Holidays are coming, holidays are coming. I swear Christmas seems to creep up on us earlier every year but I think this year it is going to be a huge welcome. HUGE. 2020 has taken so much from us this year but I refuse to let it take Christmas as well, so our Christmas décor plans have started early in this house.

I’ll be honest with you; Christmas crafts normally make me shudder. I’ve always had Christmas tree OCD, there has to be a theme (I wrote about some of my favourite 2020 themes here) and absolutely has to be a colour scheme. Don’t tell me I’m the only one?

When my kids come home from school with a newly created craft paper star with glitter stuck on awkwardly or an angel made out of loo roll, I smile sweetly and put it to one side. In fact, it’s the main reason we got another Christmas tree for the kitchen. I have designated it for the kids only and it is where all their wonderful creations turn up.

I do like having a few homemade craft decorations dotted about the house though, so I thought I’d write a quick blog post on 5 of my favourite crafting activities for Christmas.

Christmas Wreath

We have seen an explosion of people making their own Christmas wreaths in the last few years and these days, anything goes. I have seen kitsch plastic toy wreaths, wreaths made out of feathers and colourful bauble creations.

As I am going with a red, gold and green theme in my living room this year, I decided to make a wreath out of ribbon and flowers that I already had in my craft box!

Here’s what you need –

• Wreath frame (I bought mine from here)
• Ribbon (Tartan red ribbon from here)
• Hot Glue gun
• Clip on flowers (Red Poinsettia from here)
• Foliage
• Scissors
• Green pipe cleaners

Method – 

Start by securing the end of the ribbon to the wreath with a hot glue gun

Start wrapping the ribbon around the wreath making sure you overlap the ribbon

Once you are quarter of the way, if you have any foliage, wrap the ribbon around the stalk to secure it in place.

Keep wrapping the ribbon until it meets the beginning and then secure the end with the hot glue gun

Use a green (or colour matched) pipe cleaner to secure the foliage to the wreath

Clip the poinsettia onto the foliage

Either use string or red/green ribbon to tie around the top of the wreath to hang

Complete wreath

Quick and Easy Snowflake

I wrote a craft blog post about how to make an easy snowflake last year, but this year I decided to mix it up a little. I normally make large snowflakes, but I wanted to attach some to a hanging wreath I’m making so I followed the same instructions on this blog post, but created smaller snowflakes. I also used different colours, including burgundy and gold to create a Christmas colour theme.

To refresh, all you need is a square piece of paper, some scissors, a stapler and some string or Sellotape from which to hang the snowflake.

As I am making smaller snowflakes this time, I needed to use Sellotape to fasten them together, but if you are making the larger snowflakes, a stapler is easier. 

Method – 

Cut the paper so you have a square shape. Fold it in half to create a triangle and then fold it in half again.

Making sure you have the right angle of the triangle at the bottom with the folded edge of the triangle vertical, cut 4 1cm strips at 90 degrees angles leaving 1cm away from the folded edge. 

Open up the triangle so that it is a square shape and starting from the middle, secure the two sides in the middle with sellotape. Do this for each strip, making sure they alternate from left to right. 

You need to repeat this six times so that you have six “flakes” to create the snowflake. Secure them together with a stapler and you’re done!

Christmas Craft Citrus decoration

Did anyone else get an apple and orange in the bottom of their stocking every Christmas? According to the story, St Nicholas learnt of a father who couldn’t afford a dowry for his 3 daughters, so he threw three sacks of gold down the chimney and they landed in the daughters’ stockings that were hanging by the fire to dry. The oranges we put in stockings today are supposed to represent the gold that St Nicholas gifted.

I also remember making Christingles as a kid which consists of an orange, a candle stuck in the middle, a red ribbon wrapped around the outside of the orange and dried fruits or sweets stuck on cocktail sticks representing the “fruits” of the earth.

Oranges play a big part of the whole Christmas season so I made some citrus decorations to hang on Christmas Chandelier wreath. They are very simple to craft do and provide a lovely natural/biophilic addition to your tree, wreath or garland.

What you will need –

• Orange! Or any type of citrus fruit
• A sharp knife
• Baking sheet
• An oven
• Some string

Method

Cut the citrus fruit into slices of about 1cm thickness with a sharp knife and remove all seeds

Lay them out separately on a baking sheet and place them in a preheated oven set to around 160F.

Bake them for around 3-4 hours, making sure you turn them over every hour to bake both sides.

Keep checking the slices as you do not want the to completely shrivel up or get burnt.

Once you are happy they are baked, leave them to cool in the kitchen and then thread some string or craft wire through the slice so you can hang it from the tree.

You could get creative with the slices and use them as single decorations, stack them together to make citrus baubles or create garlands.  

Christmas Twig Tree

Another craft I did last Christmas was create a Christmas twig tree, have a look at the blog post here. This is so simple and easy to do and looks fabulous with very little effort. It is also a fun craft activity to do with the kids.

My two young children (who often moan when I task them anything!), enjoyed going foraging for different lengths of twigs and branches and choosing the little baubles to attach to the tree.

What you will need –

• Small branches or twigs
• Command hooks
• Jute string or twine
• Scissors
• Wire string lights
• Small baubles or Christmas decorations

Method – 

Make sure you collect around 6/7 branches all descending in size by about 2 inches. Arrange them on a table and starting at the bottom left branch, wrap twine around the end of the branch and work your way upwards, leaving about 2 inches between each branch.

It is probably better to drill a hole through the middle of the branch and feed the twine through. I think this works better as I found that, by just wrapping it around the end, the branches kept moving and dropping when I lifted it up. 

When you get to the top branch, make a triangle at the top so you have enough room to hang it and then work your way back down the right hand side of the branches.

Once you are happy that the branches hang equally when lifted by the twine from the top, you can then fasten it with a hook to a wall or wherever you want it to hang. I found it easier to hang it first then add the décor.

First of all, wrap the wire lights around the branches and then to finish off, add mini decorations, bird baubles or whatever takes your fancy.

I have had fun creating these Christmas crafts and they shouldn’t take you any more than half hour to complete (excluding things like foraging for branches and baking oranges in the oven!). They are really good fun to do with the kids and as my children have the attention span of a gnat, they didn’t get bored halfway through!

Keeeeeep crafting!

Mel x