Stephanie from Little Birds Handmade kindly sent us this seasonal craft 

December 13th is Santa Lucia Day! You can read more about how Santa Lucia is celebrated in Scandinavia here. We decided to create our own versions of the candle crown traditionally worn by the eldest daughter as well as a star hat like those worn by boys in Santa Lucia processions.

You will need:
White card stock or heavy paper for crown and candles.
Green craft paper cut into leaf shapes (depending on the age of the child, you may want to cut out the leaf shapes ahead of time).
Red craft paper cut or punched into small circles for berries.
Orange/yellow craft paper cut into flame shapes.
Glitter.
Glue.

Santa Lucia Crown

1. Cut a two inch wide strip of paper long enough to wrap around the child’s head. Have child glue leaf shapes to cover the crown and decorate with red berries.

2. Add glitter to flame shapes. Cut strips of white card stock as candles (we made six candles for our crown). Glue flame to candle and candles to crown.

3. Fit crown around head and fasten at back with glue or staples.

4. Play Santa Lucia!

Boy’s Lucia Procession Hat

1. Create a tall cone hat from white card stock. Glue or staple closed.

2. Cut star shaped from card stock and decorate with silver or gold glitter.

3. Glue stars to hat.

4. Ta-da!

More Santa Lucia Links:

Santa Lucia Day in Sweden

Recipe for Santa Lucia Braided Bread

Listen to the traditional Santa Lucia song

Alicia’s tutorial for Santa Lucia dolls

Happy Santa Lucia Day!

Sarah from The Small Object Sent us this paper doll and ornament idea

Around our house, we have fabric scraps, paper bits and ribbon remnants lying about on tables and in bins which are far too enticing for little hands. And given the number of requests for drawing a princess, Nanny McPhee, Harry Potter and Mommy, I needed a paper doll. It’s perfect since you can make it into anything by adding ponytails,crown, bows, buttons,glasses and then color or collage on some bits.

Lately, the big thing has been taping down a piece of fabric to give them blankets, cause they get cold, you know.

As gifts, we also xerox a big stack of them and staple or bind them together to make a doll coloring book and then include an original drawing and a little bag of scraps.

Not to stop the fun, we love it so much I shrunk it down and made them into doll ornaments for the tree.

We’re set! Download and get your glue handy.

(Share, give + download to your hearts desire! Just please don’t go selling them or some other equally insane commercial idea. Thanks!)

Kiddley reader Aoife Clifford kindly sent in this great snowflake craft idea

There is nothing so much like Christmas as white snowflakes, even in Australia. As my children are one and three Christmas is still a work in progress as we introduce old family traditions to them and they think of new traditions for us. Last year all my eldest wanted from Santa Claus was snow (this year he wants a REAL magic wand not a toy one!). A little tricky so I bought a whole heap of tissue paper and cut snowflakes out in the hope that it would be enough. There are plenty of patterns on the internet . I used the Martha Stewart Kids pattern which coincidentally is craft of the week at the moment. Luckily he liked them but as he was only two I did have to hang them out of his reach for fear his dream could be ripped up in about 30 seconds. You could make them out of any sort of paper but I like the look of tissue paper.

This year we are doing it all again but I had a revelation of making them out of vilene from my sewing shop. It looks just like tissue paper but is much stronger – people use it for making patterns with because it is very hard to rip – so really is ideal for crafting with kids. Most sewing shops and craft shops would have equivalents. It cost about $1.50 AUS a metre. I am most fond of the plain snowflake but my kids, like most, seem to channel Versace in their decorating and demand enough glitter to make a glam rocker blush. Vilene will withstand all the glitter, stickers, glue and paint that your kids will literally throw at it.

For younger crafters like my two I’m in charge of the cutting and they the colouring. For really wee ones, like my 16 month old, I got her to decorate the square first and then cut out the snowflake afterwards.

We tend to stick our snowflakes up on our windows but you can make garlands, wreaths, tree decorations, stick them on presents and cards and even use them as a stencil for decorating cakes with icing sugar or cocoa as our last picture shows.

What’s even better is that I think these snowflakes will actually make it to Christmas next year as well – so you can keep on adding to your decorations each year with some new varieties.

Amber from the sensational Kids Craft Weekly sent us this wonderful idea

For my first guest post I thought I’d write about how to make your own Christmas crackers – with a fun twist! Once you’ve discovered the joy of these handmade crackers you’re unlikely to go back to the commercial variety. In fact, these are so popular at our place that we’ve had to incorporate them into our birthday celebrations also.

