Kids love everything about Christmas except waiting for the day to get here. With them taking a break from school, you’ll often hear cries of, “I don’t have anything to do.” You can keep them busy this holiday season with Christmas crafts that are easy and fun for the little ones to make.

Christmas Placemat Craft: Using recycled Christmas cards, tear off the backs where the writing is. You’ll need about three regular sized Christmas cards to make each placemat.

Have the kids glue the cards decoration side up down on colored construction paper. When the glue dries, cover the craft front and back with clear contact paper, making sure there are no open ends or gaps. Kids love setting their plats on their own special Christmas place mat.

Santa Ornament: This makes a great little gift for kids to make and give their friends or teachers too. Pick up large plastic ornaments at the craft store. These ornaments will open for you to put items inside.

Open the ornament and fill it with peppermints. Secure it closed again. Using a medium sized wooden ball, glue on jiggly eyes. Once the eyes are set, glue the wooden ball onto the top the plastic ornament.

Next, add cotton hair for the head, mustache and beard. Glue a red felt ‘hat’ on top of the hair. At the base of the ornament, glue a long piece of black felt for Santa’s belt. Glue the front bottom of the ornament to a thin wooden heart that’s been painted black. The curves in the heart will be Santa’s feet.

Christmas Countdown Chain: For this popular craft, you’ll need red and green construction paper cut into thin, even strips. The kids can decorate the paper strips with Christmas writing and glitter glue.

Form the strips into connecting circles and glue each one closed. Once the glue is dry, hang the circle within easy reach of the child. Each day that passes until Christmas, the kids get to tear off one of the links of the chain.

Candy Cane Reindeer: This craft is an oldie but a favorite among children. All you need are candy canes, jiggly eyes, pipe cleaners, mini pom-poms and glue. At the top of the candy cane, glue a pipe cleaner, twisting it into the shape of antlers. Glue jiggly eyes on either side of the reindeer ‘head’ and add the nose to the end of the candy cane.

Cookie Cutter Ornaments: To do this craft, you’ll need an assortment of cookie cutters in various holiday shapes. The ones that work the best are snowmen, Santa, trees and bell shapes.

Place each cookie cutter on colored construction paper. Trace around it. Cut it out. Have the kids decorate each cut out with glitter and mini pom-poms for Christmas balls on the tree.

For the snowmen, use mini black pom-poms for his buttons. You can use jiggly eyes on the snowmen and Santa. Once each ornament is finished, use a hole puncher to punch a hole at the top. Thread thin ribbon through the hole and let the kids hang their special ornament from the tree.

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