Santa advent calendar

You can make a simple Santa advent calendar with some craft paper, cotton balls and colouring pencils or pens. Start with cutting out a face for Santa and add eyes, a nose, and his rosy cheeks. Then cut out a hat from red and white paper and stick it all together with glue.

The final part of the Santa advent calendar is his beard. Cut out a large beard from white paper. Write the numbers 1 to 25 on the beard, starting from the top and working down to the point.

Add a cotton ball over the date for every day of the month, so Santa will have a full beard by Christmas Day. Hang the calendar up and leave a bowl of cotton balls and some glue nearby.

 

 

Sock snowman

You can make a simple sock snowman without even having to sew. You’ll need a white sock, a coloured sock, some rice, a rubber band (or thread, or string), buttons, ribbons, mini pompoms, marker pens or paint, and a glue gun.

The first step is to fill the sock with rice. You can make this easier by using a funnel. Fill the sock until it’s the right size you want for your snowman and then tie the top with the rubber band, thread, or string.

You’ll want to leave enough room in the sock so you can tie another rubber band or string around the upper third. You should be left with a head shape at the top and a larger body shape at the bottom.

You can then decorate your snowman. Glue buttons or pompoms down the front of the body using the glue gun. You can draw on the face with pens or paint and add an orange pompom for the nose.

Give your snowman a scarf using ribbon – you can tie it or glue it down with the glue gun. Cut off the excess part of the white sock that doesn’t contain any rice. You’ll be left with a small tuft, but you can cover it with a hat.

To make the hat, cut off the toe end of your coloured sock. Roll the ends so it looks like a woolly hat and glue it into place on your snowman’s head. You can arrange a few sock snowmen in a festive scene on your sideboard or for the centrepiece of your Christmas table.

 

Leitz has a range of home stationery to help with your arts and crafts.

Get more arts and crafts inspiration for your family:

7 Easy Craft Ideas for Kids

Cheap and Easy Creative Hobbies to Try at Home Today