Christmas

Stained Glass Star Suncatcher

December 7, 2018 By Terri Thompson

We just love to make stained glass projects!

We’ve made them for almost every holiday and now for Christmas, it’s time for a Stained Glass Star Suncatcher.

Make a Stained Glass Star Suncatcher to decorate your windows for Christmas or any time of the year. This easy craft is perfect for kids of all ages.

The process to make this Stained Glass Star Suncatcher is easy and is perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and even elementary-aged kids.

It’s not too messy and it’s a great quick craft for when you only have a small amount of time.

Disclosure: CraftProjectIdeas.com provided some the supplies for this post. All ideas are my own. This post also contains Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links. Please see my Disclosure Page for more details.

Supplies Needed

Clear Contact Paper
Blue and yellow construction paper
Glitter in shaker bottles
Yellow tissue paper

How to make a Stained Glass Star Suncatcher

Use your blue and yellow construction paper to cut out star outlines.

I folded the paper in half before we drew the stars so we could get two stars from each piece of paper. Feel free to make these even bigger if you’d like!

Each girl made two stars, one yellow and one blue.

Cut 2 pieces of Contact Paper for each project, according to the size of your stars. Peel the backing off of one piece of Contact Paper and place it sticky side up on your table. Tape the corners down so that it doesn’t go sliding all over the place.

Place your star outlines on the Contact Paper. Try not to get too close to the edge, you’ll need a little bit of on overlap.

Use your glitter shakers to add a bit of sparkle to the inside of your stars. Use a little or a lot!

You’ll notice that we are working on top of an old sheet. I highly recommend this to help catch any extra glitter and make clean up easier.

After the stars are all glittered, Tear pieces of your tissue paper and layer it over the glitter. Try to keep all of the tissue paper inside the star outlines.

Add the second piece of Contact Paper over top, smoothing out all wrinkles as you go. I usually do this step myself because it can get tricky.

Cut out your stars leaving a bit of Contact Paper around the edge so that it doesn’t start unpeeling.

Hang your stained glass star in the window and let the sun shine through.

I love the final look! Don’t you?

It’s such a fun decoration on our big windows.

My Must-Have Christmas Activities Resource

If you’re anything like me, I know you’re looking for fun family activities to do this Christmas. But, not just anything. I’m not looking for elaborate and I’m definitely not looking for something that would require a million trips to the craft store.

That’s why I just love Countdown to Christmas – 24 Activities, Crafts, and Recipes to Countdown to Christmas by Cerys Parker from Rainy Day Mum. The activities are simple (you won’t find anything elaborate) and definitely fun. They’re perfect for families. And, they’re perfect for the advent season.

This fabulous resource for Christmas family fun can be purchased here. Take a peek, you’ll love it!

Are you looking for more kids activities?

Join our fun Facebook community, Creative Family Fun for Busy Families, for daily activities that are great for kids and families. We’ll chat, share, and have fun. It’s a safe and private place to share ideas for family and kids activities.

I’d love for you to join me! Just click the link below, request to join, and answer the questions (they’re easy, I promise). Come join the fun! Join the Creative Family Fun for Busy Families community here.

Christmas Science Experiments for Kids

December 5, 2018 By Terri Thompson

You can learn and have fun this holiday season with these fun Christmas science experiments for kids.

These ideas are fun for kids of all ages and will teach them some fun science concepts. Explore physics, chemistry, and more.

You can grow crystals to make pretty ornaments for your tree. Or try a little chemistry while you enjoy a warm cup of cocoa.

Learn and have fun this holiday season with these fun Christmas science experiments for kids. Try new ideas or fun twists on classic experiments.

Check out the fun ideas below, grab some supplies, and have fun learning!

Disclosure: There are Amazon Affiliate and other affiliate links in this article which means, at no additional cost to you, we could receive compensation for our recommendations. You can read our full disclosure policy on our Disclosure Page for more details.

Fun Christmas Science Experiments

Try a Christmas twist on a fun baking soda and vinegar experiment with our fun Grow the Grinch’s Heart Science Experiment.

