From our Dollar Store Crafts Facebook Page: “Does anyone have any ideas for a super quick and cheap craft for about 200 kids to do? I am planning a kids night out for my work and need ideas. For this event, we set up stations where they play games and I need a craft for Winter/Christmas, either one. Thanks!” – Diane
and also:
Pauline wrote: “I need some easy Christmas craft for a 8 year old.”
Heather’s Kids’ Craft Ideas for Christmas or Winter
Last year, my kids went to a little holiday fair and there were a few craft stations. There were several great quick and cheap craft ideas for kids there. Some of the crafts they brought home were:
Candy Cane Reindeer:
For each reindeer you need:
- A candy cane
- 2 googly eyes
- Half a brown pipe cleaner
- Craft glue (for the eyes)
- One small red pom-pom for the nose
- A pencil to wrap the pipe cleaner around
To make, just glue the eyes and nose on, wrap the pipe cleaner antlers on (and curl them around a pencil). The older kids were helping the small kids make these, and it took a few minutes for the googly eyes to dry.
Pipe Cleaner Wreath Ornaments
For each wreath you need:
- about 25 green, red, or clear beads
- Half a green pipe cleaner
- A piece of red or white ribbon (about 6″ long)
- A coffee filter to portion out the craft supplies in advance
I love the coffee filter idea for keeping the project supplies together. This should make it easier to prepare for the craft station in advance.
When the child does the craft, he or she just puts the beads on the pipe cleaner. The helper can twist the pipe cleaner into a circular shape, and tie on the ribbon to hang the ornament.
Clothespin Angel
For each angel you need:
- An old-fashioned clothespin
- A paper doily
- A small piece of gold or silver pipe cleaner
- A small piece of ribbon or embroidery floss to tie on the ornament
- White paint (pre-paint the clothespins)
You can buy a package of old-fashioned clothespins in the laundry section of the dollar store. Before the event, paint the clothespins white and allow to dry. To make the angel, accordion fold the doily (in this photo, my son rolled the doily), and insert in slit of clothespin. Wrap metallic pipe cleaner around the top of the clothespin and form into a small halo. Tie a cord around the “head” part of the clothespin for hanging the ornament.
If desired, let children draw faces on the angels. That would be super cute!
Other holiday kids craft ideas:
- Flower Pot Reindeer Ornament
- Sparkly Die Cut Wreath
- Fabric-Wrapped Ornament
- Doily Countdown Calendar
- Pyramid Box Christmas Tree & 8 other ideas
- Foil Star Christmas Cards
These ideas should get you started! Readers, I would love to hear your great ideas!
11 Comments
Misty
See if you can get someone to donate baby food jars and get some small ornaments and glitter and have them make snow globes!
Trish
We do a Christmas craft every year as a family. Our favorite is a Santa sleigh which uses a pink pearl eraser for the sleigh, small candy canes for the sleigh runners, a chocolate foil-wrapped Santa and Christmas color Hershey kisses for the bag of toys. Use a low-heat glue gun to stick it all together. We use these as our place cards at Christmas dinner. Frugal and quick enough that even the older ones are willing to hang out for a while and do something together with the family.
partycraftsecrets
What about making snowflakes or poinsettia Christmas flowers from different sized cupcake liners.
I blogged the flower-tutorial here for a mermaid table setting, but if you used red, white and green liners, it could work just as well:
http://partycraftsecrets.blogspot.com/2011/09/mermaid-party-table-setting.html
Andrea
Make reindeer food to leave for Santas reindeers. It is a inexpensive project to do for a large crowd.
How to make Magic Reindeer Food:
Take 1 baggie…
Scoop some Magic Oats (oatmeal) into your bag,
Add a pinch of Super Strong Red Sprinkles (red sugar)
Top the mix off with a sprinkle of Green Energy Sprinkles(green sugar)
You can make up a story to print and put in the bag with the magic reindeer food.
Kathryn
Use old floppy discs or CDs to make ornaments cutting up Christmas ads or photos and decorate with glitter, sequins, dimensional paint, etc.
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/christmas_ornament_from_old_computer_disc
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/christmas_decoration_from_old_cd
Make reindeer bags out of brown paper bags, old magazines (antlers are made by tracking around hands) and glue sticks.
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/risque_reindeer_gift_bag/versions/1
You can also glue craft or old popsicle sticks to make frames. One year we glued 6 sticks together to make a “house” and then put a picture of where we in a manger scene – you could make cheap backdrop out of poster board, brown paper bags, aluminum foil and acrylic paint and make a shepherds hook prop out of paper towel tubes and print off the pictures.
I have not made these, but love these ideas:
Toilet paper tube Christmas ornament – cut up tube in to horizontal strips, glue points together, spray with spray adhesive (or could drizzle with glue) and shake in a bag full of glitter.
http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/recycled-tp-roll-christmas-ornament
Paper snowflakes – http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/beautiful_paper_snowflake
Coffee filter snowflakes – http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/coffee_filter_snowflakes
Paper trees made out of old books or magazines – http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/paper_tree
Paper plate angels – http://www.marthastewart.com/272551/paper-plate-angels?czone=holiday/marthas-easiest-christmas/christmas-ideas-a-z
Jingle Bells made out of decorated egg cartons and jingly bells
Candy cane mice
http://www.marthastewart.com/273608/candy-cane-mice?czone=holiday/marthas-easiest-christmas/christmas-ideas-a-z
Cindy
Bells – take a bathroom dixie cup or nut cup (wedding section of DS) and punch a hole in the bottom. The kids wrap the cup in foil then put a pipe cleaner through the hole and through a jingle bell loop then twist to hold the bell on. Pull the pipe cleaner so the bell is hidden in the cup. My kids did this one in preschool.
