Holiday Arts and Crafts for Children

If you often have trouble dragging your children away from the television or video game, or you have trouble finding something for them to do inside on a snowy day when school is out, then the holiday season is a perfect time to start stimulating their minds and developing creative impulses that will hopefully last long after the holidays are past. While it may take a little advance planning on your part to gather supplies beforehand, it will be well worth it and your children will have a good time creating a memorable decoration or gift.

Be sure to set things up in a spot with plenty of room, and work on a cleared table that isn’t an antique or heirloom, so you won’t be heartbroken if something gets dropped or spilled on it. A linoleum floor underneath is your best option, for the same reason, or you can spread out a drop cloth or an old shower curtain to protect your floors. Be sure to keep paper towels or a wet washcloth handy.

Holiday Cards

The most obvious art project for children during the holiday season is homemade greeting cards. And in an economy where people are watching their budgets anyway, making homemade cards can be much more inexpensive, and the card may even serve as a gift as well! Here are a few items that may come in handy for your little merry card-makers:

• Paper (various colors and kinds)
• Sequins, buttons, colored ribbons, or glitter
  
• Glue or glue sticks
• Rubber stamps and inkpads
• Stickers of Santa, Christmas trees, snowflakes, or other holiday favorites
• Colored pencils or markers (non-permanent)
• Fun foam shapes
• Scissors (maybe even patterned scissors)

Some craft stores will have the equipment necessary to make your own unique rubber stamps. However, if this is not convenient, most arts and craft stores sell pre-made stamps and inkpads. Using these stamps and inkpads, children can create many different kinds of greeting cards. In addition, using colored pencils or markers to enhance the stamped image provides a more colorful card. Glitter, sequins, buttons, fun foam shapes, and ribbon are just a few of the things you can add to bring a different dimension to your cards. Most of all, let the children use their own creativity to design whatever card they want to, because the recipient will value it even more knowing that it came from their own imagination.

Waxed Paper Screens

Remember those old-fashioned room dividers that were wooden frames with decorated sheer paper screens between the wooden slats? Children can easily make the same type of screens on a smaller scale, to use as framed artwork, 3-D sculptures, or even delicate holiday cards. The materials needed to make waxed paper screens are things you probably already have on hand:

• Roll of waxed paper
• Large piece of cardboard or poster board
• Large piece of plain paper
• Leaves, dried flower petals, ribbons, tinsel, or other decorative items

For the best final product, it’s usually a good idea to have your child decide on the basic design—which items to include inside the screen, how big it should be, how it will be framed, how it will be presented or used, and so on. Let your child use his or her imagination, but you can offer helpful suggestions during the design phase that will keep the project from ballooning out of control once the execution phase begins.

Once the materials are collected, heat an iron to its lowest setting. Place the cardboard or poster board on a table. Tear off a sheet of waxed paper and place it on the cardboard with the waxed side facing upward. Have the children arrange their leaves, tinsel, ribbons, dried flower petals, or other decorative items on the waxed paper without overlapping, leaving at least one inch of paper free around the edges of the sheet of waxed paper. Be sure there is room between each of the items so the paper will be able to close around them to keep them in place after the screen dries. Tear off another sheet of waxed paper the same size as the first, and carefully place it on top of the arranged items, with the waxed side of the paper facing downward. Carefully place the piece of plain paper on top of the waxed paper arrangement.

Using the heated iron, "melt" the waxed paper arrangement together by placing the iron on different parts of the paper and holding it there for 4-5 seconds. Do not move the iron across the paper, or you may disturb the arrangement of the items between the two sheets of waxed paper. Instead, pick it up and set it down again on different areas around the paper until you have ironed every section. Once the entire project has been "ironed" you can then slide the iron around gently to be sure all the wax has melted and the two sheets of waxed paper are completely molded together. Remove the paper and inspect the arrangement to be sure everything has been sealed up sufficiently. If you see spots that aren’t fully adhered, cover it with the screen again with the paper and iron more to seal all those spots. Uncover the arrangement and carefully move it to a clear spot on the table. Allow the picture to cool completely before handling it.

Cut off the rough edges of the waxed paper to make a smooth edge all around, or use specialty scissors to make a decorative edge. You can glue the screen to a piece of card stock to create a unique specialty holiday card, or you can frame the screen to use as a wall hanging or ornament. Glued popsicle sticks make a rustic and fun frame for small screens. You can also make several small waxed paper screens, punch a hole in each one, and dangle them from ornament hangers woven through twine to make a mobile.

Collages

A collage is an artistic composition made of various elements or textures. Around your house, there are many things that your children can gather to make a collage. Making a collage may seem like an easy craft, but challenge your child to come up with a theme or a story for the collage to tell.

Most people think of collages as being made of magazine or newspaper clippings, but those aren’t necessarily the best items to use. For example, pretty paper dinner napkins, festive wrapping paper, egg cartons, old fabric remnants, plastic utensils, old buttons, construction paper, various kinds of lids, or even brightly decorated canned food labels are just a few of the things your child could gather to make their collage. The idea behind a collage is to help your child make a picture using the things they have gathered.

After they have collected the items they want to use, have them lay out the items in a nice arrangement. You can use anything for a background canvas—poster board, foam craft board, an old picture frame, even a piece of plywood. This is a great creative-thinking activity, so encourage your children to be creative in the items they select, how many different items they use, and the canvas they affix them to. Once they have finished arranging the collage, you can help them glue the items to the canvas using white glue, a glue stick, or a glue gun. Be sure to let the collage dry completely before trying to pick it up.

Clay Ornaments

If your children have ever played with Play-Dough or modeling clay, then creating clay ornaments will be second nature to them. The only difference is that instead of having to store the clay after playing with it to keep it from drying out, you’ll be encouraging them to let it dry out and harden on purpose.

For the best results, use brightly colored modeling clay from an arts and crafts store. Let your children mold the basic shape they want to create, and offer critiques or suggestions only when asked. After the basic shape is formed, the artist can use common household tools such as toothpicks, a letter opener, a comb, or a spoon to create patterns in the clay such as facial features, hair, buttons, pockets, or jewelry. If you intend to use the figure as an ornament, be sure to make a hole in the top so you can insert a ribbon or rope to hang it after it is dry.

Once the final shape is ready to be dried, you can set it carefully in a quiet and protected spot in your home such as a closet or a bookcase, and let it dry until it is completely hardened before you pick it up. Read the directions on the clay package to see if there are instructions for possibly heating the clay in an oven set at a very low temperature. You may also be able to glaze or paint the clay after it is hardened. But be sure to read the manufacturer’s instructions, to be sure you don’t ruin your child’s creation by doing something with the clay that isn’t recommended by the manufacturer.

Helping children discover their creative side is important, as well as fun. And there’s no time like the holiday season to have fun being creative. And while you’re having fun, you can use your imagination to help them develop theirs.