Natural Christmas Tree Decorations

[Guest]

Has anyone got any ideas on making natural treedcorations with nursery children? I was wondering how to dry fruits to hang on the tree plus any other bright ideas.

[AnonyMouse_79]

I've made salt dough shapes, baked hard and painted and decorated but is that natural enough!?

other things that spring to mind are painted pine cones and plaster of paris leaf shapes etc (press leaf or cone etc into plasticene and then pour in plaster of paris) and strings of monkey nuts or popcorn, but not sure how easy they would be?

Good luck & have fun!

[Guest alisonjayne]

You can dry apple and orange slices by putting them in a very low oven in a similar way to salt dough.

How about twigs tied to make star shapes a little fiddly for tiny fingers but we make natural mobiles for Autumn and a lot of our children were able with support to tie knots.

Ali

[AnonyMouse_3735]

how about an orange stuck with cloves, this too can be very fiddly but our children managed it last year - tip - have adult make hole with a cocktail stick to push cloves into. (could be heavy for a tree though!!!)

 

 

reminds me of when my son came home so proud of his lovely tree decoration, made of clay, covered in glitter and paint and carefully varnished with PVA. It went on the tree on a low branch and was so heavy the branch bent down until it rested on the floor, the cat thought it a new toy and tried to play with it and we just rescued it before the dog tried to run off with it. its still hung up every year 17 years on but not on a tree. (son's 20 now)

 

Inge

[AnonyMouse_79]

OH Inge, what a lovely picture that is!

[AnonyMouse_1007]

Hmmm, natural decorations. Well, I lived in Scandinavia for a while and I remember using fir cones to make little Christmas elves or Santa type figures. We would use red felt to make a hat and cotton wool to make a beard. (It was just a head) You could use whatever takes your fancy to make eyes! A bit of red thread to hang on the tree. We also made similar figures with a short length of tree branch- usually birch! About 1-2cm across and 6-8 cm long. Attach the usual red felt for hat and cotton wool for beard. These figures can stand around in little groups on windowsills or mantlepiece looking charming!!!?

cas

[AnonyMouse_3307]

it's not entirely natural but I loved making mexican stars as a child.... 2 pieces of wood crossed over and then weave/wrap wool around the sticks to build up a pattern, like a very close weaved spiders web idea. And yes, my mum still puts the big one at the top of the tree at home!! I think the idea originally came to me via Blue Peter........so own up - who else had the coat hanger/tinsel advent candle thing in their house?

[AnonyMouse_2732]

I tried!! I could never get them to hang right!!!

 

Sue

[Guest]

Wire coat hangers - weren't they fab I remember making a Christmas wreath with a coat hanger and green bin bags (we must have been really poor - or sad). I thought it looked fantastic with a bit of 'snow' sprayed on and a bit of red ribbon and a couple of baubles.

 

Sorry I know it's not natural - in danger of getting side tracked into a blue peter memorial

 

Pine cones are really easy and always look great - bit of glue and glitter or spray snow. Easy peasy.

 

Harricroft

[AnonyMouse_1027]

we do salt dough ones..................

[Guest]

Thanks everyone I have got lots of ideas. We tried threading popcorn last year but it was really hard for the adults let alone the children but i hadn't thought about using monkey nuts but will give them a go!!!!

[Guest]

Not sure about "natural"

 

We make soap flake decorations.

 

Last year the pre-school children made 3D soapflake snowmen, using tiny black beads and orange bugle beads for noses, tie some ribbon of the child's choice around it's neack as a scarf ( Ithink I have posted a pic in the gallery!!)

 

This year I will be with the 2-3 children and we have already made bread trees. Cut the bread, using a suitable cutter, make a large hole and let it dry overnight.

(at least) Next day encourage the children to paint the trees with a mix of paint and PVA (I have done this as part of out autumn topic too, using red, orange paint etc and leaf shaped sequins).

Make susre the bread is totally covered in the paint and PVA mix, then place it in a bowl of glitter, we used green, shake the glitter on and remove to dry. We have added coloured sequins (round ones) on the tree and a star on the top. Thread a piece of silver, gold etc ribbon or thread through the hole.

 

The week after next when our tree goes up we will be making stained glass decorations. I do it using a basic cookie dough recipe, cutting into a suitably festive shape and cutting a corresponding centre hole(I have various sizes of many cookie cutters). I then add a boiled friut sweet and bake in the oven. The result is fab!!

 

I have loads of ideas, but have just come to a complete blank. Always the way with me

 

Hope this might help someone.

 

Jan

[Guest]

Some great ideas, any more good ideas for Reception children - I want to do something different!!

[AnonyMouse_2127]

I like the idea of bread trees jambo - going to try it when we start our Xmas activities.

 

Sue J

[Guest]

Thanks Jambo

I love the idea of using bread. Our topic is Materials and I am sure this will fi in there somewhere. Keep the ideas coming ,pplease

[AnonyMouse_3139]

For those of you who dont have much time or space for storing items that cant be decorated straight away, Ikea sell 10 star biscuits complete with hole for ribbon for 40p.

[Guest alisonjayne]

thanks JamboI am going to try the bread trees. We collected lots of fir cones on our walk this morning reading to cever with glitter, but might also try the scandinavian santas too.

Can't wait to hear more ideas

[Guest]

i've just done a variation of the bread trees- the chidlren used a variety of seasonal cutters to stamp out their bread shapes- we had bells, santa, trees and stars. They look very effective, cheap and less messier than salt dough and the whole process is faster.

[AnonyMouse_2760]

I was going to suggest fir cones - www.enchantedlearning.com have some ideas for Christmas crafts

[Guest]

We have used star shaped pasta before, we get the children to paint it with gold or silver paint and then let it dry. The star shape of the pasta enables easy threading and it looks very pretty.

[Guest]

We ve made the bread shapes, trees, stars etc. But instead os painting them when they're dry we dip them in PVA and then glitter. They look fabP.S. I don't know if I done this right I've never answered anything before and it all looks so complicated!!!!

Edited October 30, 2005 by Guest

[Guest]

I like the idea of bread trees jambo  - going to try it when we start our Xmas activities.

 

Sue J

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[AnonyMouse_705]

Like the idea for bread shapes -just wondered if instead of drying the shapes overnight would it speed things up a bit by either toasting the bread first or, if that would make it too difficult to the children to cut, toasting the shapes after so they could be decorated straightaway?

 

Deb