The idea behind these crackers is that once they’ve been pulled apart, you get busy constructing your own Christmas hat using the items found within. The only rule is that you have to use *all* of the contents of your cracker. The hat construction materials include a sheet of tissue paper and some rubber bands, plus a colourful selection of bits and bobs for embellishing the hat. For a bit of a challenge it’s fun to add some crazy miscellany – in this example I’ve used a small plastic horse and a medallion of Kevin Federline.

If you have a sit down family meal this holiday season, crazy hat crackers are a great way to keep the little people (and the big ones) occupied between courses.

You will need:

For the crackers

Crepe paper
Cardboard
Paper towel roll
Scissors
Sticky tape
Ribbon or rafia
Bits and bobs to decorate

For the crazy hats

Tissue paper
Rubber bands
Feathers
String
Ribbon
Paperclips
Stickers
Crazy miscellany

1. Cut your cardboard into 15 cm (6 inch) squares and then cut your crepe paper into rectangles, roughly 36 x 18 cm (14 x 7 inches).

2. Roll up the cardboard into cylinders and fasten with stickytape. To get all your rolls the same size, use a paper towel roll as a guide. Once you’ve created a cylinder for each person, cut your paper towel roll in half. These two smaller rolls will be used to keep the ends of the crackers in place while you’re folding them.

3. Place a cracker cylinder and your two short rolls onto a piece of crepe paper – then roll it all up.

4. Fasten the crepe paper with double-sided tape. Then make a twist at one end (between the cylinder and one of the short rolls) to seal off one end of the cracker. Tie the end with a ribbon and insert your cracker contents through the open end.

5. Twist and fasten the open end of the cracker, trim off the ends to even them up and embellish as you wish.

6. When the time comes to pull the crackers, get creative in your hat making skills and have fun spending time with family and friends!

This idea has been featured by both ReadyMade and Martha Stewart and it’s something we’ve been meaning to try for years.

You will need:
A jar with a secure lid
Superglue
Glitter
Decorations for the inside of the snowglobe
Glycerin (optional)

Jar selection is important; choose one that’s got a large enough base and is tall enough for the diorama you want to create, and make sure that the glass is clear enough to see though.

Assemble your diorama on the inside of the jar lid, and when you’re happy with how it’s going to look, use superglue to stick all your pieces down to the lid. Let this dry according to the instructions for the glue you’re using.

Fill the jar almost to the top with water and add some glitter. If you’ve got some glycerin handy, add some, as it will make the glitter fall more slowly. Then carefully turn your lid upside down and immerse the diorama in the water. Make sure you fasten the lid securely, and turn the whole thing upside down.

Shake repeatedly!

We decided to use a thin piece of lego as the base that we glued onto the inside of the jar lid; this means that when we get bored of watching a polar bear in a snow storm, we can easily take him off the base and add some other pieces of lego to make a completely new scene for our snowglobe.

Myra From My Little Mochi sent us this great craft and is the last in our Advent calendar ideas:

Hello! I’m Myra from My Little Mochi. Here’s a last minute advent calendar that you can put together fairly quickly with an ink jet printer, a little bit of folding and cutting, and materials you probably already have around the house. It also makes a nice gift or goodie bag that can be used throughout the holiday season.

You will need:

Color ink jet printer
8 1/2″ x 11″ white paper (or A4 but you will need to trim down the paper to 8 1/2″x 11″ – Ed.)
Scissors
Glue or tape
Black construction paper

1. Print out 24 copies of the snowman PDF file onto 8 1/2″ x 11″ (or A4) paper.

2. Follow the folding instructions provided.

3. Once all the folds have been completed, place snowman face down and bring the left and right columns toward the middle while simultaneously bringing the top and bottom up toward the middle and you should now have a little folded gift bag. Fill as desired.

4. Use a pen to number the snowmen or cut out countdown numbers provided in the PDF file and attach. I glued mine to the scarf knot.

5. Trace the hat pattern template onto black construction paper and cut out 24 hats or print optional black hat provided.

6. Glue or tape the hat to the top of the folded snowman to hold bag closed.

And you’re done! Some display ideas:

- line them up on a shelf or mantle
- pin them on your Christmas tree or a clothesline
- arrange them on a tiered cake stand

For an even quicker version, use colored or patterned 8 1/2″ x11″ holiday scrapbook paper and follow the folding instructions. Then use a hole punch to punch two holes at the top of the bag, and then string a ribbon through the holes and tie a bow to hold the bag together.

