Crafts: Snowmen Milk Containers

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Materials 

• milk container (plastic gallon or half gallon) 
• craft foam 
• scissors 
• glue (I prefer to use a 'tacky' glue) 
• lights (optional) 

Steps 

1. Drink milk.

2. Wash out milk container and allow to completely dry.

3. Remove labels. (Sometimes it is easier to do this when the container is still wet.)

4. Create a template for eyes, a nose, and a mouth.

5. Cut pieces from foam.

6. Attach to milk container. 

Optional 

7. Cut out small hole on back near bottom for lights. 

8. String lights inside the snowman.

Safety Note: Be careful about leaving lights on inside your snowman to prevent any fires.

I made a few pieces to create a Frosty the Snowman and Mrs. Frosty for our front step.

To keep them in place, you could place rocks inside of them or tie them down.  I tied our three to the railing. 

Crafts: Snowflake Sun Catchers

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Materials 

• coffee filters 
• markers 
• spray bottle 
• scissors 
• laminating machine (optional) 

Steps 

1. Gather all your materials.

2. Children draw on the coffee filters using markers.

3. Spray the coffee filters with water.

4. Allow to dry.

5. Cut out patterns to create snowflakes.

6. Laminate snowflake sun catchers. (optional)

7. Hang in windows.

I love how simple this craft is but that it also creates something beautiful to hang in the window all winter long.

My daughter tried out each marker on her hands prior to using it to color the coffee filter.

My son and daughter had already done a similar craft with coffee filters for Halloween, so they got right down to the business of drawing.

I drew a tree on one for my son to decorate and we talked about ornaments, garland, and what to put on top of the tree.

Older children can cut out the snowflake designs themselves. It's Always Autumn has a free video and templates helping you and your children cut out interesting snowflake patterns.

Looking for patterns to make your own snowflakes?

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Ornaments

Materials 

• Toilet Paper Rolls (2 needed for one set of ornaments) 
• Green Paint
• Paint Brush
• Googly Eyes
• Materials for masks (tissue paper, felt, construction paper, ribbon) 
• Glue 
• Ribbon (for hanging) 
• Hole Punch

Steps 

1. Gather materials.
2. Paint toilet paper rolls (inside and outside).

3. After they dry, cut in half.

4. Cut material for masks.
5. Glue masks onto toilet paper rolls.

6. Glue googly eyes onto masks.

7. Punch holes in top of toilet paper rolls.

8. Cut and then tie ribbon for hanging through holes.

9. Hang on tree.

My husband was a fan of the cartoon, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle so when I saw Happy Hooligan's craft, I knew it would be perfect for my son to make for him.  As we were already painting some toilet paper rolls green for trees, this was a breeze to add a few more to be painted.

There are lots of different Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Ornament crafts to make for your tree.  Check out these three different options.

Your Modern Family

colacerise on Deviant Art 

I heart arts n crafts 

Personally, I have seen a few minutes of the original series but haven't really watched any of the sequels or reboots. There is a huge selection on Amazon of DVDs as well as toys.  (affiliate links)

Crafts: Reindeer Paper Plate

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Materials

• paper plates
• brown paint
• paint brushes 
• brown and red construction paper
• red pom pom
• large googly eyes 
• glue 

Steps

1. Gather your materials.

2. Paint plates brown.

The green pieces are for another craft.

3. Trace child's hands onto the brown construction paper.

4. Draw and cut out the ears.

5. Glue the reindeer ears together.

6. Attach the ears to paper plate. (I used glue to attach everything.  But you could also staple paper items to the plate.)

7. Glue on the pom pom nose and eyes.

8. Display your reindeer.

Resources and Ideas 

There are a lot of different reindeer paper plate and hand print crafts.  Here are a few of my favorites.

A Cupcake for the Teacher  – On Teachers Pay Teachers, she has a Reindeer Games  packet available for sale.

Making Learning Fun  – Here is another version made using different size paper plates.  It is attached with staples. (This site has a lot of resources available for a variety of topics.  I have only scratched the surface myself.) 

How Wee Learn  – There are a variety of paper plate crafts provided with pictures and a link to the original post.  A great resource for last minute crafting ideas. 

Education.com's Make a Paper Plate Reindeer  – This is the original idea I was using as a guideline for my own craft. Education.com has a PDF file available for download as well as the instructions on their page for this craft. 

Or if you wish to still do a reindeer craft but forgo the paper plate, here is a cute toilet paper roll craft from The Resourceful Mama. 

Here are few cute items to use for the craft, instead of this craft, and to complement this craft.  We have the Rudolph book and our two children love it. Especially when my husband reads it using voices from the television show. 

If you are interested in more holiday-themed crafts, please check out my following blog posts: 

 

Crafts: Paper Roll Christmas Tree

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Materials

• green paint
• sponge applicators 
• cardboard tubes or paper rolls
• glue 
• construction paper or foam 
• tissue paper (optional) 
• glitter and/or sequins (optional) 

Steps

1. Gather materials.

2. Paint your cardboard tubes or paper rolls green (inside and outside of the roll).

3. Trace and cut out stars.

4. Tear up tissue paper into tiny pieces for ornaments.

4. After paint dries, glue on ornaments.  We covered our trees in glue and rolled them around in the pieces of tissue paper.

5. After rolling the trees in the tissue paper, we shook off any extra pieces. 

5. After glue dries, cut out into spiral shapes.

6. Attach stars.

My son was not into painting for this project.  I think it was because his sister was very interested in helping us paint.  She kept saying, "green," over and over to indicate that she wanted to join us instead of coloring.  In the end, both of them painted enough rolls for this project and another one.

When we were painting the inside of the rolls, my son said to me, "it is your turn now mommy," when he was tired of painting with the green.  (We were also painting reindeer so he was very eager to use the brown paint.)

I choose to leave two trees uncut and two cut into spiral shapes.

I saw this cute craft on Pinterest and Childhood Education's blog.

Optional Ideas

If you would rather use glitter, cover tree in glue and allow your child to roll it in the glitter.  Or you could use sequins, for your ornaments.  Your child can either roll the tree in the sequins after covering tree in glue or place them on individually.