Christmas crafts for a toddler

[muddaofsuburbia]

Ok - so this topic's here now and I'm gonna use it!

Any suggestions for a just turned 2 ds to do for Christmas. Like decorations etc, but probably not baking quite yet!

Decorating salt dough stars. You make the douch, they cut into stars with a biscuit cutter, you bake, they cover with glu and glitter.

There are lots of great Christmas stickers in the shops and you could use them for lots of things like sealing the Christmas cards, sticking on to plain store-bought tree decorations, decorating a disposable table cloth for Christmas lunch, etc. Stickers are nice and easy and lots of them are removable just in case they get stuck somewhere they shouldn't.

We always decorate cookies too. I do all the baking and then set DS up with icing, sprinkles, etc and he can help do the decorating bit. I did fairy cakes like that for Halloween and DS and DH did them together and had a great time.

Last year, when ds was around 18 months, I got him to do loads of random painting which i cut into christmassy shapes....stocking, etc....and stuck them on card to make xmas cards

glitter and glue goes down well
xmas biscuits.....like salt dough but use biscuit dough, icing them is fun

Salt dough is sounding not so scary now. Recipe anywhere/anyone?

Hang on a mo...

225g/8ox/2cups plain flour
2 teaspoons cooking oil
100g/4oz/0.5 cup of salt
100ml/4floz/0.5 cup of water

Preheat oven to GM4/180c/350f
Put all ingredients in a bowl and mix into a dough with your hands! Can be messy!! Add a little more water if necessary. Knead for about 10minutes, roll out flat, about mmthick. Cut out with biscuit cutters and place on a baking tray - mak a hole in the top for hanging cord (use a kebab skewer or similar).
Bake for 20 minutes.
Remove to a wire rack to cool.
When cool, add paint, glue, glitter and one preschooler. I've spray painted them silver/gold before decorating so that any blank bits look OK.

I bought some brown paper from Lakeland last year and some Christmassy style stamps from Early Learning. DS and I stamped all over the paper and then we used for wrapping paper. It was easy and DS was pleased with his efforts.

Also when DS was one drew round his hand with felt tip (in bought cards) and then DS decorated with glitter etc. He loves glitter. TIP: have hoover with attachments out ready and don't let him out of the kitchen until you have cleaned up or your entire house will sparkle.

Thanks SD - you're a star

I'm feeling all festive already thinking about glitter all over the kitchen...

We still put up the Christmas decorations ds1 made when he was about 20 months old. I cut star shapes out of metallised card and he glued glitter on them and stuck self-adhesive Christmas shapes on them (you can get all the stuff in ELC). Then I hung a group of them on parcel ribbon and made "mobiles" - we have one and so do both sets of grandparents. I wrote his name and age on the back and he always looks for them when we unpack Christmas!

The glitter won't only be all over your kitchen - I found it in the corners of the downstairs toilet, all through the hall and on the carpet in the living room. For months....

Oh that sounds so good dd is coming up to 2.5 she might like that I think I will try it too. I'm not very creative and should encourage dd more

Can I ask a really stupid question do you need a paricular type of glue? I hat e to admit this but there is nothing in my house that even resembles glue (there's lots of paint, crayons, play dough etc but I just haven't got round to glue yet )

We use glue/glitter pens - either crayola or uhu - cuts out a lot of the mess !!

PVA glue is the best. That's the white stuff that dries clear. Something like a Pritt stick is OK for paper crafts but you need a thick, wet glue for glitter.

You can also buy glitter glue pens - the glitter is already in a gluey solution so you just squeeze globs of it out and dab it where you want it - much less messy for little ones. ELC probably do them, likewise Partners, WHSmith etc.

You can buy Christmas shaped sponge stamps too which is really easy for a 2 year old. Good for making cards etc. Not sure where from though.

maudy, I'd just make some out of potatoes!
or bath sponges, they cost about 30p

in my mosaic class years ago we used to make our own glue with flour/water heated up, quite runny. whoever was first in used to make a vat of it to stick the mosaic pieces to brown paper, v therapeutic.

If anyone has a Tchibo nearby they do a great pack of 20 christmas stampers (self-inking) for 3.99. They have kept the dds (5 and 2) quiet for an hour - especially as they are shaped like little fat father christmases.

Can you get hold of any old Blue Peter albums? We used to make some good stuff out of them!

Handprint wreaths or a handprint Christmas tree. Let him make green handprints, or green, red, and silver for the wreath,and when they are dry, cut them out and place them downwards in the shape of a Christmas tree, and glue them together. Then he can glue on sequins or glitter, for the decorations. For the wreath, glue the handprints together in a circle, and decorate. It's really easy, and if you do one every year, you notice the handprints getting bigger and bigger.