When I was in kindergarten my class made “bell” ornaments for Christmas, consisting of Dixie cups wrapped in tin foil. My mother of course loved it and, much to my chagrin, kept it for many, many years. She insisted on putting it on the tree every year up until fairly recently, when she was finally convinced that the badly-deteriorated ornament, after over 20 years of service, had officially made the transition from decoration to trash.
If you prefer a more upscale look to your holiday decorations, finding projects for your kids that don’t look like kiddie projects can be a challenge. Reader Crystal has just such a quandary. Via Twitter, she asked us:
What are your favorite Christmas decorations to do with kids that don’t completely look like kids decorations?
Coming into the holiday season this is a very pertinent question! Here are a few crafts we’ve posted here at DSC in past years that kids of various ages can make without leaving your house looking like an elementary school classroom.
- Push pin starburst ornament, suitable for ages 5 and up
- Pine cone garland, easily adaptable to Christmas by changing the paint colors
- Sparkly ornament tree, great for kids who are old enough to use a low-temp glue gun
What are your favorite upscale Christmas decor crafts that kids can make?
(photo by Flickr user by AForestFrolic, Creative Commons license)
5 Comments
Jenn/Rook No. 17
My girls always enjoy glittering things. For the past few years we’ve purchased the 3 pack of white feathered bird ornaments from the Dollar Tree. The girls slather them in Mod Podge, then dunk them in silver glitter. The effect is elegant and the process is easy!
Jenn
Sarah
When I was a kid we would make popcorn & cranberry strands for the tree… and obviously you wouldn’t keep that for the next year.
I have two trees – a “nice” one that faces the front windows, and a “fun” one that is smaller and is in the back of the house (where we do most of our hanging out anyway)… the fun one has the kids ornaments, and color lights on it… the nice one is color coordinated and is what you see from the street.
Jen
I still have my foil-dixie cup ornament that I made when I was 5; I’m now 42! With a dark-green pipe-cleaner stem and a little dark-red bow, it still looks great.
Best ornaments my kids made that look amazing: pine cones, dipped in elmer’s glue and then covered in glitter. Shake the glitter on (and excess off) over a baking pan or bowl to reclaim glitter. So easy a 2 year old could do it. I love the way they catch the light.
J. Hill
I think the prettiest school ornament I gave to my parents was one that was made from a metal cookie cutter. We glued ribbon around the perimeter of the cookie cutter and then glued a small sprig of like pine or holly or something to it. It didn’t take much work and still looks nice years later!
Jennifer
I made these this year, and they are totally kid friendly. My 3 year old helped me make them. http://www.alwaysinwonder.com/2011/11/book-page-christmas-ornaments.html