With the festive season fast approaching, House of Coco caught up with the team behind International Elf Service to get their top tips on 12 Christmas craft ideas that can make this December Extra-Special for the children as well the planet.
Here at Elf Towers, we eat, sleep and breathe Christmas 365 days of the year and 24-7. But even for us, there’s nothing that quite beats the festive taste bud explosion of that first mince pie when December finally arrives. Or the thrill of opening the decoration boxes and singing Santa Claus is Coming to Town on constant repeat. We get tingly with excitement just thinking about it!
And we don’t stop there! Each year we add to the Christmas cheer by thinking up new traditions for our ever-expanding Christmas list. This year, we’re getting Christmas creative with all the children…
Festive activities and Eco-friendly Christmas traditions
At International Elf Service, we all agree that the best part of Christmas is being together and creating memories to treasure. After all, your children probably look forward to these times more than their presents or the food! And the simpler the tradition, the better – for you and for the environment! So why not try one or two of our “12 Ways of Christmas” – a list of fun and sustainable things to do with your chidren to make Christmas even more magical:
- Make edible Christmas trees – cover upside-down ice-cream cones in green icing and sprinkles.
- Create a Christmas collage using cut-outs from last year’s Christmas cards. Leave it as a surprise for someone to find.
- Play Christmas charades with the whole family using only Christmas themes!
- Make edible reindeer poo – dip raisins in chocolate, cool to harden and sprinkle them on your breakfast cereal.
- Video each family member saying “My favourite thing about Christmas is …”. Put them together for a new Christmas memory.
- Make a mini Christmas tree forest – forage for different-sized pine cones, paint them green and add colourful decorations and a cut out star for the top.
- Make bird-friendly reindeer food – mix sunflower hearts, naked rolled oats, dried mealworms, yellow millet and kibbled peanuts. Sprinkle on your lawn or bird table, or leave outside in a bowl.
- Create natural Christmas decorations – weave twigs together with strips of bright material or wool to make stars, snowflakes or mini Christmas trees.
- Make homemade Christmas Crackers – wrap toilet roll tubes in leftover Christmas paper, tie the ends with colourful string, write your own joke, cut out a hat, and make or find a little gift for inside (no buying allowed!).
- Bake Gingerbread biscuits and have a Christmas Cookie decorating party.
- Design and decorate homemade Christmas cards using items from around the house – shiny buttons, tinsel, wrapping paper, ribbons, recycled material, colourful string etc.
- Draw or paint Christmas pictures and put them in the window for passers-by to enjoy. Or take them to a local home for the elderly (staying to talk with some of the residents).
About International Elf Service
International Elf Service is passionate about extending those precious believing years for longer, while supporting children’s well-being and literacy. Their unique, eco-friendly personalised letters combine magical and captivating stories with whimsical, handcrafted illustrations from the worlds of the Christmas Elves of the North Pole!
Featuring new adventures every time, each letter delivers the most fantastical surprise, sparking children’s imaginations, promoting one-to-one time and creating childhood memories and family traditions to be cherished for years to come.
Elfie’s Christmas Advent Letter Bundles are a multi-award-winning way to deliver Extra-Sparkly Christmas Spirit to your home. The Ultimate Story Bundle (link) acts just like an Advent Calendar, with 26 personalised daily letters bringing brand new updates from the North Pole, for your children to discover hidden mysteriously around their home! It also includes a North Pole Village Map and an Extra-Special Letter from the man himself (Father Christmas or Santa Claus – you choose)! And everything’s printed on 100% recycled paper, tied together with natural jute twine or biodegradable cotton candy-cane cord, and presented in compostable gift boxes filled with natural wood shavings from the Elves’ workshop (and sustainably managed forests, of course!).
For younger children, there’s a bundle of 7 handcrafted and personalised Christmas Elf letters, bursting with Christmassy activities for 3-5 year olds (link), and a Baby’s First Christmas Certificate for new additions to the family. (link) And everything can be paired with our Christmas Memory Box – 20 beautifully illustrated pages, one for each year for the next 20 years, for you to record the most magical moments, memories and traditions from Christmas Day – an enchanting gift for everyone in the family.
House of Coco recently caught up with Emily Beckloff, Founder & Chief Elf at International Elf Service, who told us all about her journey to becoming Chief Elf. Check out our interview with Emily here.
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