by Vickie Gross

Created on: November 09, 2009   Last Updated: April 08, 2011

From indoors to the outdoors, a Christmas clay pot can range from a single pot ornament to an outdoor grouping of illuminated clay pots. Clay pots are earthy, functional and uncomplicated, which makes them a wonderful crafting base for an array of creative projects. The following examples reflect Christmas projects that can be crafted for both seasonal use or longevity.

Planting the inspirational seed:

One of the best gifts we can give during the Christmas Holidays is the joy of sharing life. Filling a clay pot with fertile soil and planting a seedling, plant or sapling, makes a wonderful Christmas gift that can multiply and produce over the coming years. The gift of a sapling is particularly notable when a child is born. (The Chinese would plant a Royal Empress tree to grow with a child over his or her lifetime in order to fashion the wood from the tree into a wedding gift.) Wrapping up this gift item can be as simple as securing a bow around the rim of the clay pot along with a Christmas card that gives instructions on how to care for the plant.

Santa Claus:

Glue the rim of two matching clay pots together to form Santa's body. Spray paint the body red. Let dry and paint a black belt along the joined rims. Glue a Styrofoam ball to the top of the body and glue stretched cotton balls to form the beard, eyebrows and hair. Use a black marker for the mouth line and eye pupils. Use a blue marker to color the eyes around the pupils. Use red or pink for the lips and cheeks. Top off with a cotton and red felt Santa hat.

Candy canes to pretzel sticks:

Wrap a clay pot in a large cloth or napkin and push the extra cloth down into the inside of the pot. Tie a satin bow or natural raffia ribbon around and under the rim of the clay pot to decorate and hold the cloth in place. Place in pretzel sticks. Decorate more clay pots for cookies, candy canes, and other quick-serve items.

Silver Bells:

Use silver spray paint and completely coat two equally sized clay pots, inside and out. Use a piece of heavy twine or thin nylon rope to tie the two pots together. The best way to tie the pots is to place a double knot in one end of the rope, feed the other end up trough one pothole, and down into the other pothole. Make a double knot in this end as well. Hold the pots down and gently pull on the rope to make sure the knots are holding.

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