xmas crafts to keep tweens occupied?

This is my situation: I've got a 11 y.o. nephew and a 13 y.o. neice that I've got to keep busy @ Christmas. As most 11 and 13 y.o.'s, they'll be bored to death @ Christmas being around a bunch of adults, so I want to come up with a craft that keeps them out of the kitchen and also occupied.

Part of the plan is to keep them busy while watching a movie while they eat dinner, but I also wanted to come up with some sort of craft to keep their attention going, and the end result is something that they can contribute to the holiday.

It's kind of a tricky age where I can't get them to do 'kiddy' things any more. Any ideas?

 

make a wreath out of hands and paint green paint. for the berries use your index finger .. very simple easy craft

 

Well, seeing that your such a cool aunt have them make "peace pipes". When they get enough of them made everyone can sit around and smoke just like the Indi... shoot I was thinking of Thanksgiving, could you have them come for Thanksgiv... no wait Jesus was a Hippy and it's his Birthday, so I'd think it should be all good.

I remember making C-mas trees out of Readers Digests. All you do is fold the top corner of every page. Open the book so the front cover and back cover are mated and tape or glue. Mist with spray paint (green?), then decorate with sparkles or other craft things. I saw a picture of one that someone had put a candle in the top of. It looked pretty neat, but a paper candle holder just seems like a bad idea. Good luck.

 

The green-paint-hand-print wreaths sounds like a cool craft, but may be a bit more appropriate for younger kids, not so much for a 13 year old to do... But the Digest mag pages tree may kind of be a clever idea....

And hey, as far as the paper candle holder thing - what's Christmas w/o a room in your house burning down?

 

We made walking sticks with the tweens at the library. Use some nice long sticks (about 4-6 feet). Let the kids use sand paper to make the ends smooth. Then they can paint them in fun ways, attach sparkles, feathers, beads, whatever. It can take hours to complete. It's not really Christmasy, but it's fun and time consuming.

 

You could pre-bake them each a set of small gingerbread house pieces and let them build their own. That's what I plan to do with my kids...Just give them royal icing bags and some mixed candy. If you're woried about the furniture, just throw a sheet down before they start.

 

Or, even easier, make "ginger bread" houses out of graham crackers. I'm quite lazy.:tongue:

 

do you guys do a nice sit-down x-mas dinner? maybe have the two of them make name placards for everyone's seats (can be as elaborate or simple as you like), or make some creative napkin holders, or dress up the table with candles or flowers/greenery, etc.

my mom had me lead some of my underfoot little cousins in this sort of activity a couple of thanksgivings ago, and it made them feel very useful. we collected evergreen sprigs and red and orange berries from our yard, but fake plants could work too.

really, as long as it's something everyone else will notice (and comment on what a nice job they did), kids will put more effort and attention into it (and time! hahahaha!!!)

 

Heres a link for Cookie Pops. I think these could be fun to make. The ingredients / supplies can all be found at the grocery store.

http://crafterscommunity.com/view/187/Fun_Winter_Cookie_Pops.html


Let us know what you come up with!

 

For Christmas one year, my aunt got us a craft box with a craft book that had a TON of different stuff. The craft box had popsicle sticks, feathers, random paper, crayons, all kinds of stuff.

It's 101 crafts for kids to do and it's an amazing book! I can send it to you if you want.

 

Not sure if it would really be considered a "craft", but my cousins and I would always have fun working on a big 500-1000 piece puzzle while the adults were in the kitchen. Hell, we still love doing puzzles together during Christmas and most of us are adults now.