by Melissa Nykorchuk

Created on: November 27, 2009

When the weather outside is frightful, there are a number of easy homemade Christmas crafts that you can make that will fill your children with the Christmas spirit. With a little creativity, glue, paper and patience, you and your children can create these crafts that you can use to give your house a festive, homemade flair.

Scented Sachets

For this craft you will need some holiday material (an old holiday tablecloth or red felt will do in a pinch), several yards of ribbon and some scented potpourri.

Cut out 6 inch by 6 inch squares out of the material. Place about a golf ball size of potpourri in the middle. Gather the material up around the potpourri so that you have a small bag of potpourri. Take a ribbon and tie it around the gathered material. Add jingle bells to the ends of ribbon if you have them or curl then ends of the ribbon.

This is a simple holiday craft that you can do with young children that is safe and easy to accomplish. Place sachets around the house in places where you would put air freshener or use them as bows on your Christmas gifts.

Christmas Trees

For this craft you will need some green construction paper, a whole punch, glue, string, and various colored plastic beads. You can substitute colored tissue paper for the beads if you don't have any.

Draw a Christmas tree form on the green construction paper. If you are lacking in artistic ability, use a cookie cutter and trace the shape. Punch one whole in the top of your tree and put a loop of string or ribbon through the whole so that you can hang your tree in a window when you are done.

Use your hole punch to poke random holes in the tree where you want Christmas ornaments to be. Using your glue, place a plastic colored bead over each hole. Allow to dry and you now have a pretty Christmas tree that will shine in your window during the afternoon sun.

Cotton Ball Snowmen

This craft is a warm version of the ice cold snowman you've probably made a thousand times outside. For this craft you will need cotton (old pillow stuffing will do), a few pipe cleaners, glue, and a few colors of felt (construction paper will do).

Make three cotton balls, one small, one medium and one large. Place the large cotton ball on the bottom. Glue the medium sized cotton ball to the large one and then glue the small one on top.

Use pipe cleaners to make arms for your snowman and stick them deep into the cotton so that they will stay in.

For the hat, use black felt or construction paper. A small scarf can be used made out of almost any material. Use your imagination. For the eyes, two small pieces of black felt will work. An orange piece of felt for the nose will make your snowman's face complete.

All you really need to have a fun craft day with your children are some markers, colored paper, glue, scissors and an imagination. What your children will remember about the crafting is not necessarily what they made, but that you took the time to sit down and make Christmas crafts with them. It is about spending time together and not about the finished product.

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