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 kidsholidaygarland.pdf
When Matt and I were young, we’ve talked about the fact that we were lucky to have a Christmas tree every year. There were some lean years in there, but we always had a tree. Today many families have more than one tree in their homes and sometimes each child has a small tree in their bedroom. My son does have a small tree on top of his armoire and it serves as a holiday night light for the month of December and as long in January as we can stand it!
Because of this trend toward children’s trees, Matt and I thought it would be fun to suggest a couple of different garlands for children to make for their own tree! Both require sewing but it’s a great time to teach them about safety and sewing needles and scissors!! The first garland uses the sewing machine and here’s what you’ll need.
Materials List:
- Two colors construction paper
- Either circle punches or
circles to trace
- Scissors
- Pencil
- Sewing machine
Tip:
After getting started with this project using items to trace around and scissors to make the circles, my daughter walked into my office and said, STOP, I have something to help you! It was two different sized circle punches. Just like the speed of a hole punch, I was done cutting out my circles in seconds! I would greatly suggest picking up a couple!
Instructions:
1. So, either trace around found items in your home to make some large and some small circles, and them cut them out of the construction paper with scissors…
…or use hole punches to punch them out of the paper in no time at all.
2. Then, line them up alternating color and sizes and feed them through the sewing machine one after the other to create a paper dot garland!
Up close you can see the stitching so select a thread that coordinates with the paper dots. Make the chain as long as you like, however, it does get tangles easily so consider making more shorter garlands to dress up your tree!
Here’s another easy garland for kids to make that teaches a bit about hand sewing. It’s a garland made out of pompoms!
For materials all you need are colorful pompoms, needle and thread and scissors!
1. Thread the needle with a double thread about 6 inches longer than you want to make the garland. Tie a knot at the ends of the thread about 3 inches in from the ends. You will use these ends to tie garlands together to lengthen them.
2. Continue adding pompoms by pushing the needle through the center of each pompom until you have about three inches left at the end and knot the thread to hold the pompoms in place. Cut the thread right at the needle.
3. Tie the ends of shorter pompom garlands together to make them as long as you need to cover your tree.
Kids will enjoy being a part of the decorating festivities and these two crafts will make them feel like they have really contributed to a beautifully decorated tree.
Shari
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There's nothing that gets you in the holiday spirit more than creating old fashioned paper snowflakes! 
(Hint: Put on latex gloves when stringing the cranberries.)
Also, try some bird-friendly outdoor garland. We string cheerios or Kix to put on our apple tree.
(We tried other, more colorful cereal in the past, but the birds do not like the sweet stuff.)