Place two candy canes back to back (one “hook” is going left, the other “hook” going right). Wrap both canes with the brown yarn beginning about half way up the “cane”. Stop wrapping when you get to the “hook”. Hot glue two eyes and one red “nose” onto the yarn. You have a candy cane reindeer.

• To make each elf, simply fill a colored cotton sock three quarters of the way with peas or beans. An easy way to do this is to cut the bottom from a paper cup. Then insert the bottomless cup into the neck of the sock. Pour the beans through the makeshift funnel.

• With a needle and thread, stitch closed the top of the sock. Use a few more stitches to gather and secure the sewn end into a point that resembles the tip of a stocking hat. Then sew a medium-size jingle bell to the tip.

• To form the elf’s nose (a fun job for kids), use your fingertips to grasp a small bunch of beans about halfway down from the top of the sock. Wrap a rubber band around the base of the bunch to secure it.

• Finally, glue or sew on two button eyes.

• Gather 25 small treats, such as gumball machine prizes, wrapped candy and trinkets. Cut a 4 1/2-foot length of 2-inch wide colored tape. Lay the tape sticky side up and place the treats along the length of it, approximately 1 inch apart.

• Next, tape together several pieces of construction paper or sections of a paper grocery bag to create a 6- f oot long, 3-inch wide strip. Place it atop the treat-covered tape and press together the paper and tape around each treat. Trim off any excess paper.

• Write the numbers 1 through 25 in puff paint on pieces of colored construction paper and cut them out.

  For extra fun, shape pieces into green trees, red Christmas balls and a yellow star. Starting at the bottom, tape or glue the numbers to the paper strip, one over each treat. Finally, glue rickrack along the edges of the paper and tape the top of the calendar to a pencil.

• Tie a length of colored yarn to the ends of the pencil, and the Advent calendar is ready to hang.

• ORNAMENT: Cut two 12-inch strips, two 10-inch strips, and one 8 3/4-inch strip. Line them up in this order: 12, 10, 8 3/4, 10, and 12, with one set of ends even. Staple this end. Line up the other ends evenly (bending the outer strips as needed) and staple.

• 1/2, with one set of ends even. Staple this end. Now bend the unstapled ends into a heart shape, so a small heart lies inside a larger heart. Align the ends and staple together.

• TEARDROP: Cut two 12-inch strips, two 10 1/2-inch strips, and one 9-inch strip. Line them up in this inch from the unstapled ends of the 12- and 10 1/2-inch strips. Finally, align the ends of all the strips and staple them together.

• Use the completed shapes to dress up a window or spin in midair from a light fixture or a ribbon. To hang each, knot the end of the gold cord and place it between the loose strips of paper at the top. Staple it all together.

Simply 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 the phrase in their own handwriting on the inside of the card.

1. Cut the poster board into a large triangle. Parts cut off can be taped together to make a 2nd tree.
2. Cut brown construction paper for the trunk. Glue to base of triangle. I attached it to the backside.
3. Unroll the green wrapping paper face down. Use your and everyone else’s hands. Trace around all hands. Be sure to spread your fingers apart a little and use both hands. Cut out the hands a row at a time.
4. Glue the hands, starting at the bottom of the tree. Glue fingers down. (The pinky side goes well on the edges.) Don’t overlap, just put close together. The next row overlaps the first a little bit (Like shingles on a roof). Cover the poster board like this all the way to the top. If you have little bits of poster board peeking thru, use your scrap pieces to fill in.
5. Next cut a star from shirt board/poster board. Cover with the gold foil paper. Glue to top of tree.

   full rows of items down the length of the roll. Glue these on the tree.

6. Now you have a fully decorated tree!

Cut ten hand prints on green paper, a yellow star, and ten red hearts small enough to fit on the hand print.

Start gluing one handprint at the top of the page and with the fingers pointing down. This is the top of your tree. Use the rest of the handprints fanning out to make a Christmas tree. In the star write I love (someone’s name), then in each heart let the kids pick special people…mommy, daddy, friends, grandparents, pets, dolls, etc. Glue star on the top and a heart on each hand.

Cover the work area with newspaper and paint the pinecone green. When the paint is dry, glue on yarn, beads, etc. for the decorations.

Take a sugar cone, turn it upside down and slather with thick, green frosting and stick whatever on to decorate it.

Cut out a large triangle out of red construction paper. Glue on the cotton balls to make a white ball on one of the triangle tips, and glue cotton balls along the bottom edge to form the brim. You can also cut out two triangles and tape or staple them together to make a hat to fit the child’s head.