by Belinda Beasley

Created on: October 09, 2009

Christmas is a special time of year, but it can also be stressful in some ways. Most of us are busy rushing around, preparing for the holiday meal, and trying to find just the right gift for everyone on our list. One way to help alleviate the stress of this time of year is to spend some time with the family by crafting together.

During the Christmas season, it is traditional to send holiday cards to friends and family. There are lots of cards to purchase in the local stores, but you could also make your own cards at home. One easy way to do this is to use card stock and create cards on your computer. There are various programs available to help you accomplish this task. You may choose to print favorite photographs on the cards or a holiday design that you created.

If you would like a more casual type of Christmas card, you could use card stock or another heavy paper and create your own holiday design. The children might enjoy stamping shapes on the card, or drawing and painting an original design. In this way, you could create several designs for your cards, rather than having the same design on each card you send. To make this family activity even more fun, you could have a contest to see who can create the best holiday greeting for your handmade cards. If you choose to paint designs on the cards, you could sprinkle them with glitter for a more festive look.

Besides designing and creating your own Christmas cards, you might also like to enjoy crafting with the family in order to decorate your home. The holiday table is often a focal point for the Christmas celebration. If you are a seamstress, you could sew table cloths, place mats, and coasters. While sewing is somewhat solitary in nature, you could have your family help choose the fabrics for the projects. Creating simple centerpieces for the holiday table could also involve the whole family. If you want a natural look, and live in an area where pine cones or acorns are plentiful, your family could spend a fun day gathering these supplies, and then place them in a wooden bowl on the table, along with some raffia or some sparkly Christmas ornaments.

Christmas ornaments are also easy to create. One very easy craft that the whole family could enjoy would be to use clear acrylic or glass ball ornaments and fill them with tinsel. Remove the top of the ornament and place tinsel into the top of the ball, filling it as full as you wish. You could choose to use one color or several colors of tinsel. To add sparkle, you could sprinkle glitter inside the glass or acrylic ball as well. These ornaments could then be decorated on the outside by dipping them in craft paint and then in glitter, or you could purchase paint pens and each family member could personalize his or her ornament creation. After the ornaments have been decorated in this manner, allow them to dry and then hang them on the Christmas tree.

One thing that is fun for the whole family at Christmas time is to bake holiday cookies. While this might not technically be a true craft, it is stil a fun activity. Buy the pre-made cookie dough at the store, roll it out, and cut out different holiday shapes. Have colored sugars and icing on hand and let each member of the family decorate their cookies. The fun and the reward is being able to eat the warm cookies when they come out of the oven. Baking Christmas cookies can be especially fun on those cold winter days of December.

By engaging your family in crafting during the Christmas holidays, you will be creating a lifetime of memories, as well as some unique crafts for your holiday decor.

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