Three homemade Christmas projects to try with your children

Making your own Christmas cards is the perfect project to get little hands involved in. From coloured paper and marker pens to glitter and stickers, you can use as many or as few art supplies as you want while still creating something that your loved ones will treasure.  

We spoke to Maggy from Red Ted Art, a crafter focused on making arts and crafts more accessible, to see what her secret to a great Christmas card is. 

“We always make our Christmas cards,” says Maggy. “Hunt around and buy basic card stock in bulk - you can often find packs of 100. These last not only for Christmas and thank you cards but for birthday card making throughout the year too.” 

“There are so many great ways you can decorate your own cards – from potato print penguins to photo collages of pets, to simple, fun drawings! The possibilities are endless.”  

You can also give old wrapping paper, sweet wrappers or other recycling around the house a new life by using them to make and decorate your cards too! 

Follow Maggy’s step-by-step instructions to make your own adorable Christmas cards. 

You can make Christmas ornaments from what you probably already have in your kitchen cupboard! Salt dough – a ‘DIY clay’ made from a little flour, salt, and warm water – can be used to make unique ornaments that you can paint and hang individually on your Christmas tree, or you can string a handful of them together to make a beautiful garland.  

Maggy’s instructions call for the ornaments to be baked at a low temperature for a few hours, but you can also leave them out to dry by a radiator or another warm place. If you go this route, you may have to wait anywhere from 1-3 days before your ornaments are completely dry and ready to be painted and hung up.  

If you or someone you know is intolerant or allergic to gluten, you’ll know that alternative Christmas treats can be expensive or hard to find. That’s why we’ve included this festive recipe from Kate (also known as the Gluten Free Alchemist). 

Everyone in your family will want to get involved in making these delicious and cute gluten-free gingerbread cookies. “Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without gingerbread cookies,” says Kate. “They are super-delicious, really easy to make, and a great way to spend fun time with the kids and get them baking.” 

If you’d like to try Kate’s recipe but you’re not a regular home baker or you’re trying to stick to a budget, here are some of her top tips on how you can still make great gingerbread cookies. “If you’re missing bits of equipment, don’t worry. There’s often a way around it!” she says.  

• No cutters? Use an upturned glass or cup to cut out circles and make baubles or snowman faces or cut the dough into random triangles and make Christmas trees, reindeer faces or triangular houses. If you’re feeling adventurous, you can even draw and cut out shapes on paper and cut around them with a knife. 

• No whisk? No worries! Mix the ingredients together with a spoon. 

• No rolling pin? Use a reusable hard water bottle or an unopened can as a substitute or just flatten the dough with your hands. It will add character to the cookies! 

• When it comes to decoration anything goes! You don’t need a piping bag or fancy equipment, simply grab a spoon and drizzle on some icing or melted chocolate or cut a tiny hole in the corner of a clean plastic sandwich bag and use that to pipe icing on your cookies instead! 

• Use leftover sweets to decorate the cookies instead of sprinkles 

• Just want to decorate (and not bake)? Lots of supermarkets sell cheap and delicious ready-baked gingerbread men that are ready to decorate (including some on the Free From shelves).