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

We will be doing a lot of stamping as I have just picked up my order from Hobbycraft. Apologies for repetition as I have already put some of this on the Christmas bargains thread. Online, HC have five Christmas stamp pads for £6, saving £4 and some cheap stamps. Using those and the bargain wooden stamp set from Lidl, we are going tomake wrapping paper, stamp our own tags (HC) and I also ordered some red paper party bags to personalise with stamps. Dd also selected a variety of pretty individual beads to make lovely bracelets for family so we were there a while!

I am considering the Lakeland gingerbread house mould set to cook your own house pieces. We have made the Ikea kit successfully a few times, but we use royal icing to stick it together rather than sugar syrup ( not so hot or sticky and sets faster so it doesn't fall apart)

Dd also made great chocs last year in silicon mould trays. The best ones were layers of milk choc, white choc and crumbled digestive on the top and are good to add on to presents.

I have also made a few crochet snowflakes which have turned out unexpectedly well and Dd wants to learn. Not as hard as you think, if you Google 'crochet snowflake attic' there is a tutorial with photos.

Will also make chilli jam from Nigella' s recipe-pretty Christmases colour and good for presents, as well as eating at Christmas.

Will also try to fit in some cake pop making. If you put two balls on a stick and cover in white choc, it makes easy and effective snowman pops. Also brown choc and matchmakers make good reindeer pops

Not enough time!

Baking is our big thing as DS loves putting the decorations on the top.
We are also making angels and wise men from toilet roll tubes and making our own Christmas cards this year. Some will have photos in (DS dressed as an elf) and some we are colouring stockings and Father Christmas on to.

We will also go out collecting pine cones for decorations, that rakes hours :)

I'm planning, to make salt dough hand prints, as this is our first Christmas as a family I'd like to try and start a new tradition!

Painting a wintry Christmassy picture to put up in the window??

We've written and decorated (lots of glitter!) a letter to santa.

we'll make gingerbread men too.

I also have a cute xmas tree stamp which we might use to decorate cards and gift tags.

My dc's live to make paper angel chains. It reminds me of when I was their age.

We are doing a craft advent calendar this year. So one craft activity every day. The dc have a huge plastic bauble filled with 24 activities written on Christmas paper and each day they will pull one out and we will do the activity. Some of the activities include:

Make christmas paper garlands
Make fingerprint reindeer christmas cards
Make christmas muffins
Draw a picture for Father Christmas
Paint a Christmas bauble
Make a handprint wreath
Make an edible gift for grandma

And lots more. My dc love crafts and will be more excited about this advent calendar than their chocolate one

Christmas themed cakes (easy ones!) Christmas decorations from dried bread and painted. Glitter will feature I am sure!

We're decorating a 3ft paper mache Christmas tree using decopatch, paints and whatever else my 3 year old can get her hands on! DD8 has already started on the paper snowflakes, angels and paper chains and we have glitter at the ready to cover everywhere in that Christmas sparkle (and then that will also keep us busy for the next 12 months getting it out of the grouting on the floor tiles!)

We will be making Christmas cards - not quite sure what yet, but I have a die cutter and several Christmas themed dies so probably something using that. We set aside a couple of hours and have a production line going so it doesn't take too long, and the kids enjoy doing a variation on a theme for each one.

The Christmas tree has home made decorations going back to the very first one my daughter "made" when she started nursery at 18 months (she's now at uni) and every year we make at least one new one.

And my son loves baking and will be making the (non traditional) Christmas cake. Cranberry and white chocolate. Yum.

We usually do quite a few different activities.

So far this year we have made Christmas biscuits - as a trial run.

We've also put up and decorated a miniature Christmas tree and made presents to go under it for our dolls house.

We will be painting and covering some old plastic toys in glitter to hanging them as decorations on our main tree, making some snowflakes, and do lots more baking together. Any other great ideas we see on Pinterest we'll have a go at.

The DC will be decorating clear baubles as gifts for their teachers at school and nursery. Last year we did glittery pine cones, which was great as we had a trip to collect them first.

