Tips for Holiday Crafting, Making Memories as a Family

Posted December 11, 2018

Are you ready for some Christmas crafting with your kids? Crafting at home is all about making memories, and some of our favorite childhood memories come from arts and craft sessions with our moms, sisters, and grandmothers. There’s something about this season that just makes you want to do projects and crafts. Who doesn’t love to put on a good holiday movie and craft while you watch?

Here are three holiday craft ideas for wonderful handmade decorations kids can help make:

Paper snowflakes

Paper snowflakes are a classic paper craft. A single sheet of paper can become a blizzard of snowflakes that you can use to hang from the ceiling, decorate a table, or top anything from gifts to cupcakes.

Start out with a square piece of paper, preferably thin or lightweight paper. Fold the square diagonally in half to come up with a triangle. Fold the resulting triangle in half to make a smaller triangle. The most important step in making a paper snowflake is dividing the triangle into three equal sections. Once you’ve marked out the three equal sections, fold the left section towards the front. Similarly, fold the right section towards the front. Flip the shape over so that the side with the horizontal edge is facing front. Cut along the horizontal edge so that you end up with a wedge. While keeping the wedge folded, cut out random shapes out of the edges. Carefully unfold the paper to reveal your unique paper snowflake.

Candy cane crafts

Even if you love eating candy canes, there always seems to be some left over after Christmas. Try using a few of those candy canes now to make fun candy cane crafts you can use as decorations and gifts. The options are limited only by your (and your kids’) imaginations. Candy canes can become picture frames, place card holders, adorable reindeer ornaments, or even melted in the oven to create a tray for festive holiday cookies.

Classic salt dough ornaments

You can bake a batch of these ornaments from your existing kitchen pantry staples—flour, salt, and cookie cutters—then enlist help from the kids to decorate them with colorful paints and glitter.

Mix 2 cups flour and 1 cup salt together in a bowl. Slowly mix 1 cup of cold water, a few tablespoons at a time, into your flour mixture until dough is smooth and easy to handle. Knead the dough for 10 minutes and let rest for 20 minutes. Preheat oven to 250 degrees F. Cut the dough into your selected shapes and arrange them all on a baking sheet. Bake until dry and hard, about 2 hours. Allow the shapes to cool completely before beginning your masterpieces.

Give these a try with your children and let us know in the comments what your favorite was. Even better, round up your adult siblings or cousins and try making them with your mom again like you used to!