What cheap easy Christmas craft can I do this weekend with the DC?

[FabFlo]

My dds are 5yo and 8yo and I always regret leaving Christmas craft till December as we are so busy in the run up to Christmas we never get a lot done.
So what can we do this weekend?

It can't require lots of expensive/hard to find equipment and it can't be too hard as I will be running around my 2yo as well.

I love making paper snowflakes tbh, lots and lots of them

I also like paper chains - get retro and make them from newspaper?

if you can get a roll of brown paper you could potato print some wrapping paper although it's a pain to store

Hama Bead stars are really nice on the tree - we made some with translucent, gold, and silver Hama beads but you could just do normal multicoloured ones

I like needle felting but it needs more equipment and money - needle felted stars are v pretty IMO, worldofwool.com is your friend - a pack of needles and a mixed bag of wool and you're away. Pull out some wool and stuff it into a small star shaped biscuit cutter, jab the needle in lots and lots, turning the cutter over from time to time until you've got a firm shape.

We got make -your-own advent calendars in poundland and did them last night. A bit fiddly getting the numbers off the backing so you would need to assist little fingers but mine aged 6 and 10 enjoyed it. And all for a pound! Sweets are ones i stashed away from halloween.

Salt dough- plenty of simple recipes online and can be microwaved for quick drying and decorating- the 2 year old could be involved too?

Also, Lidl have some crafty bits in from 99p. I got some of those too for another day.

Paper snowmen. Cut snowman shapes out of card, loads of white paper circles, felt pens or crayons.

Stick the circles on the snowman shape overlapping each other till it's covered. Colour in hat, draw face, buttons, scarf etc.

Or cover snowman shape in cotton wool balls?

Paper chains
Paper snowmen - fold up the paper and cut out so all joined togethe
Paper snowflakes
Hama beads
Christmas cards

Definitely salt dough.
2 cups flour
1 cup salt
1 cup water.
Careful with the water though. You don't always need the whole cup. If you are colouring it, put the food colouring in the water so it doesn't dye your hands. Although, if you are baking it you are better not colouring it as you can paint it once it's cooled.
Cook for an hour or two on a pretty low heat 80-100 and remember to put a hole in them before you bake if you are making tree decorations.

We painted a giant hand print Christmas tree (3 sheets of a3 paper stuck together) at the weekend with glitter decorations.

Tassel angels are quite easy. Make a tassel from wool, and cardboard wings and pipecleaner halo.

sock snowmen? These look pretty simple and the result is pretty cracking.

I am a teacher and so far we have made;

• big stockings made from red card and decorated with glitter, sequins, buttons etc and put onto a washing line as an advent calendar (we only made 18 as that is when we break up - Hooray!)
• stars and snow flakes decorated with yet more glitter, sequins and buttons etc with the children's picture on them.
• a big collage letter to Santa (Give them a variety of magazines and let them cut, stick maybe even glitter!) along with a collage of things we can do to be nice to each other in the lead up to Christmas.
• next week we are going to make salt dough (The Christmas cookie cutters are pennies in Home Bargain atm)
• we're also going to make and decorate basic biscuits with some shop bought icing tubes (you can do Santa, elf, snow man etc)
• there are loads of basic colouring in pages etc to choose from via google (we make parents a Christmas card and usually put a copy of the colouring in into each card) - if you wanted you could cut it out and make it into decorations for the tree or walls etc.
• we are also going to make mini Christmas cakes which we bake in the half tins you get kids beans/spaghetti in which we give as gifts - they look so sweet and can be decorated with a layer of royal icing then the kids can use icing tubes to design their own.
• at home I'm going to get my ds to make a couple of Christmas cards using hand prints made into Christmas things (Santa, Rudolph etc) for close family and friends - so maybe 5 on some nice card.

I will be watching for more inspiration!

We make salt dough stars (giant star cookie cutter) and stick a tealight in the middle and paint gold.

We give these to teachers/brownie helpers etc.

And string up stars (painted gold) and hearts (painted red).

I think we might attempt a hama bead nativity this year...we did a loom band one last year.

Saw lovely wreath out of green painted hand prints in essential magazine. They had a few other ideas so I'll check in the morning and return.

Today I bought gold, red and green paint, lots of glitter, white card, sequins and Xmas pom poms.

I already have the ingredients for salt dough (I just didn't know it!) and I bought realists to make candles to give to the teachers.

Going to have a busy weekend making snowmen, paper chains, stockings, salt dough decorations, paper snowflakes, handprint Xmas trees and wreaths and anything else I can with what I have!

Also found Christmas sprinkles to decorate fairy cups for another weekend!

Thank you all for helping. My dd's are very excited!

*tealights

We added cinnamon to our salt dough recipe and have made an everlasting gingerbread house.

I made this with our son the other day. Cost £10 all together, including sweets for 3 people.

www.facebook.com/ThatsJustCrate/videos/vb.720976221347532/757060204405800/?type=2&theater

Only took about 2 hours to make too.

Snowflake window clings. Use thick lines of PVA or glitter glue to draw snowflakes on clingfilm or greaseproof paper over a template, leave to dry completely (may take a few days), peel off, dab with water, press onto window.

Make mobiles with paper stars or snowlakes, paper birds or cut out ships.

Make a template of a bishop's mitre and use it to cut out spicy biscuits for 6th December.

Use the cardboard innars of loo/kitchen roll and scraps of old wrapping paper with some ribbons to make mock crackers to decorate the tree or make a garland.

If it's dry weather go out and collect pine cones to use as decorations, add glitter of course

Add extra glitter, sequins and ribbon etc to smarten up any faded baubles.

Cut out gift tags from old Christmas cards.

Today we made stocking and stars to hang up with lots of glitter!

Also made Christmas cards for family and teachers. Bit early I know.

Also made a handprint Christmas tree.

Tomorrow is salt dough!

Love all the latest ideas. Are pine cones easy to find this time of year?

I think you can try this one...