Jo From Artsy Fartsy Mama kindly sent us this craft idea.

My daughter goes to a Steiner school and last festive season in an effort to avoid the commercialism of Christmas and find meaning in it, there was a lot of discussion and sharing of ideas. Much of the inspiration came from Denise McDonough who spent some time at a Steiner school in Scotland. Between us we came up with this ‘Advent Stick’.

As the child opens up a little package each day they move through the earthly natural kingdoms – earth, plant, animal and human until they discover something more ‘heavenly’ on Christmas Day (the tiny felt & bead baby in walnut shell pictured below). So rather than a chocolate each day – they find a little natural treasure – 6 items in each category.

For example:

Earth – stone, crystal, pebble, sand, charcoal, glass bead, ochre

Plant – lavender pillow, dried flowers, seeds, gumnuts, pods, bark, paper craft such as origami or a tiny notebook

Animal – shell, bone, feather, felt animal, walnut turtle, beeswax candle, goat hair (collected at the farm!), knitted chick

Human – tiny gingerbread men, wool angel, felt doll, peg doll, little letters, a sweet (if you choose)

These are just some suggestions and many of them make beautiful decorations for the tree. Last I wrapped them all in white tissue paper but this year I have different colours to differentiate between the 4 realms. You can then use some cotton string or raffia to tie off each parcel and tie it on to your stick (which could be collected from a special place/tree and kept from year to year). Alternating sides of the stick means as your child rips off a bundle there is still a tail of tissue paper to keep the stick looking attractive. I do this as a surprise for my children, but you could involve an older sibling in the process.

Last week we posted some ideas for creating a Christmas village mantel scene with your kids. Kiddley reader Lisa (thanks Lisa!) pointed us in the direction of Eco-guru Danny Seo’s blog who has just produce a beautiful Christmas village (above) for his mantel out of last year’s Christmas cards. The snow is made from old pillow stuffing. Danny’s Christmas ideas appear in December’s Life Magazine, and you can also find his book Simply Green Giving on Amazon.

Image reproduced with Danny’s permission.

Amanda From SouleMama kindly sent us this craft idea.

Hello, I’m Amanda, from SouleMama, here to share one of our favorite family holiday traditions – the advent stockings. I made these smaller-size stockings out of corduroy, and embellished individually, attached a ribbon for them to hang by, and then strung on a thick rope to be hung above a window. If sewing isn’t your thing, try making the stockings with paper and glue! However you make your stocking, it can be a great way to celebrate the holidays and spread out the joy for your little ones over the whole month. To avoid the repetition of putting candy in each one (though certainly a few of those are a nice treat), following are some ideas to get you thinking about what other little treats you can fill a month of stockings with:

Poetry, written by you or others
A love letter to your little ones
Craft items – glue, glue sticks, markers, pencils, crayons, chalk
Finger puppets
A ‘treasure map” to an item too large for the stocking
Harmonicas
Kazoos
Beads for stringing
Bubbles
Marbles
Seeds for planting
Stickers
Disposable camera
Instructions for a magic trick
Instructions for a secret handshake
Wee journals for drawing or writing in
Holiday cookie cutter (with the promise to make cookies that day!)
A beautiful rock
A collection of pine cones or acorns
Small ornament for the tree
Materials to make their own small ornament
A knock knock joke
Origami animals
“coupons’ for a special movie date, or staying up late, or a mid-day tea party

Blair From Wise.. Craft kindly sent us this craft idea.

The leaves in our neighborhood are especially beautiful this year, and my kids seem to bring a new “collection” home with them daily. With a collection of all different shapes, colors, sizes, and textures of leaves, we made leaf pictures the other afternoon. The materials are simple, leaves, a glue stick, paper, and markers or crayons. I loved the way this got the kids and me talking about the shapes of individual leaves. In less than an hour we had completed three masterpieces;

A peacock at sunrise

A mouse at sunset

and a mice family at sunrise

If you want to take this a step further, I found a great book “Things I Can Make With Leaves” by Sabine Lohf which has lots of cute pictures and ideas for leaf crafts.

Martha Stewart also has some fun ideas on her website:
Leaf motifs for the table and Leaf collage.