Mama Pea Pod: November 2012

My preschooler and I made these beautiful paper curl Christmas trees last year, and I'm sharing them again as part of the Counting Down to Christmas series, in case you missed them.

You need 3 circular items of different sizes, some thread, and some Christmas gift wrap or Christmassy scrapbook paper (it's nice if it's coloured on both sides, but not necessary). If you have some star stickers or sequins, even better. We happened to also have some bells, so we added those too.

1. Trace around the circles and cut them out.

2. Find the centre of each circle by folding the circle lightly in half, pinching the middle to mark it, then opening it and folding it again across the opposite way; pinch and open. The spot where the two pinch marks meet is the middle.

Then cut out 1/4 of the circle. (You won't need this 1/4 for these trees, but you might want to make them into a paper Christmas forest!)

3. Using the 3/4 parts of each circle, fold them around into cone shapes and glue the edges down.

4. Cut a fringe edge all the way around each of the cones. Then, using a pencil, roll up the fringe ends to make them curl up a little.

Thread a needle (I did this part), and tie a knot (we attached bells on the ends first). Poke it through the biggest cone from the bottom up so that the tree rests on the knot, then tie another knot just a little above the cone, thread the second cone, tie another knot, then thread the third cone.

If you like, add star stickers to the top on each side of the string and press together, or use star-shaped sequins if you have them. (You could also add more stars or glitter glue to the trees themselves. Since we used patterned paper and sparkly paper, we decided they were fancy enough already.)

The patterned one and the gold one I made, but Princess Pea (age 4) made the silver one. She did get tired of rolling the fringe, so I ended up finishing that for her and did the threading, but she traced and cut the circles, cut the fringes, and added the stars herself.

They look so beautiful and festive hanging up on the tree or anywhere around the house!

I found the idea for these trees in the book, "50 Christmas Things to Make and Do", published by Usborne. I just love their books for children, and we have loads of them - in fact, I have to admit that I actually really bought this book for myself (hey, at least I'm sharing!)

You might also be interested in our Advent Calendars Round-Up.

Join us for the Counting Down to Christmas Week 3 linky party! Each week will bring you a different theme:

Week 1 - Advent
Week 2 - Christmas Cards
Week 3 - Tree Decorations

Week 4 - Handmade Gifts
Week 5 - Nativity
Week 6 - Food
Week 7 - Room Decorations

Week 8 - Family Traditions and Fun

Link up your TREE DECORATIONS posts below!

Please note that this post contains affiliate links for your convenience.

Sewing is a great way for preschoolers to develop the fine motor skills they'll need later for writing.

While you probably don't want to arm your 4 year old with an actual needle, I managed to find these great plastic children's needles at the craft store. Paired with some embroidery thread and some craft foam (very easy to push the needle through), they make a great little sewing starter kit for preschool fine motor skills practice.

To get started, show your child where the thread goes through the eye of the plastic needle, then let him/her do it alone. Only help if asked. You might want to show your child that it helps to avoid tangles if they go in from one side, then back out the opposite way, but it depends how neat your child likes things to be (mine wants it neat!). Then either go with free stitching anywhere on the craft foam sheet, or draw a simple design (we did letters on ours) for your child to follow along the lines.