Easy Old Fashioned Christmas Crafts

An old fashioned Christmas brings images of trees decorated with handmade ornaments, good things to eat and mistletoe. The appeal behind vintage Christmas crafts is the time spent with family and friends. Spending time with loved ones is the real meaning of an old fashioned Christmas. Here are three ideas for Christmas crafts any of which could be used as an activity for the whole family.

Gingerbread House-A tasty Christmas craft
You can buy kits for this project but it really is much more fun to bake and then select the decorations.
You will need:
A paper pattern
A gingerbread dough recipe with frosting and ingredients
A rolling pin
Cookie sheets, bowls, spoons etc.
Pastry bag for frosting and decorating
Soup cans
Pizza Cutter
Tray or sturdy cardboard for the house to sit on
An assortment of candies for decorations
1) Roll out dough being careful to keep all the same thickness
2) Use your paper pattern to cut dough with a pizza cutter
3) Carefully transfer the shapes to a greased cookie sheet
4) Bake per recipe instructions
5) Decorate the pieces while they are still lying flat.
6) Using the frosting as glue, assemble the house and use the cans to prop it up until it dries.
7) Attach the roof when the walls are dry.
8) Decorate! Be creative and have fun.

Easy Old fashioned Christmas Craft ideas
Make paper snowflakes to hang on the tree or in windows. Decorate with glitter or markers.

Paper chains are fun and you can experiment with different papers. Shiny wrapping paper, old wallpaper even newspaper can be used.

Popcorn and cranberry strings for the tree. Use stale popcorn. Intersperse soft colorful candies like Dots or gummies with the popcorn.

Use cookie cutters and trace shapes on thick attractive paper. Punch holes and tie with ribbon for gift tags

Cut a potato in half cut a simple pattern in the flat side. Use the potatoes as stamps and stamp designs on brown paper to use as gift wrap

Mistletoe Ball-Old fashioned Christmas fun
Make a hanging mistletoe ball for a fun and beautiful Christmas craft.
You will need:
Florist's Wire
Styrofoam ball
Ribbon
Mistletoe sprigs, you can use real ones or artificial ones.
Beads

1) Fold a good size piece of wire in half. Make attractive folds in the ribbon and insert the wire through it to secure.
2) Poke the wire through the center of the Styrofoam ball and bring ends out the bottom and bend to secure.
3) Insert short pieces of mistletoe all around the ball until you are satisfied with the look.
4) Attach beads strung on small pieces of wire or use straight pins with a bead threaded on and stick into the ball.
5) Hang with cord or fish line

You could even throw a Christmas craft party and have supplies on hand for everyone to make something to take home as a favor for their own old fashioned Christmas..

Source:
Martha Stewart.com