Christmas Around the World Crafts
In December we do a lot of crafting along with our homeschool studies. Last year, in addition to our regular studies we took a trip around the world- Christmas style! We read various books about how other countries celebrate the Christmas season and made a Christmas themed craft or activity to help us remember each country. We visited six countries during our Christmas trip around the world-- Germany, Sweden, Mexico, Philippines, England, and China. Here are a few books and online resources we found helpful:
- Christmas Around the World Facts at Why Christmas.Com
- Christmas Around the World by Mary Lankford
- Celebrate Christmas Around the World by Beth Stevens
- Christmas Around the World by Emily Kelley
- Christmas Around the World Series {Germany, England, etc.} by Jack Manning or Cherly Enderlein
Germany Christmas Craft for Kids
Germany is known as the Gingerbread Capital of the World, so to help us remember we made a gingerbread house ornament made from cardboard. To make one yourself, cut a house shape from cardboard and decorate with glitter glue, buttons, tissue paper, left-over candy, etc!
Sweden Christmas Ornament for Kids
An important day in Sweden is the celebration of St. Lucia's Day on December 13th. St. Lucia was a young Christian girl martyred for her faith. It is said she wore candles on her head to keep her hands free to carry food for the needy. The tradition is that young girls dress in a white gown with a candle crown, and young boys, named 'Star Boys' wear a white gown and a hat covered in stars. To help us remember the importance of St. Lucia's Day to the Swedes, we made a St. Lucia and Star Boy Ornament from peg dolls. We painted both dolls white. Added a colorful sash to both dolls. For the 'Star Boy' we made a cone shaped hat and covered it with hole punched stars For St. Lucia we made her crown by using a pipe cleaner for the base and folded small strips of yellow pipe cleaners in half to make the candles.
Mexico Christmas Ornament for Kids
We read that the popular Christmas flower, the Poinsettia comes from Mexico so we made a simple and beautiful paper tube Poinsettia ornament. To make one, you need to paint a paper tube red. Once dried, cut the paper tube into thin circles. Press the circle together and flatten it to make a leaf-like shape. Do this six times. Glue one end of the leaf-like shape together with a hot glue gun and continue until you have 6 "petals". We added a bit of glitter and painted the inside of the tube as well.
Christmas in Philippines
The most popular Christmas decoration in the Philippines is a Parol- a star lantern. We made our version of this colorful decoration using craft sticks and ribbon. We hot glued five thin craft sticks into the shape of a star and attached colorful gift ribbon to the corners.
Christmas in England
A fun family tradition in England is Christmas Crackers-- a colorful tube filled with a present and/or treat. The "fun" is in opening the cracker as it makes a loud "pop!" when opened! I created our own Christmas Crackers {minus the loud noise} by wrapping some treats in a paper tube and wrapping it with gift wrap and ribbon. You can be sure my kiddos loved this!
Christmas in China
Christmas isn't widely recognized throughout China as only a small population are Christians; however, if people do celebrate they adorn their Christmas trees with paper chains, paper flowers, and/or paper lanterns. We chose to make paper lanterns. We used 5x7 card stock to create mini lanterns based on this lantern tutorial.
To make your Christmas trip around the World more educational, you can also:
- find the country on the map
- check out google translate to hear the language
- color a paper ornament like the country's flag
- make a festive holiday dish unique to that country to work on math skills!
- copy work popular Christmas carol for writing practice
Meaningful Christmas Fun for Christian Families
If you are looking for a meaningful way to spend the month of December focused on Jesus’ birth and what it means for the salvation of the world you are going to want to get Craft & Pray Around the World! You will learn about 24 countries around the world including their Christmas traditions, how to practically pray for the people, and a simple ornament craft to represent the country you focused on.
More Christmas Fun
- Reindeer Hand Print Ornament and Poem
- Christmas Tree Addition
- Christmas Star Ornament Craft (beautiful!)
- Favorite Christmas Tree Craft for Kids
- Grinch Crafts for Kids
Kristina once thought of going into education, but changed her mind a few years in to her degree. Ironically, she now has her hands full as a homeschooling mother of four. With children of various ages from infant to 7, she shares a variety of educational and play activities for babies through elementary age children on School Time Snippets. Follow along on Facebook and Pinterest. 
