For many of us, money is tight this Christmas season. You don't have to limit your child's fun, though. Here are some great Christmas projects that take little or no cash. These will keep your kids in the spirit of the holiday without breaking the bank.
Set up a decorative miniature winter scene by making a lake and snow from a small mirror and cotton balls. Use gumdrops, marshmallows and toothpicks to fashion people, snowmen, and trees. Graham crackers make wonderful houses when you use icing for glue. What other miniature features can you add? Try incorporating your child's toy cars and trucks on a road drawn on construction paper. Let your imagination soar, and this project can occupy your children for days as you create your scene together.
Get out the old cookie cutters that you no longer need in the kitchen and put them to work on some of those old Christmas cards that are gathering dust. Use the cookie cutters to trace around the pictures on the cards and cut the figures out. You will want two pictures for each shape. Glue the backs of the shapes together so that the Christmas pictures show on each side. Punch a hole in the top and add a yarn hanger. Decorate the creations with glitter around the edges and you will have a delightful craft project to ornament your tree.
Get some holiday mileage out of old magazines with this classic craft. Use a magazine that is thick and short, like Reader's Digest. Take one page at a time and fold the top corner down so that the edge of the page meets the binding of the magazine. Fold the bottom corner up so that the edge meets the lower edge of the triangle that you made with the first fold. Do this to EACH page of the magazine, and you will create Christmas-tree shape. Clip the front and back covers together to hold the tree open. Now all that remains is to decorate the tree! Some like to spray green paint on the folded magazine so it looks more festive, and you can use glue, yarn, fabric trim, and macaroni to create ornaments and tinsel.
Use tinted tissue to make delightfully textured holiday decorations. Draw the outline of a Christmas symbol, like a tree, stocking or star, on a piece of paper. Cut or tear the tissue into 1” squares and use a pencil top as a mold. Form the tissue around the eraser of the pencil to get a flattened spot and glue this flat bottom onto the picture you drew. Glue these little forms side by side, filling in the entire form. Accent with different colored tissue if you wish, or use fresh magic markers to tint white tissue for decorations, outlines, and other accents.
Make some festive wrapping paper by taking the classified section of an old newspaper and coloring the squares and rectangles that contain the ads. Be sure to use your child's recycled gift wrap on some presents that go under the tree!
When everyone is finished with the crafts, try a holiday treat: make ice-cream cone Christmas trees! You'll need pointed ice cream cones (not the flat-bottomed kind), green frosting and candy sprinkles. Turn the cones upside down and ice them with the green frosting. Use the candy sprinkles for decorations. When everyone has had a chance to show off their trees, munch and enjoy!
Remember that most of the fun of projects like these is in the doing. Have your camera on hand to capture the moment, and add the pictures to your child's photo album. You'll find that your children will treasure these happy moments for years to come.
