DIY Christmas Place Cards: Homemade Holiday Place Cards

DIY Christmas place cards are fun and easy to do, and make your holiday table bright and festive. In addition, cheerful Christmas place cards make the guests at your dinner or holiday party feel honored and welcome. And the holiday placecards (yes, I realize I just spelled the word "place cards" differently, but you know search engines ... they'll hunt for anything) can be as ornate or simple as your inclination and time allows.

To that end, below are three ideas for DIY Christmas place cards.

Printable Christmas Place Cards
Supplies:
Computer and printer
Card stock in the colors of your choice
or
Avery Tent Cards

Instructions:
There are numerous sites on line that give templates for printable holiday place cards. Associated Content contributor, Jenn C, has an excellent article with a list of ten on line sites that carry free, downloadable patterns and instructions for cute, easy to do, Christmas place cards.

Can't cut straight? (Yes, there are some of us who flunked "cutting a straight line" in kindergarten.) If you have Microsoft Word, and you don't want the problem of cutting out the place cards, you can purchase Avery Tent Cards and download Avery templates to print on them. The one disadvantage to Avery is they don't have templates available for a Mac, however.

Greeting Card Place Cards
Supplies:
Last year's nice Christmas cards
Card stock (cut in half so each piece is 8.5" x 5.5," and then each piece folded in half)
Christmas ribbon (smaller widths look cute but you can use whatever size you prefer)
Glue

Instructions:
Are you one who can't stand to throw away last year's Christmas cards? Pull out that stack of greeting cards and put them to use. Cut the card on the fold and discard the back half. Trim all the way around the design with scalloped craft scissors to give the edges a nice look and so it is small enough to fit on the folded card stock. Glue the Christmas card to the folded card stock, allowing enough room to write the guest's name on the card stock. Run a small festive Christmas ribbon around the place card's fold, and tie with a bow. Stand the Christmas place card at each guest's plate at the table.

Fingerprint Candy Cane Place Cards
Supplies:
Inkpads in red and silver (preferably water soluble)
White card stock (cut in half so each piece is 8.5" x 5.5," and then each piece folded in half)
Red ribbon, already cut and tied into small bows.
Glue

Instructions:
This is a fun craft for children that may be at your Christmas dinner or holiday party, and you might even find the adults joining in. Write the names of the guests on the front of each folded place card. Have the kids gently press one fingertip onto the red inkpad and then onto the front of the place card. Next, have them press another fingertip onto the silver inkpad and then onto the place card, alternating colors to form a candy cane shape. For little ones who don't understand how the shape should look, you can pre-draw the candy cane outline so all they have to do is put their alternating red and silver fingerprints inside the shape. Have the children glue the pre-tied bows onto the fingerprint candy canes. Place the cards at each guest's place at the table.

You can also do this with green and red inkpads and have the children make fingerprint Christmas tree shapes in green ink and use their little finger in red to make Christmas ornaments on the fingerprint tree.

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Have fun making the place cards! And best wishes for a merry Christmas.

Sources:
Avery.com link as listed above.
Associated Content contributor as listed above.