Babs
3 popsicle sticks glued like a snowflake ( 6 points). Glitterized, etc. Makes an easy ornament or decoration.
Rhonda
SNOWFLAKES WITH THUMB PRINT REINDEER – Use paper doilies, available by the package full at craft stores. First, paint the child’s thumb (first joint, fattest part) with brown paint and press in the center onto the doily. Turn the print sideways and you have the body for the reindeer. Next, glue a wiggly eye (or use a dab of black paint) and a red pom-pom nose (or a dot of red paint) for a nose. Then, using a fint tip permanent marker, draw stick legs and stick antlers. Also, write the child’s name (and date Dec 2011) under their deer. This shows whose thumbprint it is for keepsake and identification. Last, glue a piece of string or cord on the backside, at the top, for a hanger or just hang, with a wire ornament hook, through one of the holes at the top of the doily. Very cute, very easy!
Rhonda
SNOWMAN HEAD ORNAMENT- Using a white or satin white ornament ball, paint black ‘coal’ dot eyes and mouth. (puffy paint looks great) Next, cut off a small piece of orange pipe cleaner and poke it into the satin ball for a carrot nose or if you didn’t use a satin one (which is styrofoam inside) hot glue it on. Next, glue rick-rack (the zig-zag looking ribbon,) regular ribbon, or a peice of yarn, across the top of the head and down the sides to wear the ears would be. Add a pom-pom, at ear height, onto each end of the ribbon to make earmuffs. Last, glue a piece of cord, or poke a piece of ormnament hook wire, into the top of the head for hanging. DONE! Fast, cute and adorable!! And, if you want to go a step further, you can replace the earmuffs with a top hat. For the brim of the hat, cut out a circle of black felt (bigger than the circumference of the snowman’s the head.) For the top hat itself, cut a small section (about 1 1/2 inches 2 inches,) of a toilet tissue or paper towel cardboard tube and cover it with a piece of black felt. Then, glue a small circle of black felt, that just fits the circumference of the top of the hat, on the top to cover the opening and make the top of the hat. Glue that cardboard tube part to the brim part and glue onto the head. You can add the hanger cord to the center of the top hat. Both are cute, one is a little less complicated.
Rhonda
COFFEE FILTER ANGELS- Use a small, styrofoam ball for the head. Stick it up under the center of the coffee filter and wrap the filter down around it, covering the ball to make the head. Gather underneath and secure by wrapping with a white pipe cleaner, a bit of gold or silver or metallic cord, or even a simple piece of thread or embroidery floss. (Anything/strin will do, you just want to secure the ball into the coffe filter.) Now, flair the rest of the filter out for the dress. Next take a second filter and fold it in 1/2, making a half circle, which will be the angels wings. You can use both halves, left folded for thicker wings or, to use less filters, you can cut it in 1/2 on the fold and have another set of wings. Simply take the 1/2 circle and glue it on the back of the angel (at wing height) with the straight/fold or cut edge across the top and the wavy coffee filter edge scalloping down towards the body for the wings. Next, using part of a pipe cleaner (metallic ones look very pretty) or even a piece of wire (you could spray paint it shiny silver or gold or whatever color you like) make a halo. Simply cut the wire/pipecleaner long enough to make a circle big enough to look like a halo over the angels head and, after looping it and twisting it to form a circle/halo, have enough length left to go straight down and glue it to the back of the angels head, making the halo “float” over the angels head. Then, you can add wiggly eyes, paint dots for eyes, leave the face blank, or simply use a fine tip permanent marker and draw eyes. (I did mine with eyes only, drawn on with a fine tip marker. A simple small smile shaped line ( as if the eye was closed) and little lines as lashes coming down underneath. That is it. No need for anything else.
Rhonda
POPSICLE STICK REINDEER- Using 3 popsicle sticks (painted brown or left natural) glue into the shape of a triangle, making sure one point is even and one stick in glued slightly down the sides of other two. Holding the tringle upside or with the even point down, this will make the nose tip on the even one and ears of the dear from the stick being glued slightly down the sides of the other two. Once it is glues slightly down the sides, the two sticks pointing up and outward will stick out past it, making ears. For decoration, glue a small, red pom-pom on tip tnat is pointing downwar for the nose. Go up each of the 2 side sticks and glue a wiggly eye. At the stick that is going straight across the top, use brown pipe cleaners, twisted together to make antlers. To do this, use a longer piece wrapped around the stick and sticking up at a slight angle, on the left and one doing the same sticking up and out to the right. Then, take another piece of pipe cleaner and fold it in half. Open it up, at the half mark and wrap it (from the backside) around the tall pipe cleaner to make the tips on the antlers. ( The antlers should look like an upside down, peace sign.) Lastly, tie a piece of cord or string (on the straight across bar, between the antlers,) into a loop for a hanger. Done!