Green or eco-friendly crafts for children using recycled or upcycled (repurposing a waste material into a product of higher quality materials) are plentiful this holiday season. In addition to being better for the environment, crafting from items found around the house has the added benefit of being economical.
No Time for Flashcards is one of my favorite blogs for finding activities to do with young children. No all posts are green, but three posts that do fit that category include recycled Christmas tree using paper from an old catalog, A “Bow”tiful Christmas tree made out of a grocery bag and misshapen present bows, and a Bell Christmas ornament made from an Easter egg. All three are great crafts for toddlers and preschoolers. My kids, ages 3 and 5, and I made some of the recycled Christmas trees using magazine pages earlier this week.
Photo credit: No Time for Flashcards
For little ones who like to paint, why not try painting holiday cards or making your own wrapping paper using paints made from berries and beets! The Green Art Project has a tutorial for making your own natural paints using fruits and vegetables you may already have in the house.
Over at This and That, there’s another idea for making your own gift wrap. Money Saving Mom also suggests having the kids help make homemade wrapping paper.
Here’s a beautiful and easy craft from Maya*Made to hang on the tree – a “snow”-covered pinecone ornament.
Photo credit:Maya*Made
There are a lot of fun ornaments that can be made with a burnt-out incandescent light bulb. It’s upcycling at it’s finest! There’s a snowman face ornament, Rudolph the recycled light bulb, the light bulb penguin, and there are some more cute ideas over at Keep’n the SunnySide. You could also keep it simple and let your child paint and glue whatever they want on the light bulb.
Photo credit: Crafts by Amanda
Summer at Wired for Noise suggests embroidering pictures on old pillow cases and had fun teaching her son the handicraft.
Another craft idea that we’ve tried in our house is transforming old, broken crayons into new crayons. The Red, White and Green says you don’t need to spend $30 on a Crayola Crayon Maker (made of nearly four pounds of plastic) to do it either. If you want to make holiday-themed crayons, you just need some holiday candy molds. Zakka Life has a tutorial on how to recycle old crayons into new crayons using candy molds. You can also just use muffin tins for round crayons. Raising Maine also suggests making the recycled crayons into ornaments.
Photo credit: Raising Maine
Older children may enjoy stringing popcorn or cranberries on wire or thread as garland to be hung on the Christmas tree. When the tree is taken down, the edible garland can be strung outside for the birds or put into your compost bin.
Another fun idea for a craft and/or gift for older children from Little Birdie Secrets is felted soap. “You cover a bar of soap with this fabulous wool fiber, then felt it, and you have a soap and washcloth in one!”
Photo credit: Little Birdie Secrets
Celebrate Green Blog recently came across some eco-friendly holiday crafts from Family Fun magazine using upcycled materials, including retro ornaments made from toilet paper rolls, Christmas carolers made from toilet paper rolls, holey socks and old sheet music, and a Flame-free menorah.
Photo credit: Family Fun
Lastly, there are some creative recycled craft ideas over at Monkey See Monkey Do including a milk carton nativity or Christmas village and a mop-head Santa, as well as coat hanger snowmen and reindeer and a trash bag wreath.
Looking for more green craft ideas? Check out Books make great gifts for green crafters over at Crafting a Green World. She suggests Green Crafts for Children: 35 Step-by-Step Projects Using Natural, Recycled, And Found Materials by Emma Hardy especially for green mamas and their green girls.
Have more eco-friendly holiday craft ideas for kids? Please share them in the comments.
Cross-posted on BlogHer.
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December 10th, 2009 at 4:22 pm
peppylady says:
People are more creative when they wrap there gifts now. I believe.
Coffee is on.
December 10th, 2009 at 8:23 pm
Bet says:
Great ideas!
We did the crayons for preschool gifts 9 years ago (yikes). Used paper liners and had monster crayons. Love the ornament idea.
We did felted soap 2 years ago. Very well received. It’s great to take camping or for a gardener because it’s a good scrubbie. The only thing we didn’t like was that the all natural dyes ran when you used them. Oh well, still fun.
Keep em coming Amy.
December 11th, 2009 at 7:18 am
RobbieLee at Chickiedee says:
I just love when people use recycled and/or upcycled materials to create new and wonderful things… especially for the Holidays!
December 11th, 2009 at 10:13 am
Tara @ Go Green St. says:
Thanks for the ideas. My kids love crafts and I run out of ideas often!
December 11th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
erica says:
i recall melting broken crayons and adding a wick… crayon candles.
December 11th, 2009 at 2:33 pm
Ann says:
Just be careful if you start melting crayons. I used to make lots of those. I got seriously nasty headaches! It was a weird sinus thing. Must have been the chemicals.
If you try it, just do a little bit at a time. :) I actually never did it again because I was so worried about the odd mixture of crayon materials and what it did to my nose. I even wonder if it lead to my strange bout of sinus infections eventually. Yikes!
Ann
December 11th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Amanda says:
Thanks for the mention and the link! Glad you enjoyed the penguin light bulb :)
December 13th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
phyllis says:
what a fun and inspired list! thanks for sharing. i think these are great for year-round crafting and gifting.
December 14th, 2009 at 3:29 pm
Amy says:
Wow.. just found this.. super cool you linked to me. Thanks!
December 22nd, 2009 at 5:48 pm
Top 10 Cigars says:
The homemade crayons are so awesome! I think they are great gifts to hang on the tree, and the kids can even color with them when they are done using them as ornaments. I sure do love that idea!
-Sylvia
January 24th, 2010 at 7:22 pm