What Christmas activities will you be doing with your DCs? Tell Hobbycraft for a chance to win one of three £100 vouchers! NOW CLOSED

[MichelleMumsnet]

The team at Hobbycraft would like to hear about the Christmas arts and crafts activities you’ll be doing with your DCs this year.

Hobbycraft say, “We all remember our own special Christmas family traditions whether its making homemade decorations for the tree, helping bake the Christmas cakes, writing cards or simply the excitement of Father Christmas coming down the chimney! Here at Hobbycraft we’d love to hear about how your Christmas family traditions.”

So, what crafty Christmas projects will you be doing this year? Do you decorate the Christmas tree together? If you do, do you make your own decorations? Or perhaps you bake Christmas cakes and treats together?
Whatever you and your DCs will be making this Christmas, Hobbycraft would love to hear about it.

Everyone who posts on this thread will be entered into a prize draw where three lucky Mumsnetters can win £100 Hobbycraft gift cards
Please note your comments may be included on Hobbycraft's social media channels, and possibly elsewhere, so please only post if you're comfortable with this.

Thanks and good luck,

MNHQ

I'm bored of our color coordinated shop bought tree decorations. So we are going to make our own. Some felt and stitched. Some wire work and beads. And some from melted pony beads.
Then we have canvases to make as presents with handprints on.
And handmade sweets as more presents.

The DDs have a lovely book of cut-out decorations and paper chains, so that will keep them busy during December.

They have a card making kit and make cards for "special" family members.

We usually do a gingerbread house too, decorated with icing and sweets - this is quite a good activity to keep the DDs and their cousins occupied on Christmas Eve.

We are not really 'crafty' so try and keep it simple, we usually make some paper snowflakes and buy colour in Christmas cards for my ds' s to send to close family and friends. We also make little decorations out of clay ie. snowmen for the Yule log and tea light holders, painted and covered in glitter. This year we are attempting christmas tree shaped tree decoration s out of felt and card.
I can't stand colour coordinated trees, all tidy and evenly spaced so we just let the kids decorate our tree, so it's tinsel fantastic and chaotic decorations, ( a mix of some made by the children and some my parents used to own) galore !!

Lots of card making which DS does with his Nan - they make so many cards but we don't know that many people!!

DD and I are looking at homemade gifts. So far we are planning nice jars containing cookie ingredients, hot chocolate kits and spa in a jar kits.

We always make out own paper chains plus we like a bit of fancy wrapping. The DCs usually make place name cards even though DD is almost 16.

We have a pre Xmas craft evening every year in early dec when we invite dc's friends and their mums round after school and we make loads of decorations and presents and sweets and drink hot choc and eat our body weight in all sorts of festive goodies. :) I love it and its our festive kick off every year.

This is the first year both my daughters have requested to make everything and anything to do with Christmas, we are off to hobbycraft soon for some inspiration

home made cards for teachers :)
Paperchains to decorate their own bedrooms
baking cookies for Santa
making our own reindeer food (oats and edible glitter mix to be sprinkled on the lawn for Rudolph)
and a new craft for our 6 year old - felt appliqué stitching & gluing kits to make presents for grandparents
Cutting out paper snowflakes (fold the paper in 4 type of style) and decorating them
I've put most of the activities are in our advent calendars, so they are a surprise each day.

We make wrapping paper.

Yep you read that right.

Make wrapping paper. With printing bits and brown paper and paint.

It's great fun and means every present is just a little more personal.

excellent thread to steal several ideas which I'll be adding to the already planned cards, snowflakes, cookies and onaments

We have plans for a front door decoration. We're going to collect sticks The children love collecting things. We'll then during them together in a Christmas tree shape and decorate with ribbon, glitter, sequins and baubles. I'm expecting the house to be in chaos afterwards but it should be rather pretty :)

We'll be making salt dough decorations and painting them for our tree and as gifts for family and neighbours.
We'll also be making Christmas cards.
There's nothing like getting crafty at Christmas to pass a rainy day and to get the festive feeling going. We love it!

My 5 year old DD's favourite shop is Hobbycraft! She's also desperate to start making Christmas things. She has an advent calendar with pockets in so I'm planning to put enough to make little decorations some days (sun catchers, wooden ones to paint, pipe cleaners, stickers, finger puppets and felt ones to sew). We'll also do Christmas baking and some bigger projects - a paper plate wreath, cards and whatever else she can dream up!

We keep it really simple, we decorate the tree together and each year add a decoration that the children have made at school, for example my 15 year old DS made a cracker when he was 4 and we still have that, my 4 year old dd made various clay things at nursery and they are added.

We also do lots of colouring in and making paper chains

We'll be making our Christmas pudding on Stir Up Sunday.
We always decorate the house together on a Sunday afternoon in December.
DD will make some decorations.
She'll also make cards for 'special' relatives.

We do lots of crafty activities. DDs are now all 10+ and seriously into design and textiles and woodwork/metalwork so they make quite ambitious things.

So far this year we've made:
Handmade soap (e.g. bars of lavendar soap, Lush-style, with lavendar flowers and leaves in).
Candles (some from a no-heat kit, but we'll make some the proper way too).
Varieties of fudge and toffee to wrap in cellophane and put in home-made paper boxes.

Also planned:
home-printed wrapping paper.
Collage cards made from old cards.
Decopatch christmas tree decorations and boxes.
Decopatch mirror and photo frames.
Wooden carved cutlery (butter knives, spoon/fork combos.
Gingerbread and boiled sweet tree shaped decorations with "stained glass windows".

probably handprint wreathes and salt dough deco to give to teachers and friends

Salt dough decorations and paper chains usually. Followed by making and decorating Christmas biscuit.

Make mince pies
Make paper chains
Make christmas cards
Make decorTions for the school Xmas tree
Cotton wool snowmen

making food eg mince pies, biscuits

otherwise, not much

Oh allsorts. We have bought hamma beads to make snowflake etc decorations. Will collect pine cones to add glitter too, plus we will be making my sons teachers gifts for Christmas! Plenty of craft in this house! ??

We do lots of Christmas baking - so decorated biscuits, cupcakes etc. Will also make some pipecleaner Christmas stars and angels. Every year the boys make presents for their relatives for Christmas. Can't remember which kits I bought this year, I got them on sale in the summer, but they always cause great excitement when it is time to start creating!

I have lots planned for the next few weeks!

Felt tree with felt decorations
Cardboard 3d tree
Paper snowflakes
Salt dough ornaments
Making cards
Making crackers
Baking
Paper chains

I can't wait!

I decorate the tree with the children - I do the lights and the high-up stuff and they do the rest. It is usually decorated very 'thoroughly' as it is so I don't make extra decorations, though they usually bring a few new ones home from school and clubs each year.

My daughter and I make the mince pies - she makes great pastry. Shame she won't eat it!

I also encourage the children to write their own Christmas cards. In the past they have done the ones that they colour in themselves, which has kept them busy for ages, but they are starting to lose enthusiasm slightly.

We will be decorating pine cones that we have already collected with glitter and cotton wool. My DS has a short attention span so this is quick, messy and about his limit. I may try to work on his scissor skills by attempting snowflakes and he did see some pompoms yesterday that intrigued him so that may be a possibility.

He has taken a liking to a holly bush that we see on our bike rides so maybe a mini wreath could be attempted?