Find out how temperature affects the rate at which something dissolves with our Hot Chocolate Science Experiment.

Experiment with dissolving candy canes in different liquids with this science experiment from Lemon Lime Adventures.

Try a Christmas version of the classic magic milk experiment from Fun Learning for Kids.

Make some Christmas themed lava lamps with this idea from Science Sparks.

Engage your sense of smell with this fun Christmas sensory science project from EDventures with Kids.

Grow salt crystals and make a fun Christmas ornament at the same time with this fun Salt Crystal Gingerbread Science activity from Little Bins for Little Hands.

Or experiment with Borax crystals to make these pretty Crystal Icicles from Happy Hooligans.

More Fun Christmas Science Activities

Explore magnets with this fun Christmas Ornaments Science activity from Little Bins for Little Hands.

Explore physics with these fun Rudolph Balloon Races from 123Homeschool 4 Me.

Use science to bend a candy cane with this experiment from Preschool Powol Packets.

How much water does a Christmas tree drink? Find out with this simple science project from Mama Smiles.

Grow your own Christmas tree sponge with this fun idea from Gift of Curiosity.

Experiment with static Electricity with this fun Magic Clinging Bow experiment from Schooling a Monkey.

Do a Christmas version of the classic oil and water experiment with this science activity from Inspiration Laboratories.

Which of these fun Christmas science experiments are you going to try with your kids?

More fun science activities to try:

Fun Popcorn Science Experiments for Kids

Hockey Science Experiment

Jack Be Nimble Science Experiment

Chemical Reactions with Pennies

My must-have resources for science fun:

If you love to have science and STEM projects on hand, but don’t always have time to prep, why not give a subscription box a chance. I love Green Kid Crafts for this reason. The boxes are packed full of projects that are fun and inviting. You can choose to get a subscription or a one-off box based off of a specific theme.

Here are some of our favorites (you can purchase and find out more at each link):

Get a monthly subscription.

Kitchen Science Box

Physics Box

Find all their fun STEM boxes here.

Are you looking for more kids activities?

Salt Dough Snowman Ornament

December 3, 2018 By Terri Thompson

Every year we like to make new ornaments for our Christmas tree. This year, we decided to make these fun Salt Dough Snowman ornaments.

These are so easy to make for kids of all ages. Plus salt dough ornaments are great choices because they pack away easily and look great year after year.

Are you ready to make some fun Christmas crafts? Grab some supplies and let’s get started creating!

This Salt Dough Snowman ornament will make a great addition to your Christmas tree. This fun kids craft makes a great holiday keepsake.

Supplies Needed:

A batch of your favorite salt dough recipe

Toothpick

White craft paint

Hot glue gun and glue

Buttons

Additional colors of craft paint

Twine

For this project, we used the Quickest Ever Salt Dough recipe from Rainy Day Mum since we did not have all day to work on this project. It worked great and we were ready to decorate our snowmen much sooner than if we would have used a traditional recipe.

How to make a salt dough snowman ornament

Once you have your salt dough recipe made, make three balls of salt dough. You’ll want them to be three different sizes each one a little bigger than the other.

Flatten each salt dough ball into a circle. The thicker the circle, the longer it will take to dry. But, make sure it’s not too thin or it will break easily. Ours were between 1/8 and 1/4 inches thick.

Line your circles up and overlap the edges to get a snowman shape. Squish your overlapped edges together a bit so that they dry all in one piece.

Use your toothpick to make a small hole in the top of your snowman’s head.

Now it’s time to let your salt dough dry and harden.

Decorate your salt dough snowman

After your ornaments are dry, use the white craft paint to paint your entire snowman white. Let your paint dry.

If you desire, you can use another color of craft paint to paint your snowman’s face. One of my daughters wanted to paint a face, the other waited to create her face out of buttons.

After the paint is dry, use your hot glue gun to attach your buttons all the way down your snowman.

