Santa's Elves

Here are some great Christmas Colorables, Arts & Crafts that you can have fun with this holiday season!  Print out the Coloring Pages, create some crafts and be sure to bring them to the Village Square Theatre when you come to have your photo taken with Santa.  Santa would love to see the things you've created this year, and it's also a great way to make sure you stay on the "Nice" list!

Christmas Stockings
Construction Paper, Glue, Cotton Balls, Old Toy Catalogs, magazines Trace a picture of a stocking on construction paper and cut. Use cotton balls to trim the stocking on the top. Use catalogs and cut out pictures of what you want for Christmas, & glue to the stocking.

Christmas Puppets
Little paper bags, glue, crayons, construction paper, misc craft items (such as fabric scraps, beads, ect.) Get creative and make all sorts of Christmas characters. Make Santa Claus; make eyes, ears, ect, and then use cotton balls, felt, ect for the hair and beard. Don't forget the hat and red nose - like a cherry. You can also make rudolph, Mrs. Claus, elves......

Christmas Necklace
Cling Wrap, christmas candy - about the size of a quarter, curling ribbon Cut 2-3 feet of cling wrap and lay flat on table. Starting on one end, place candy in the center of the cling wrap. Do this the whole length of the cling wrap, leaving 2-3 inches between each candy. Fold the cling wrap over a few times -the long way- to seal the candy. Tie a piece of curling ribbon around the cling wrap in between each piece if candy. Tie the ends together to make a necklace.

Gingerbread Man
Paper Grocery Bag, Glue, Crayons, Misc Craft Items - such as fabric scraps, beads, ect. Cut a gingerbread man shape out of the grocery bag. Color or decorate as desired.

Christmas Place mats
Paper,
Used Christmas Cards,
Glue,
Crayons,
Markers, or Paint,
Clear Contact Paper
Cut the pictures from cards. Draw a picture on a piece of paper & this is the back. Then glue on the card pictures. Cover both sides with contact paper.

Christmas Cards
OLD Calendars -can also use old Greeting Cards, construction paper, glue, crayons or markers Fold a piece of construction paper in half lengthwise for the card and cut out appropriate picture from one of the calendar months to glue on cover of card. If kids can't spell Merry Christmas on their own, write it out for them on separate piece of paper and have them try to duplicate it in their own handwriting inside the card.

Recycled Christmas Cards
Use old Christmas cards. Cut the cards apart. Take the front of the card & punch holes all around it. Let the children sew or lace around the card. Curling ribbon can be used without a needle.

Wrapping Paper
blue paint, large pieces of white paper, plastic margarine lids, small Christmas cookie cutters (or basic shapes) Pour small amount of pain into margarine lids, let each child dip a cookie cutter into paint, stamp on paper, and then let paint dry. Children can take paper home to use.

Wrapping for Wreath
Turn a regular size paper grocery bag inside out. Sponge paint on various colors and/or prints of Christmas things. Place wreath in bag and staple shut, adding a bow at the top of the bag.

Poinsettia
Cut out 5 leaf shapes using red construct. paper. Glue the leaf shapes in a circle onto green paper. In the center of the flower put some glue & add some uncooked popcorn for the flower center.

Christmas Wall Hanging
Light colored cloth napkin (pick any size you like), dowel rod, yarn (red and green), green & red paint (finger paint is best for kids), glue Fold top of napkin over 1/2 inch and glue. Place child's hand in the green paint, and press it several times on the napkin to form a wreath. Add red thumb prints for holly berries. Attach dowel rod. Hang by yarn.

Candy Train
1 5-pack of gum,
1 roll of life savers,
1 rollo,
1 caramel,
1hershey's kiss,
4 starbright re/white peppermints
Glue the life savers onto the pack of gum (the flat side). Then glue a rollo on the front of the life savers. Glue a hershey's kiss on top of the life savers--in the front and a caramel on top of life savers in the back. On both sides of the train glue two peppermint wheels. This makes one candy train--great for ornaments.

Beary Merry Christmas
Precut teddy bear from poster board Have parents save used tea bags. Let children open the dried bags and shake the dried tea over the bear that has been covered with glue. I used a tub to lay the bear in first (said they needed to lie down in their bed) so they excess tea doesn't get all over. When they dry they look like fuzzy bears. We stapled on Christmas plaid bows as well. They looked really cute.

Days till Christmas Countdown
Near the beginning of December we have the children make paper chains with enough links to make one for each day leading up to Christmas. (Sometimes we have to help them a little to get enough links.) We attach the chains to a paper bell to which we attach the following:

How many days till Christmas?
It's mighty hard to tell
Take off a link every night
When the Sandman cast his spell
And Christmas Eve will be here
By the time you reach the bell.
The children take the chains home and are told to take off one link every night to count down the days until Christmas.

Peek a Boo Elf Puppet

Materials:

1-inch Styrofoam balls
toilet tissue roll
straw
red felt
markers
yarn
glue
scissors

What to Do:

Push one end of the straw into the Styrofoam ball to make a hole. Remove straw and fill the hole with glue. Put straw back in, let dry. Use marker to draw facial features. Glue on pieces of yarn for hair. Cut two small triangles out of felt to make a hat. Put puppet inside toilet paper roll and let the elf puppet play peek a boo with the children.

Gingerbread People

Materials:

Brown construction Paper or Paper Bags
Q-Tips
Glue
Misc Items (buttons, bows, etc.)

What to Do:

Give each of the children a large gingerbread shape cut from brown construction paper. Have them use Q-Tip applicators and glue to attach fabric eyes and small pieces of red pipe cleaners for mouths. Then let them decorate the rest of their shapes by gluing on rickrack, fabric circles, bows, etc.

Christmas Chain

You will need:

construction paper, red and green
crayons, markers, glitter, etc.
scissors
glue or paste
pencil or pen

Cut out a bell or star or some other shape for the top of your chain and decorate as desired.

Cut red and green construction paper into 1-inch by 6-inch strips.
Form loops with the strips and make a linking chain. (Make one loop, thread the next through the loop, etc) Tape works best - trying to glue these and watching them pop open gets really frustrating..

You will need as many links in your chain as there are days until Christmas left. Make the pattern how ever you like!

Attach the completed chain to the bottom of your bell or star and tear off one ring each day.