How to Make Christmas Decorations with Children

Christmas is a lot about family, and one nice way to prepare for the holiday is to make Christmas decorations with children. There are a number of crafts that you can make, and the first thing to remember is that it is important to let the children do the work. Try the following ideas.
One Christmas decoration that you might want to make are Christmas tree ornaments. These are simple, easy and inexpensive to make, and even very young children can do them. You can take construction paper. Young children can color in a picture that you drew such as a picture of Santa, reindeers, icicles, snowman or another Christmas or winter motif. They can put Christmas stickers on paper as well. Older children can draw something on their own like one of the ideas above. You can also let the children glue or paste embellishments such as glitter, beads, crystals, sequins, feathers, foam pieces, cut pieces of paper or anything else you can get from a craft store. You can then punch a hole in the top and attach a piece of string. To make it stronger and last longer you can either get it laminated or glue it to a piece of cardboard (you could also have made it from a heavy piece of cardboard to begin with).
Your children can also draw or paint pictures to be used as artwork around the house as Christmas decorations. They can use whatever art supplies they want such as paint, markers, crayons or colored pencils. They can make a religious picture such as one of the nativity. They can make something fun such as a picture of Santa Claus and Rudolph the Red-nose Reindeer. They can also glue on embellishments. They can use white construction paper and scissors to make a picture of a snowman, for instance.
You can also have the children make garland. They can make it from beads by taking some string or ribbon and placing it through different sizes of beads. Alternatively they can put the string through popcorn, Styrofoam or whatever else you want to try. When they have finished you can drape this across the Christmas tree, over railings, along the fireplace and at other locations.
The children can also make a wreath out of construction paper. They can start with green construction paper glued to a cardboard backing. They can then draw in ornaments or glue paper to them. They can even glue on real ornaments as part of the craft.
There are many Christmas decorations that children can make. Make sure the craft is age appropriate. If they need extra help with certain things like cutting, then provide that. The above ideas may help you find the right crafts for you.