We used hot glue because our salt dough snowman ornaments will be packed away each year and I wanted to make sure the buttons stayed put. Plus, both of my daughters are able to use a hot glue gun safely.

If you don’t want to use hot glue, any type of glue should work.

Finally, string some twine through your hole and hang your snowman on your tree.

They look so great on the tree!

My Must-Have Christmas Activities Resource

This fabulous resource for Christmas family fun can be purchased here. Take a peek, you’ll love it!

Are you looking for more kids activities?

Fun Christmas Paper Plates for the Kids’ Table

November 29, 2018 By Terri Thompson

Whether you don’t have enough tableware for all your Christmas guests or are looking for something that won’t break for your younger guests, you may want to turn to Christmas paper plates for your holiday dinner.

I know, I know… that seems just too casual.

But… maybe… it’s not.

Check out all these fun choices of Christmas paper plates for the kids’ table. They’re fun, festive, elegant, and all are kid-friendly. Let’s set our table with style!

Fun Christmas Paper Plates

The kids will love this set of fun Gingerbread cookies disposable dinnerware.

Or, you can choose this festive red and white snowflake dinnerware set.

Santa is a great theme for the kids table, so these blue Santa paper plates and napkins would be a fun choice.

Also, these Santa belly paper plates are another fun Santa Claus choice.

Festive Christmas Paper Plates

These Christmas lights paper plates will look great on any table.

If you’re looking for something a little bit elegant, but still fun for kids, try these gold dot plates and tableware.

Kids will absolutely love these fun peppermint paper plates that look just like fun Christmas candy.

Or, you can get some paper plates based on a fun Christmas movie, like these fun Grinch paper plates.

Christmas Tree Paper Plates

These red-rimmed Christmas tree plates are a classic choice and would look good on both the kids’ table and the adults’ table.

Or you could choose these modern Christmas tree plates that are just a bit whimsical. They even come with fun gold knives, spoons, and forks.

These buffalo plaid tree plates will make you feel like you’re having Christmas dinner at the cabin.

Traditional is also good and these pretty Christmas tree paper plates will look great on any table.

Which of these fun Christmas paper plates are you going to use this year?

Are you looking for fun kids activities?

Healthy Christmas Treats for School

November 28, 2018 By Terri Thompson

There are a lot of challenges when it comes to planning a school party.

One challenge is that you can only use store-bought treats. And it’s not always easy to combine store-bought and healthy.

Luckily, with just a bit of crafty ingenuity, you can bring in some fun and healthy Christmas treats for school that the kids will love.

Healthy Christmas Treats for School

Turn packaged string cheese into cute String Cheese Snowmen like this fun idea from No Biggie.

You can transform an applesauce cup into a fun holiday treat when you make these Rudolph applesauce cups from The Melrose Family.

Or you can make another Rudolph treat when you turn little oranges into these healthy reindeer treats from Hello Splendid.

Provide the kids with a healthy drink of milk when you create these fun Snowman Milk Chugs from Creative Kid Snacks.

These free Melted Snowman Water Bottle Labels from That’s What Che Said will turn simple water into a fun holiday treat.

Healthy Snacks for School Parties

Let the kids fill these fun Snowman Popcorn Cups from Creative Kid Snacks from bags of store-bought popcorn.

Or, the kids can use a store-bought veggie tray to fill these cute Vegetable Christmas Party Cups from My Mommy Style.

Use a few simple decorations to turn Babybel Cheese into cute Santa Bellies like this idea from Cute Food for Kids.

It’s easy to turn fruit cups into cute snowman faces with this idea from Bren Did.

Or you can use those fruit cups to make cute Fruit Cup Santa Snacks like this idea from That’s What Che Said.

Any of these fun healthy Christmas treats for school would be a great hit in the classroom. Plus, you’ll feel better because you’re not feeding the kids endless amounts of sugar.

There’s got to be balance, right?

Healthy Christmas Snack Resources

With just a little bit of creativity, you can make any healthy snack festive. If you’re short on time, here are some great holiday bags and containers to put your healthy Christmas treats for school.

Christmas