Making Christmas Cards with Kids

My goodness time is whizzing past.

Halloween's not yet over but we're already starting to think about Christmas cards.

I loved making all our Christmas cards with my daughter last year but have learnt a load from the experience of how to make it a kid-friendly activity whilst actually producing plenty of cards.

My first major tip is start early - you need to get going as soon as Halloween is over if you really want to avoid buying cards.

You also need to plan on making a whole range of different designs - as if you try to make loads of the same thing, kids will very soon get bored and resentful.

In this post I'm sharing all my other tips from producing over 50 cards last year!

Plus loads of ideas for super-simple but fun designs.

And at the bottom of the post, you'll find loads more lovely Christmas ideas from loads of different bloggers ... do check them out and feel free to share as many of your own as you like ...

Tips for Making Christmas Cards with Kids

1. Start early! If you want to make a decent number without it becoming dull or sitting up all night yourself finishing them, you need to start the second Halloween is over!
2. Only expect to make a small number 5 to 10 at each sitting
3. Don't be surprised if your child says "I've finished" when they've made one
4. Do work like the clappers to do as many as you can whilst they do one
5. Do make a range of different cards else they will get bored even easier
6. Remember semi-abstract is good - a green triangle is perfect for a Christmas tree, it really doesn't need to have branches etc
7. Simpler really is better - avoid precise designs that require kids to put certain elements in exactly the right place
8. Kids who can cut, like cutting - let them do wobbly triangles for Christmas trees and circles for snowmen
9. Invest in some good scissors for your kids who can cut - lots of the kids craft versions won't actually even cut paper and are just totally frustrating for them and you
10. Get ready as much as you can e.g. folding cards, any pre-cutting needed, in advance
11. Glitter is your best friend - mix up e.g. green, red & silver, it looks much prettier
12. Stick on googly eyes are good! If your design requires eyes you do NOT - believe me - want to sit there cutting out 100 of them
13. Stickers also make good eyes, buttons etc
14. Simple stamps to dip in paint - e.g. using cutters, potato prints, bottle tops, bought foam stamps - are great for making lots quickly
15. There are loads of simple house hold items you can use for Christmas inspired sticking without spending a fortune on craft materials
16. You can pre-print basic elements on the card for the kids to decorate 
17. You can build all sorts of other fun learning, exploration ideas into the card making
18. There are loads of lovely hand made cards on e.g. Etsy that you can adapt into simple kid-friendly versions
19. Buttons are blinking brilliant for Christmas decorations of all sorts - root through your button jar or buy cheap packets of green, red and white ones
20. You don't have to stick to the Christmas colours the whole time - you can re-excite their interest with some totally different eye popping brights
21. You can make all sorts of lovely hand and foot print cards but don't make them over complicated
22. Think about what is going to survive the post! Save some lovely but fragiles ideas for ones that you hand deliver.
23. Let children do completely their own thing ... invite them to paint any picture they like of Christmas or if they need a more specific prompt, the manger, the shepherds

Christmas Card Ideas

I still remember fondly the cotton wool snowmen I made as a kid that were very similar to these fun but super simple cotton wool pad snowmen from Hands On As We Grow





Last year simple Christmas trees with glitter ... like these ones from Rainy Day Mum ...
were our biggest ... and prettiest ... hit.





These cards from Rosalind Grace Designs are a nice example of how you could pre-print certain elements on the cards that your kids then decorate.

I would like to use card making as an opportunity to talk about the nativity story so am going to try printing out some very simple nativity drawings e.g. 3 crowns, a lamb with a star, a manger, that can then be easily decorated with freestyle sticking and painting





I love these bottle top printed snowmen from Domestique Goddess - we will definitely be giving them a go. (She also has some other fab suggestions for bottle top play).





Cookie cutters ... as Life at the Zoo shows ... are a lovely, no-prep-required way to stamp Christmas shapes on your cards.





Potato prints ... like these from Making Boys Men ...are a great fun way to stamp lots of cards in different shapes if you don't have cutters. (Note to self: DO be careful carving potatoes with a sharp knife!)





Let kids who can, drawer and cut shapes for themselves as they will get more fun out it that way - Sun Hats and Wellie Boots






We took our crayons to the park at the weekend and did leaf prints - I love this idea from
True Aim Education of using them to make very simple trees that can then be decorated totally free style.




Snowflake making was a big hit in our house last year and I love the idea of using them as a stencil to wash or roller paint over for cards from At Home With Ali - hers are lovely but you could easily do a much simpler version if your kids are very young.




You can turn hand and foot prints into all sorts of images ... we did these Rudolf hand prints last year.

My advice would be don't expect to make too many of them as the initial fun will quickly rub off if you try to churn out loads. And do make use of googly eyes, stickers etc for essential details ... I didn't and greatly regretted it!




You really can make lovely things with buttons!

These from Dee Dee Campbell weren't made by kids but you could make a button snowman or santa as an example for the children or just give them a whole load of buttons and see what they come up with :-)





This lovely idea from Sharing a Passion on Etsy could easily be adapted into a kid friendly version with circles (cut by them or you) from old wrapping paper





There are all sorts of ways you can build some eye-popping brights into your Christmas cards - like these lovely button baubles from M&J.  Just remember you need strong glue for some things to survive the post.





You could use Christmas card making to explore sorting by size - these pretty cards from Lucys Cards are obviously not made by kids, but you could adapt the idea with some roughly pre-cut strips of different coloured paper or wrapping paper.

Obviously, you don't have to be zealous about the "right" order ...





After everything I have said about simple and freestyle, I do want to adapt this idea I found on Pinterest to do some very simple threading with a bodkin as it will be a fun way to introduce a new skill.

But I know that at most we will only get 3 or 4 cards out of the idea as I am not staying up all night to make another ten!


If you are not going to get a chance to make all your own cards, you can help support family producers in developing countries by buying beautiful fair trade cards this Christmas ... they won't be the cheapest cards, but they will ensure families receive a fair wage for their work ...



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More Christmas Ideas