CHRIST Honoring Kids Crafts

Baby Jesus Wreaths


For 1 wreath you will need:

A 6" grapevine wreath
Cotton Balls
One wooden star 
One medium sized wooden bead
Small square of muslin, burlap or other cloth laying around the house
Raffia, shredded paper or real hay
2 yds. of ribbon to match 
Flesh colored paint
Black permanent marker or black paint if you are good at painting small details
Gold, or another color you may prefer to paint the wooden star
Hot glue gun and glue sticks
Flat tack

This is an idea that I came up with one year. It turned out very nice, and it was simple and easy. Each one of our children made one to hang on their bedroom door.
The size of the wooden ball and star will be dependent on the size wreath you buy. Just choose whatever seems proportional. Baby Jesus will lie on his bed of "hay" nestled in the bottom curve of the wreath, and the star will be glued to the top of the wreath. We used the ribbon to loop through the back of the wreath and secured it to the top ledge of the door with a flat tack. This prevents marring your doors, and the flat tack insures that the door will still open and shut.
Paint the wooden ball a flesh color and the star in whatever color you chose; we used gold. While the paint is drying, cut a square of fabric large enough to "swaddle" enough cotton balls for baby Jesus' body, and a space to fit the wooden head. Wrap the fabric around the cotton balls and secure with hot glue.
Next, prepare a bed of "hay" in the bottom curve of the wreath, making it as comfy as you like for baby Jesus. Glue in place. If baby Jesus' head is dry, use a fine tipped permanent marker to mark eyes, nose and mouth. This step is optional, we found that we prefered the heads plain. Attach the head to the swaddling clothes you made, and do not worry if it is not very stable, as it can be made more secure when you glue into place on the wreath.
After glueing baby Jesus onto his "hay," You can glue the star wherever you would like on the wreath. We glued it on the top half of the wreath, a little to one side. Thread the ribbon through the vines in the back of the wreath, and tack it to the top ledge of an interior door.
That's it! I will try to post a picture of our wreaths soon, so you can get a better idea of what the finished product looks like. This craft can be adapted to use the tiny grapevine wreaths and hung on the Christmas tree.

Nativity Paper Dolls by Making Friends
These paper dolls can be printed out in black and white or color. I have printed them out and ran them through a xyron machine (an adhesive/lamination, ect. machine) that laminated them on one side and put a magnet on the other. This is a fun thing for the kids to play with on the fridge. You could also make stands for them out of popsicle sticks and design a creche for them. They are sturdier if printed out on cardstock.

You can also purchase a 3-D press out paper model of the Nativity from Usborne or order if from any bookstore. I have seen this and it is very pretty. The ISBN number is 0-7460-1319-1. It is illustrated by Stephen Cartwright and retails for $12.95.

If you would like something similar to the above, only FREE, then this Nativity Paper Model by Peter J. Visser may please you. It is folk art looking and looks like it would be fun to put together. It is already in color. Small children will need help. Be sure to save the model to your computer and open it using a graphics editing program, or it will not print properly.

I bought a cross cookie cutter from a Family Christian Store to make cookies, but we have also used it with salt dough and made permanent ornaments for our christmas tree. You can paint them gold, or brown, ect. You could press little pretend jewels in them, ect.

At Cathy's Picnic, she has Cut, Color and Paste Mary and Jesus, Shepherds and Sheep, Three Kings, and Angel and Star ornaments for Children. These are very easy.

Christian Crafters.com has an Ojo de Dios (God's eye) craft that looks fun and easy.

Here is a little Bell Craftthat can be used along with the story, Why the Bells Chime. The link for the story can be found in the Online Christmas Stories section.

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