Holiday Placemats
Materials You'll Need: Christmas
cards, stiff construction and clear contact paper.
Cut construction paper to
size of a placemat. Arrange cards onto construction paper and cover with clear contact paper. For a more personal touch, insert
family pictures. If giving as a gift, make a set of four.
Napkin
Rings
Materials You'll Need: Paper towel tubes, Christmas cards, ribbon, felt, sequins, glue.
Cut paper towel tube into widths to match the width of Christmas ribbon. Wrap felt around tube and
glue in place. Add smaller ribbon trim, sequins to outside edges or a cut out from a Christmas card to center of felt. If
giving as a gift make four.
Cinnamon
Logs
Materials You'll Need: Cinnamon sticks, ribbon, berries, bells, leaves
Glue three cinnamon sticks
into a stack (so that they look like a stack of logs). Tie a ribbon around the stack and tie a bow on top. Embellish with
berries, leaves or whatever you desire. Tie a ribbon for hanging. Makes a fragrant decoration for use anywhere in your home.
Nutty Pine Cones
Materials You'll Need: Large pine cones, bird seed, peanut butter, ribbon
Coat pine cones thoroughly
with peanut butter, sprinkle with birdseed until well covered. Tie ribbon to top of cone. If giving as a gift, wrap gently
in several layers of tissue paper and place in a box that will hold your gift snuggly. Or hang Nutty Pine Cones out on the
tree branches by ribbon. This is an easy and inexpensive gift that you and the birds will enjoy.
Birdseed
Hearts
Materials You'll Need: Package of ready-to-bake breadsticks, beaten egg, birdseed
Open
breadsticks, separate and form into “heart” shapes. Pinch the ends of each to seal. Brush with egg and sprinkle
with birdseed. When cool, tie a festive ribbon around them and hang them from the trees outside. If giving as a gift-wrap
in tissue paper before boxing.
Paper
Plate Wreath
Materials You'll Need: Paper plates, construction paper, glue, markers
Cut a circle out of the
center of a paper plate. Decorate the outer circle with cut out holly leaves from green construction paper. Add small circles
of red construction paper for berries. You’re your child add a special greeting and hang by a string.
Clothespin
Reindeer
Materials You'll Need: Clothespins, glue, "eyes", ribbon, mall pom-poms
Use three clothespin
pieces: two pointing down (4 legs); the third pointing up (ears). Add "eyes", a small red pom-pom nose, a ribbon on the neck,
and a pom-pom tail. Kids love this project and will want to make all the reindeers. Makes a nice ornament or gift decoration.
Potato Stamp Art
Materials
You'll Need: Potatoes, Brown Paper Bags, Placemats, Paper, Washable Poster Paints, Knife (adults or parents only!)
Cut potatoes
in half and then cut a design such as a star, Christmas tree, triangle or diamond, on enough potatoes for each child.
An easy way to cut in a design is to press a cookie cutter into the cut potato end and cut around the cookie cutter.
Give each child a pre-cut potato and small dishes of poster paint to decorate bags, placemats or paper. Children should dab
excess paint onto a blank piece of paper before starting each project. The placemats make cute gifts. Your children can use
the decorated bags or paper to wrap presents.