We are going to be making place mats for everyone coming for christmas dinner - should be fun!!

Probably making some festive biscuits to give to family, gift tags using some blank luggage labels and present foam stickers I got from HC last year, maybe seeing if I can convince him to help me make some wrapping paper (may need to buy some glittery paint). Loathe to buy actual glitter as I've just had a new carpet fitted but I think he would really enjoy using it. I'll see if I can enlist my inner control freak primary teacher skills to keep the glitter where it's meant to be.

DCs have made reindeer thumbprint cards and penguin collage cards which have been printed and I'll send to family and friends. They'll make cards for all their teachers and TAs. Have tagged some ideas on Pinterest for them to choose from.

We'll be making snowman button gift tags, decorating gift bags for teacher presents and Xmas tree button tree decorations.

Christmas hats for school parties - have done Xmas trees, giant cracker, Rudolph, tinsel crowns in the past. Not sure what to do yet this year.

I've collected jam jars for DD to make glitter snow globes with her friends. I also buy little kits from either Hobbycraft or Baker Ross to make other craft things. I've also got lots of pine cones which I want to turn into some kind of glittery decorations.

DS wants to make an enormous paper chain.

I love christmas crafts and so do my DCs. DH goes mad at me for the amount of glitter that gets stuck in between the floorboards. I'm not much of a baker but may attempt gingerbread men this year too.

My girls are 5 and 3 this year, so this feels like the first 'proper' family Christmas. The excitement is already building!

I have a few Advent crafts planned:

Salt dough tree decorations
Paper snowflakes
Felt Christmas tree and decorations
Pomanders
Frosted/glittered jam jars to use as candle holders
Christmas cards
Home-made fudge and chocolate truffles

We're also doing Advent Promises jars this year. I've written out 24 promises, stuff like 'I promise to make my bed' and have put them in glass jars which the girls have painted and decorated. They pick out one promise each day during Advent. If they fulfil the promise for that day it will be placed in a special bowl which will go next to the nativity scene on Christmas Eve, surrounded by candles. It's my attempt to get them to focus on the season as a whole, as opposed to just presents and toys!

Oh yeah, I forgot we're making snow globes and paper chains as well.

We bake the cake together on stir up Sunday and make chocolate truffles. We usually also make some Christmas decorations for teachers etc. Just before Christmas we often do paperchains etc.

We will make a gingerbread house and decorate along with gingerbread rudolphs (upside down gingerbread men!)
We have been collecting pine cones and will decorate them with 'snow' and make dried orange/cinnamon stick hanging things. Also lots of baking and painting. Dd will do handmade cards for family involving hand/finger paints and I'm planning to do some make some involving paper cutting. Sadly I have lots of plans and not much time!!

My son is not really at the arts and crafty stage yet. He doesn't sit still for more than 10 seconds! But I may attempt to make some christmas cards and pictures with him!

We might also go to one of the toddler mornings at the soft play centre to participate in their activities!

As well as the usual cards and decorations we'll be making easy stained glass decorations from tacky back plastic.
We place a piece sticky side up on the table and the DTs now 3 throw sequins, glitter, coloured cellophane pieces and other paper at it.
We then cover the top with another layer of tacky back plastic.
They look very effective hung in the window.
Also some baking along the way no doubt

We have teens now but every year since they have been tiny we have cut down a giant cardboard box into a sleigh! we cover it with shiny red metallic paper and put 'Fur' around the edges then fill it with presents.
When they we small they used to sit in it for photos.

We also make wreaths out of holly, ivy and pine cones for the graves of their grandparents, and this year we will make ones for the graves of the world war one soldiers that our army cadet son has elected to care for (for the next 5 years)

Wannabee, I love your idea for advent promises!

We will be making and decorating biscuits with lots of icing and sweets. Making snowglobes and paper chains is also a favourite. Will also be painting ceramic and glad tree decorations with dd. Can't wait I love christmas!

Taaaaa Daaaaa!

Made by me and DD2.

Very satisfyingly easy.