3 Great Christmas Craft Ideas

Making a few Christmas crafts can be a great way to celebrate the holidays while avoiding the commercialization that gets so tiring in December. Many Christmas crafts are easy to make, and can be shared with the rest of your family, especially small children, so it's great to look for a few of the best Christmas craft ideas every year to build a fantastic new tradition with your family. Here's a look at a few of the most original and best Christmas craft ideas out there.

1. Home Made Story Book - This is a great Christmas craft to do with kids, and encourages imagination. Use a scrapbook to make a home made Christmas story book, with red and green construction paper in place of the traditional scrap book paper. Have glue sticks, tinsel, cotton balls (works great as snow or Santa's beard), markers, glitter, and any other craft tools you can think of on hand. Let the kids go wild--you can look back on the home made story book each year rather than relying on the same old Christmas stories.

2. Pine Cone Christmas Craft Tree - To supplement your family's main Christmas tree, you might want to build a pine cone tree. This unique Christmas craft idea is simple and fun to make, especially if you live around a lot of pine cone trees.

Gather a large (or small) Styrofoam cone, some gold or green spray paint, spray-on-snow, glitter, a glue gun, and last but not least a good amount of pine cones. Using a knife, cut the very tip of the Styrofoam cone off and glue a pine cone to the top. Glue the rest of the pine cones to the side of the cone (lengthwise), keeping them close together to resemble the leaves of a tree.

If you're using a small Styrofoam cone, you can cut the pine cones in half or in quarters to accomplish the same effect. Cover the entire craft with the spray paint, artificial snow, and any other decorations that you'd like. When you're finished, you'll have a portable, durable, and cool artificial pine cone Christmas tree.

3. Pine Cone Bird Feeders - Your Christmas crafts can benefit a few feathered friends with this holiday craft. It's simple, children will love it, and it provides some great Christmas decoration for the outside of your house.

Collect some pine cones (size is up to you) and glue an ornament hook to the top. String some red or green ribbon through the hook. Cover the pine cone in peanut butter and dip it into birdseed, then hang from trees near the windows in your house. This can be a great craft when you've got guests over, as everyone will be able to enjoy the view of a variety of birds perched on the trees, regardless of the climate.

Do you know of any other great Christmas craft ideas? Other holiday crafts for the Winter season? Post in our comments section below.