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Activities

Fun things to make this Christmas

Find some old wrapping paper to make paperchains, or get in the mood with some Christmas colouring books. There's plenty of things to do at home to find that Christmas spirit.

At home..

A great way to keep your children occupied over the Christmas period is to involve them in your festive preparations.

On a quiet afternoon at home, use safety scissors to teach them how to make paper chains, doll chains, cut out paper stars and snowflakes. Here are our favourite paper chain packs for your little ones to get started with.

Christmas Patterned Paper Chains, £1

These paper chains have jolly Christmas images to make your decorations even more festive.

www.elc.co.uk

Metallic Paper Chains, £2.50

Metallic gummed paper strips in assorted colours to create easy-to-make chains.

www.woolworths.co.uk

Cath Kidson Dotted Paper Chains, £4

A lovely set of scalloped polka dot paper strips in pink, red, blue, and green.

www.cathkidston.co.uk

Christmas cards are also a fun way of allowing your child to feel involved in the festivities. If they’re not up to drawing shapes and figures on their own just yet, maybe a sheet of festive themed stickers will help to create their favourite nativity or Santa scene.

1000 Christmas Stickers, £9.99

A great set of Christmas themed stickers that your child can use to decorate drawings, Christmas cards, or even to illustrate homemade tree decorations.

www.usborne.com

Funny Faces Christmas Sticker Book, £3

A sticker book where you get to make your own faces to go with the rhymes inside! Stickers can be reused plenty of times, so your child’s imagination can run wild again and again.

www.marksandspencer.com

Christmas Sticker Book, £4.55

This is a popular festive book in its latest edition, where various yuletide scenes are depicted, ready to be added to with over 800 stickers.

www.whsmith.co.uk

Decorating the Christmas tree can be even more exciting if they are able to hang their own handmade ornaments – try painting balls of popcorn (or using coloured icing to make them edible!), using coloured paper cut outs, and hanging paper chains from the branches to create a completely unique tree.

You can also use a simple wooden Nativity set to demonstrate the Nativity story, and let your child organise where the pieces go.

Melissa & Doug nativity, £24.95

Melissa & Doug have a lovely colourful set with eleven figures and an easy to assemble stable from four pieces.

Lanka Kade, £25

This charming Fairtrade wooden set is simple and bright, with several smiling coloured characters and a stable that doubles as a storage box. (18mths+).

www.kidsrooms.co.uk