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With Christmas round the corner, and the economy still not as promising as in previous years, think nature, home and creativity, and you will arrive at tons of cheap Christmas crafts for children to enjoy on their own, with a sibling or a friend, with a family member, and even with a brood of cousins and siblings. These are cheap Christmas ideas that will keep children gainfully occupied, bring in the Christmas cheer, and prevent that hole in your pocket from widening.

* Recycling and Reusing Cards, Paper, Candles, Cloth, Furniture:

Crafting is all about making something new and exciting out of some resources. You can be amazed at the creative energies of imaginative and excited children living in poverty. They do not bother about the state the materials that they need is in - what matters most is that the materials meet their needs. Hence, the arm off an old chair would be suitable for a new gun that shoots pine cones using the potential energy of stretched broad rubber bands discarded by paper factories.

Pretty metallic glittering foil wrappers off the sweets make great decorative items for a cut-and-paste paper doll or the exterior of a cardboard car model. Some girls are even able to sew clothes for their dolls from discarded clothes. Old plastic or paper cups, rinsed potato chip tubular containers, and boxes can be given a new lease of life by covering them with strips of mache, painted over, and presented as Christmas gifts to friends as stationery or jewelry holders.

* Paper Mache Crafts:

Paper mache is a cheap and versatile substitute for art clay, and can be turned into items for gifts, decor for Christmas trees, door gifts and even costume jewelry. As pulp, it can be crafted into any lovely shape, painted and lacquered over. Teach ten to twelve year olds to use metallic rings to attach them to black cord, and you have taught them to make their first piece of costume jewelry.

Get them to twist thin wires into a figure, use strips of paper mache to drape over it, and your children would have made their first model of a person, an alien or any animal. They can use the model in their Nativity play in church, or as a gift for a friend. Make a basic mask or two, add a box of cheap water colors, and you have a wonderful Christmas gift for any Primary School child.

* Decorating Gingerbread Men, Women and Animals:

Have you ever thought of a home-baked Nativity gingerbread folk gift set? Your children would love to decorate two adult and a baby shape, and one

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