What Christmas craft things do you do? (Not knitting/crochet)

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I say not knitting and crochet as you have to spend time learning the basics before you can do Christmas crafts with them, although I would love to learn how, just not right now.

So, other crafts - what do you do? I did some dried orange slices last year. That’s it 🤣.

Any ideas? Paper things? Sewing things? Food things (but not edible)? Clay type things? Decorations? Pictures? Things that are single use only, things you save for years, stuff for windows?

I make decorations for the tree from air drying clay - used reindeer, snowflake, Christmas Tree etc cookie cutters for the shape just make sure you make a hole for the hanging ribbon to go through.

I made these some years ago and they are still doing very well.

You can find all sorts of free printable patterns for felt tree ornaments online. Felt is very cheap on Amazon (or 4 sheets for £2 in Hobbycraft) and I always find it a very forgiving fabric for stitching or even using glue - easy for kids too and always looks effective and festive.

I made some felt Dala horse ornaments, last year, based on the ones in this book.
Search Press | All-New Twenty to Make: Festive Felt Decorations by Corinne Lapierre https://share.google/boYsuv1h6qfampufA

You're very talented - great adaptation! I love Corinne Lapierre's designs - we had kits to make her tiny foxes with their beautiful outfits when my daughter was young.

They are lovely as you can make the embellishment as simple or complex as time and skills allow. The felt she sells is very nice to work with, too.

We have done a version of that Nutella tree. You can mix it up if you have various preferences in your house. My dd likes it with Nutella. I prefer cream cheese with a few chocolate chips or some berry preserves. We do it in sections.

How much are you willing to spend?

I make stacking christmas candles. The idea being that once you've burned the candle, you can re-use the vessels to keep making festive candles or just use it as holiday decor.

They're not cheap to make, but they can keep you entertained for hours, particularly if you decorate them etc. You can also buy them ready made and them decorate them yourself, as the more complex designs can be quite tricky to get right.

What about macrame?

I've got candy canes and angels that we've made on the tree. The candy canes are easy to pick up with watching a tutorial, and the angels are super easy.

Not read the thread yet (too excited 😆). Every year we have a Poncetastic thread on the Christmas board, it's one of the nicest things on MN 😁

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/christmas/5408104-poncetastic-christmas-2025?utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=app_share

This is last year's thread, we dont usually start until the beginning of September, so it's still a bit early.

https://www.instagram.com/alice.pottery.and.stuff?igsh=b2Zwbm1uZ29ncDFn

I can't figure out to link directly to the relevant posts other than with a QR code 🙄 but there are a few things I've made for Christmas (not just pottery) about half way down my page.

I have no imagination so it's kit based.
I've made this robin https://www.craftykitcompany.co.uk/products/british-birds-robin-needle-felting-kit?_pos=1&_sid=c828f2b33&_ss=r

And I've done some of their cross stitch cards. The works used to do needle felting kits but seem to have stopped. They have quite a bit of Christmas craft stuff usually though.

As well as having no imagination I can't draw but like watercolours, I have done several paint along videos where they talk you through both the drawing and painting (you can pause and rewind) The most Christmasy is another robin which I cut out and stuck on a card

https://www.youtube.com/live/eaFqI2Y_Ouc?feature=shared

My favourite was a glass blowing session where I made some baubles but that was a one off.

@DeedlessIndeed and @MaeshoweDragon I love the beaded snowflakes but how on earth do you make them please?

I bought a wire form (like 8 spokes on a wheel joined in the middle) - Google beaded snowflake supplies etc... then designed it with beads and thin bendy wire in between the "spokes" - Hobby craft had a bead pick-and-mix when I started them.
You can finish it by bending the end of each spoke with pliers, or glueing the end beads with superglue.

You can do the same thing with a Halloween theme for spider Web decorations too. We had preteens making them for a birthday party activity before Halloween one year.

German sugar cookies. Make them.

I did mine free hand. It is really simple in practice, but I am awful at explanations.

I use a length of beading wire. Start the snowflake halfway through the wire with a small bead/cluster of beads. This bit is the tip.

Fold the wire, with your beads at the fold.

Thread both ends of the wire through either longer tubular beads, or a string of beads. This creates the length of the arm.

Repeat that for each arm (and any sidebranches). So that beads threaded through 1 wire = tip, beads threaded through both wires = arm.

Not sure if this link will work - but it is this method.

www.instagram.com/reel/DSKuGu0EdW8/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsh=NTc4MTIwNjQ2YQ==

I used to do this! See, I can be a craft person!

Do you buy felt on the roll like dressmaking fabric?

I actually had a look at some really nice Christmas cross stitch kits yesterday.

Thank you, I’ll look for some felt.

Wowzers 😍 I’d love to make some of those.

Well the amount I’m willing to spend is equal to the enjoyment I’ll get out of it so something beautiful but really difficult wouldn’t be good as I’ll not get the result I want, but eg cross stitch is going to be difficult to mess up if I follow the instructions, then it lasts forever. So….I’m flexible really.

Stacking candles - like the Christmas tree ones where each set of branches is an individual container?

I’ve never made macrame, I’ll look into it.

Ok, I will 😁.

Yes! So sort of like the below 😊That's the most 'simple' design I've made. Took about 3 hours of 'work' altogether (but far longer in terms of waiting for the moulds to set and then varnishing, making the candle etc). I gave some to my niece and nephew last year and it kept them entertained for hours...

You can make them any colour with powder, or you can paint them afterwards or stencil on artwork etc.

No, just a cheap pack of crafting felt in rainbow colours from the works, Amazon etc. polyester stuff