It’s always fun to pull out some simple craft activities & family ideas during the holidays!

Nothing complicated — just something the kids enjoy creating and that usually involves something sparkly 🙂

And kids adore making ornaments to hang on the tree! 

I think we have more handmade ornaments on our tree that we do any other type.  We love going through them each year as we decorate and reflecting on when they were made.

We’ll frequently hear “I remember making this in Kindergarten!” which is amazing since they can’t remember to put their shoes away on most days 🙂

I admit, those nostalgic memories are wonderful at this time of year.  I remember being in second grade and having the whole class make paper stockings to hang on the class-made “brick” mantle!  It was fun to come to class each day and see our names hanging near that paper fireplace.

So when we joined 70 other creative bloggers this month to bring you some beautiful Kid-made Christmas Ornaments, I knew exactly what I wanted to make with the kids!

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Christmas Stocking Ornament Craft

During the 10 Days of Handmade Ornaments, you’ll find more than 75 ideas for fun Christmas ornaments that pair with many of your favorite kids holiday books! 

We love to encourage kids to bring books to life with creative ‘read the book, make a craft’ ideas.

For our story, we chose to feature 2 books! 

Come on, you must know by now that there’s no way I can ever decide on just ONE book to read 😉  And both of these stories have WONDERFUL illustrations too!

 

For younger kids, our favorite story was A Homemade Together Christmas because it shared all the wonderful, no-cost activities that families enjoy doing together during Christmas.  On the first page of the book, Momma even says that the “homemade ornaments are her favorite”!

 

All kids will enjoy learning the Legend of the Christmas Stocking which is an inspirational story about genorosity and why stockings are filled each Christmas. 

 

Paper Bag Christmas Stocking Ornament

Instead of using the traditional red paper to make the stockings, I wanted to create a more homemade, rustic look to our ornaments so we chose to create them using paper bags.

 

Here’s what you’ll need to make some of your own Stocking Ornaments:

• a brown paper bag or brown Kraft Paper

• a Hole Punch

• holiday-colored ribbon at least 5 times the length of your ornament

• glue & glitter (or Glitter Glue if you want to simplify things)

• a few cotton balls

 

Draw a stocking shape by hand or trace a small stocking you have at home onto the paper bag.  Then cut out 2 pieces (a front and a back) for your ornament.

 

Use your hole punch to make holes in both pieces of your stocking — you can space them as close together as you’d like (ours were about an inch apart).  Note: If your holes are close together, you may need a longer piece of ribbon.

I love using ribbon threading with kids as it’s such a great fine motor skill activity (for kids of all ages!).  This type of an activity helps to strenghten finger muscles.

You can thread the ribbon through the holes in one of two ways but ALWAYS begin your threading at the top left side of the stocking — see the above photo for visuals:

{On the left} The over & through method keeping the ribbon straight as you thread it through the holes.

{On the right} The in & around method wrapping threading the ribbon from behind the stocking, through the hole and then wrapping it around the stocking before bringing it through the next hole.

 

My daughter decided to use two colors of ribbon when making her stocking.  You can see how she’s using the wrap-around method as she threads the ribbon.

 

Once the ribbon is threaded through all the holes and brought back to the top, tie the two sides together to make a loop so the ornament can be hung on the tree.

 

Now comes the best part — DECORATING the stocking!

For the stocking above, we used glue to write out my initial and then covered it with red glitter.

 

My daughter chose to use glitter glue for her initial and also to decorate the heel and toe of the stocking.

And our last step, stretch out some cotton balls to use for the top of the stocking.

 

The BEST part of these ornaments — they act JUST like a stocking so you can tuck a treat inside each one 🙂

 

Here are a few other beautiful ornaments for the kids to create!

Wood Slice Ornament | Happy Brown House

Jingle Bell Ornament | Mosswood Connections

Harry Potter Potion Ornaments | Lemon Lime Adventures

Percy Jackson Ornaments | Lemon Lime Adventures

Swim Swim Ornament | Sunshine Whispers

Snowflake Ornament | Preschool Powol Packets

Baby Jesus Ornament | Modern Preschool

 

To follow along and see all 75+ ornaments, visit the 10 Days of Kid-Made Christmas page at Mama Miss blog!

 

Get Ready for the Holidays:

25 Ways to Slow Down & Enjoy the Holidays

30 Service Projects & RAKs for Families to do Together

100 Ideas for Your Advent Countdown

20 Great Stocking Stuffers for Kids