Fun Christmas Craft

We are getting into the Christmas season around our apartment! This time of year gets more exciting for Jonathan and myself the older the kids get. We love teaching the Christmas story, watching them get excited about all the shiny decorations, and helping them play with the manger scene. One of our favorite things to do during Christmas is to make Christmas crafts. Here's a fun one!

Your supplies will need include stiff white and green felt paper, red ribbon, small, red pompoms, a glue stick, and a pair of scissors.

Begin by stenciling Christmas trees on your white felt. Then stencil a half inch smaller tree on your green felt. I used patterns that I printed off the internet.

To assemble your Chrismas tree, place your green felt on top of the white felt and then cut a small whole through which you string the ribbon. End the project by gluing the small, red pompoms onto the tree. And you are done!!! This is a great project to do with kids. The older kids can do everything. For younger children, you can have things pre-cut and ready to assemble.

Oh, and one more thing...make sure you have a super cute helper to do this project with.

Here is how we explain the Christmas tree

and decorations to our children.

There are a lot of different stories of how the Christmas trees came into being, and I'm sure many of them have some merit to them. Most likely, the original idea was taken from the pagan holiday of Winter Solstice. However, it was then taken and used as part of the Christian celebrations. Jonathan and I use the following to explain the Christmas tree to our children. It's a great picture for their little minds.

In the middle ages, churches would use a tree decorated with red apples (todays red balls) to symbolize the tree of Paradise. Jonathan and I use this to talk about how Adam and Eve sinned and about how we all have sinned (Rom. 3:23). Later on in Europe, angels, stars, and ornaments representing the gifts of the wise men began being used. We use the ornaments to talk about the Christmas story. On December 1st we begin using a biblical view of the Advent, and read one part of Scripture a night about the Christmas story and about why we need Jesus Christ. It is so important for children to understand why we are celebrating Christmas. Even at a young age, they are able to understand why Jesus came.

Have a wonderful time preparing to celebrate Christ's birth with your family!