Every year we like to make the kids’ grandparents and great-grandparents some sort of Christmas craft or ornament. This year, I had a ton of popsicle sticks and wanted to somehow include a picture of the two of them. That’s how these sweet little santa houses and nativities were born. I ended up using their picture with santa for the houses and we put on some nativity costumes (white cloth and mama’s headbands) to stage a scene for the nativity ornament. Grandparents – act surprised when you see these next week! Sorry for spoiling it. 🙂
This craft has a lot of different steps to it, but it’s easy to put together and there are a lot of things both of my kids were able to help with. We ended up making nine (crazy!), so it took us a while, but if you’re only making a couple, you’re golden.
Now, on to the steps we took to make these. I started with the popsicle sticks and used my hot glue gun to create the below formation (you’ll notice the nativity’s roof is wider and shorter – please refer to the final photos to make the nativity ornamnet). I did this prior to the kids painting them because it was much easier to get done beforehand and I wanted the kids to focus on some of the fun aspects of the craft.
After gluing them all together, I had the kids paint the houses red and the nativities in a sheer gold. We let them dry and attached the pictures to card stock and glued them behind the base of the house. We also glued a triangular piece of card stock behind the top parts of the houses and nativities. Next, we cut little doors out of construction paper and glued them to the sides of the base of the house, leaving a small slit in the middle to allow the doors to open, but still hide the picture.
We used black construction paper to create little door knobs and then the kids helped glue cotton balls to the roof of the santa houses and glitter to the tops of the nativities. I used letter stamps to write “O Holy Night” and “Santa’s House” on small pieces of construction paper to attach on each ornament. Lastly, I glued a piece of tied twine to the backs of the ornaments.
If you end up making these, I’d love to see your ornaments – please tag me on Instagram or Facebook! I hope you enjoy making all of the fun things with your kids this Christmas!!
Marina Makes 