Christmas Elf Craft + Reindeer Craft

Our schools often do these “craft rotations” during the holidays, where each small group or class has a craft to do and the kids cycle through, and have a bunch of cute crafts by the end of it. And if they don’t do that, they still do a few Christmas crafts during the week before Christmas break.

Halos sent me some super cute, easy, and inexpensive craft ideas that would be perfect for these types of activities(Thanks, Halos!). I’m going to share two here: an elf craft and a reindeer craft. And bonus: they are made with Halos, so we’re not adding even more candy to all the holiday celebrations.

The Halos reindeer craft can be done in about 5 minutes or less(or possibly a little longer if you’re working with a kindergarten class who is trying to shape reindeer ears with their little fingers), while the elf craft could take up to 15 minutes, less if you make patterns for the different pieces… I’m a fan of not making patterns so that they kids can create something unique (and because I’ve been in charge of craft rotations… and you want something that can kill a few minutes!) Plus, all of the materials are inexpensive and the packages you find in craft stores should easily provide enough to make them for a crowd.

Reindeer Craft

For each reindeer you want to make, you will need:

• Halos mandarin
• Cellophane bag (4×6″ will work well)
• Brown pipe cleaner
• 2 googly eyes
• Red pom-pom
• Glue dots

Directions:

1. Place your Halos mandarin in the cellophane bag.
2. Use a pipe cleaner to tie the bag closed, Bend the pipe cleaner into the shape of reindeer antlers.
3. Trim the top of the bag, if desired(we did not).
4. Use glue dots to add googly eyes and a pom pom nose to the outside of the bag.

Christmas Elf Craft

For each elf you want to make, you will need:

• Halos mandarin
• green felt
• red felt
• cardstock paper
• googly eyes
• pom pom
• marker
• glue dots

Directions:

1. Cut a 4.5″ semicircle of green felt for the hat. Form a cone shape and secure with glue dots. (We did not actually do any measuring, we just took a small piece of green felt, formed the cone, glued, and trimmed as needed- you can vary this depending on your time, even making a pattern for the kids to follow if you like)
2. Use a glue dot to add a pom pom on the top.
3. Cut elf ear shapes from card stock paper. Leave a little extra at the base to fold back where the ear will meet the hat. Use glue dots to stick the ears to the hat.
4. Stick on googly eyes with the glue dots and use a marker to add a smile.
5. For the collar, cut a 3″ eight-pointed starburst shape from the red felt (again, we didn’t measure or count the points- you can wing it like we did or make a pattern if you want it more precise). Use glue dots to stick it to the bottom of the Halos mandarin.

I really like using glue dots with kids’ crafts because they aren’t messy and it’s a controlled amount of glue. In the interest of time, you could always have the kids get all the pieces of their Christmas crafts ready and then you could use a glue gun instead of the glue dots- just depends on how much time you have and how much you want them to do as opposed to you to put together.

If you make any of these Christmas crafts, share them with #halosfun!