Pine Cone Christmas Crafts For Children

Last year our kindergarten made these cute little pine cone angels and Christmas trees with the children and hung them in the windows. The are so simple that toddlers can make them and are fun to decorate.

You will need:

Pine cones (obviously!)

Paint

Beads

Glue

Glitter in silver, gold or red

Ribbon or coloured string

Small wooden or polystyrene balls

Gold doilies

For the Christmas Trees:

Paint the pine cones with green paint. While the paint is still wet, sprinkle the tips with glitter. 

Leave to dry then glue coloured beads onto the tips as the baubles. 

Finish by glueing or tying a lenth of coloured string or ribbon to the top so that you can hang your decoration.

For the Angels:

Holding the pine cone flat side up, dab the tips with coloured glitter glue or with glue and sprinkle with glitter. You may want to balance the pine cone in a small cup to keep it steady and allow you to use both hands.

Draw a face onto the wooden or polystyrene ball and glue it to the centre of the flat surface, as in the photo. Next cut some lengths of wool, string or ribbon for the hair and glue it in place. 

Fold the doilie into quarters and then cut out two quarters. Glue them to the back of the angel, gold side facing outwards. 

Finish by glueing or tying a lenth of coloured string or ribbon to the angel so that you can hang your decoration.

A Festive Jar Of Walnuts

This is a simple but very effective way to brighten up a shelf, ledge, mantelpiece or windowsill for the festive season. 

Just fill a kilner jar with walnuts (pine cones or chesttnuts would work either), tie a gingham ribbon round the neck of the jar and place it on a surface with a backdrop of holly, ivy and other greenery of your choice.

Nostalic Christmas Decorations

I've spent the day getting Christmas sorted - the goose and other meats ordered, the presents bought and wrapped, the cards written and posted. I set myself a tough goal and I got through a surprisingly large number of the items on my to do list, but not everything.

Tomorrow we are buying the tree and I had hoped to root out all the decorations in the cellar. But time just hasn't allowed for that. I had to tick off other equally important items like listening to Micheal Buble's  Christmas album and drinking mulled wine while revising my list. 

We have a big selection of decorations that has been built up over the years - Newbridge silver gifts, blue and white ceramic baubles from a trip to Amsterdam, Villeroy and Boch glass mistletoe pendants, as well as several pieces from Christmas markets. 

This weekend, the collection was added to with a couple of lovely nostalgic pieces from the Christmas market in Regensburg, Bavaria. My dad was visiting and treated his older two grandsons to their choice of decoration each from a stall with a huge and varied selection of nostalgic decorations.

Number One chose a cute little squirrel while Number Two chose about five different things before settling on an igloo. 

I love that they didn't go straight for the snowmen or Santas. And I'm relieved that they didn't opt for the fire engines or police cars. 

I was so busy taking it all in, I completely neglected to buy anything for myself. I did put my eye on this gorgeous deer, although he is rather large for hanging on a tree. 

Just look at the colours! Not to everyone's taste, I imagine, but they are so vibrant and eye-catching, aren't they? 

They remind me of the delicate baubles my parents had when I was very small. One would always break, either being hung or being taken down on Little Christmas. Fingers crossed the squirrel and the igloo with survive a few Christmases!