Easy decorations for children to make.

[Thefoxsbrush]

I'm hosting a christmas get together this year for my friends and their children at my house. I'm looking for ideas for easy christmas decorations the children can make and take home at thE end of the party. Age range will be 1-6 years. They'll Be supervised throughout and I don't mind a bit of mess.

for the younger ones, paperchains are good.

Pom-pom snowmen or santas?

snowflakes are very easy (fold a square of paper, cut shapes out and open up again)

cheap baubles and decorate with glitter glue sticks

glitter on pinecones

Have a look at 'Yellow Moon' - they do some great craft stuff for parties or even worth a look just for ideas. Hope the party goes well

Thanks for the quick responses! I love them all! I'm already making paper chains with my own children this year. Love the cheap baubles and glitter glue suggestion and the snowflakes for the slightly older children.

I have just bought a book full of christmas 'makes' to do with DC, Asda, only £3! I have done a search on their online site but cant find it, there were loads of different ones available though. About 80 different things in the book I bought I think, lots of new ideas to try :)

Have you thought about getting them to all make some reindeer food, think theres a thread already about it, I do this every year with my dc and my friends dc. Little ones just do more stiring, all get their hands in the bowl mixing oats and sugar (to colour sugar i just put normal granulated sugar in a bag with some undiluted summer berry squash, let it all mix up then leave on a baking tray to dry out and then re-crunch it up)

You would need:
Oats and sugar to mix,
Cellophane bags, cheap as chips on ebay,
The poem printed on some individual cards,
Some ribbon to tie it all up together.

Your floor will be covered though

Gingerbread men, icing pens and sprinkles.

These look lovely and are as easy as pie to make. Kiddies would probably love to add a bit of sparkle with tonnes of glitter.

As a kid I remember with fondness making Xmas decorations which were Bauble shapes cut out of card, then 'windows' of various designs cut into them and coloured tissue paper stucj over the windows so they looked a bit like stained glass windows iyswim.

Cut out stars, bells etc in card and cover in silver foil ( did this with my grandad as a child)

Make a solution of hot water and washing soda crystals. The kids bend pipe cleaners into christmassy shapes and you suspend them in the solution. As it cools it forms crystals on the pipe cleaners that make sparkly tree decorations.

Have you got a wilkinsons near you? They had some make your own felt stockings etc today and you could make 4 per kit for £1 a kit.

Or santas with lots of cotton wool beards?

stockings

Thanks everyone, yeah I have a local willo. Forgot about their cheap as chips craft kits. Will definitely take a look.

I LOVE the idea of making our own reindeer food, we usually get ours ready made from a local farm but sadly won't be going this year. I already have loads of cello bags and ribbon so it'll be really cheap to make as well

For the really little ones it'd need to be really simple. I'd cut some shapes out ahead of time (Christmas trees / snowman / whatever) and let them decorate them.

Sorry my DS is only 2 and I'm out of touch with what's reasonable to expect a 6 year old to manage! But how about making snowflakes? You cut circles in white pieces of paper, then fold them into 6. (Fold in half, then fold 2 sides in IFSWIM?!). Then cut patterns/ shapes from either side. When you open them up it will be a snowflake. Good to explain to the kids as the time that all snowflakes in real life have 6 sides, and no two snowflakes are exactly the same. Their snowflakes will all come out different too.

Pine cones. You put loops for hanging them with in beforehand and e kids paint with glue and sprinkle with glitter.

You are very brave!!

Ooh the folding for the snowflakes has a step I forgot about (think an adult might have done it! Last time I did these was quite a while back!)

Here's a snowflake tutorial!

Pine cones is a lovely idea too :)