Have the kids started Christmas holidays in your part of the world yet?
Here are 4 simple crafts that they can create to kick off the school holidays.

Twiggy Christmas Trees
We always seem to come home from the park with a million sticks.
So we’ve put them to good use and created some hanging ornaments.
We rolled the sticks around in paint and let them dry.
The Little Ladybird loved this colourful and messy step.
The construction part of the process was too tricky for a toddler, but I imagine that kids in the 5-8 age bracket would love it.
It involves snapping the sticks to the desired length and arranging them from longest to shortest. (Adult supervision required!)
I then used PVA glue to secure the sticks to a piece of cardboard.
I folded the top of the cardboard over to create a loop.
Set aside to dry and then your ornament is ready to hang!

Salt Dough Star Ornaments
We make salt dough for every celebration!
I am terrible at making gingerbread, so we used our gingerbread star cookie cutters to create this hanging ornament.
To make salt dough, combine 1 cup of plain flour with 1 cup of salt.
Measure out 3/4 cup of water. Gradually add water- I find that you don’t need the full 3/4 cup.
Add a bit of water and mix together. Keep adding a little bit of water until your mixture comes together into a ball.
Dust with flour if too sticky.
Roll your dough out to about 1cm thick and cut out your stars.
Make sure to push a hole through the centre of your stars (I used a chopstick.)
Then place in oven and bake at 100 degrees celsius for about 3 hours.
You aren’t actually baking your dough, but drying it out. If it is still too soft after 3 hours, turn oven off and leave dough in oven until it dries out.
Once cooled, paint your ornaments. (We used acrylic paint.)
Then string together your stars. (We used a bead underneath the biggest star to hold string in place.)

Pom Pom Santas
It’s no secret that I love pom poms.
I have moved up in the world and now have a pom pom maker. (Don’t get excited- it’s pretty much just a fancy piece of cardboard.)
Here is an old-fashioned way to make pom poms.
Once you’ve made your pom poms, use colourful paper and markers to create Santa’s face, hat, beard (doilies!) and belt.
We used store-bought pom poms for his nose.
Secure everything in place with PVA glue.

Flippable Christmas Angels
You’ll need the paper tube from the middle of a roll of kitchen towel.
We painted one half pink and the other half yellow.
Get a square of fabric and cut a hole in the middle.
Slide the fabric over paper tube and secure in place with a rubber band.
Flip the tube over and repeat with another piece of fabric.
Cover rubber band with ribbon or other embellishments.
Cut some wings out of coloured paper and glue into place.
Draw on a face and add hair (we used pom poms.)
There you have it- one paper tube but two dolls!

Thanks for reading all the way to the end of the post.
Here’s a bonus activity for you!

We bought these shatter-proof (read: plastic) baubles at our local art and craft shop.
I showed The Little Ladybird how to scrunch tissue paper and away she went.
She described it as “posting” the paper into the bauble.
A fantastic activity for fine motor skills and a simple but sweet result.

What are your plans for the Christmas school holidays?