Egg Carton Tree
Two egg cartons, large piece of paper, glue, paint, misc craft items – such as fabric scraps, beads, ect. Cup the egg cartons so you have one row of 6 cups, one row of 5 cups, and so on to 1 cup. Paint the outside of the egg cup green. When the paint is dry, glue them on a large sheet of paper as follows: Glue the 6 cup row on the bottom of the paper, just above that glue the 5 cup row, and so on until you have used all the cups. It should look like a triangle when you are done. Decorate with misc. craft items.
Christmas Tree
Green Tagboard (the bigger the better), paint, shaped sponges. Cut out a big green tree out of giant tagboard and sponge paint ornaments on it.
Christmas Trees
Green construction paper, glue, red paint, misc. collage materials. Cut out Christmas tree shapes. Decorate the Christmas tree: you can dip a finger in red paint and make fingerprint ornaments. You can use various collage materials, such as glitter, buttons, fabric scraps, to decorate as desired. You can also make wreaths.
Christmas Trees
Construction Paper, glue, colored cellophane, crayons. Cut out trees made of construction paper. Punch out holes in the tree. Have children glue colored pieces of colored cellophane or construction paper to the back to cover the holes. This makes it look like lights on the tree. Turn over and decorate the tree with whatever they wish (crayons, construction paper bits, etc).
Ice Cream Cone Christmas Trees
Ice cream cones (sugar cones), green frosting, white frosting, misc candy items. Take a sugar cone, turn it upside down & spread with thick, green or white frosting & add sprinkles & candies on to decorate it.
Pine Cone Christmas Tree
Pine Cones, Green Paint, Glue, Misc Craft Items – such as Yarn, beads, ect. Cover the work area with newspaper and paint the pine cone green. When the paint is dry, glue on yarn, beads, ect for the decorations.
Christmas Tree Mobile
Green construction paper, glue, tape, crayons, yarn, misc craft items (such as fabric scraps, beads, ect.) Cut a large Christmas tree shape -triangle- out of green construction paper. Cut the triangle into one inch wide strips. Lay down the strips in the order you cut them out, with the strips laying about an inch apart. Tape a long piece of yarn onto the back of the strips. Use a scrap of brown construction paper to cut out a pot & tape it below the tree; cut off any excess yarn hanging below the pot. Decorate the tree as desired.
Hand print Christmas Tree
Green, red, and yellow construction paper, crayons, pencils or markers, glue. Cut ten hand prints on green paper, a yellow star, and ten red hearts small enough to fit on the hand print. Start gluing one hand print at the top of the page and with the fingers pointing down. This is the top of your tree. Use the rest of the hand prints fanning out to make a Christmas tree. In the star write I love….then in each heart let the kids pick special people… mommy, daddy, friends, grands, pets, dolls, etc. Glue star on the top and a heart on each hand.
Hand-y Christmas Trees
To make a tree, press a child’s hand into green tempera paint. Keeping the fingers and thumb close together, press the hand on a piece of white construction paper, making the tree, leaves and branches. Cut out a trunk from brown construction paper and paste on. Cut out a foil star, or yellow star and attach to top of tree.
Snowball Tree
Styrofoam cone, green construction paper, cotton balls, toothpicks or straight pins, glue, glitter, clear tape. Take a styrofoam cone and wrap it in the paper. Tape it together. Stick the cotton balls onto the cone with the pins or toothpicks. Lightly dab some glue onto the edge of the cotton balls. Sprinkle glitter over the glue. Let your tree dry completely before moving it.
Decorate the Tree
Cut out a christmas tree shape (fairly large) and let the kids use fingerprints for ornaments.
Collage Tree
Glitter, buttons, beads, fabric scraps, whatever you can find(works good for wreaths too). Let each child bring a box of little goodies from home to share or put on their own.
Mini Christmas Trees
Thick cardboard, scissors, green paint, colored sequins, glitter glue, (gold) craft glue, ribbon.
Draw a Christmas tree. Cut out two trees from the cardboard. Draw a line up the middle of the first tree. Cut a slit, approximately the width of the cardboard, approximately half way up the first tree, starting from the BOTTOM. Draw a line down the middle of the second tree, and this time cut a similar slit but from the TOP. Slide the two trees together.Paint the Trees green and wait to dry.
Using the glitter glue, highlight the edges of the panels of the tree. Glue sequins of assorted colors on each panel to look like christmas decorations. Sequins were only a suggestion, as the decorating of your tree is entirely up to you. Poke a hole in the top of the tree with a pair of scissors and thread your ribbon through. This will allow you to hang your Christmas tree up.
Lighted Christmas Trees:
needed to make 1:
About 17 baby food jars, same size, same brand. Glue gun (large size), heavy duty strength glue, 1 strand of small christmas lights (multi-color, short strand), Christmas garland, Christmas ribbon. Glue together (pyramid style) 5 rows of food jars. 2 jars for trunk/base, see below:
Punch or drill a hole (large enough for christmas light socket to fit through) in center top of each jar lid. Lids can then be sprayed 1 color (black, green, red, whatever). Place a small snip of garland inside each jar. Put lids on jars, can be glued to be more secure.Poke a christmas light through hole in each lid. Glue christmas ribbon around entire perimeter. Your glass tree can then be plugged in!!
Rosemary Christmas Trees
by Kim Tilley
I love to grow things, and I especially love to have plants around the house in the winter. I really love rosemary plants and those cute little “rosemary Christmas trees,” but the problem is that I always manage to kill them!
I don’t mind eating dried rosemary (from my dried-out plant!) , but I really love the look, smell, and taste of live rosemary. My track record is not too good. The first year I underwatered the rosemary, and it dried out. The second year I compensated and overwatered the plant. This year I decided to find out what I was doing wrong or be doomed to a rosemary-free kitchen! Oh, no!
Cub Foods always has healthy, inexpensive plants, so I asked them how they keep their rosemary Christmas trees looking so beautiful. The floral manager told me that rosemary can be tricky, but anyone who learns the trick can take care of one and they can get quite big. The secret to rosemary is that it likes to be constantly moist but doesn’t like to sit in the water, so it has to be well drained. Rosemary hates water around its roots, but it will die if the roots dry out. Just like some people, it likes to shower every day, but not sit in a bath!
Here is what you do:
-When you get your plant home from the store, place it (pot and all) into a larger pot filled with gravel. Be sure the bigger pot has a hole at the bottom for drainage. You can place all of this on a plant saucer to catch water.
-Water your rosemary (at the base of the plant) every day or every other day. It doesn’t need much, perhaps half a cup. Let the water run right through the plant and out into the saucer (be sure to empty the saucer). I just put my plants in the sink every morning and water them that way, letting all the water go down the drain. Then I put them back in place with something under them to catch more water.
-Every once in while, give the rosemary a “bath,”gently rinsing off any dead leaves and other debris (but not the soil!) that tend to build up around the base of the plant. You can let it soak for a little while, and then drain very well.
-Like most plants, rosemary likes humidity, so you can take the plant to the shower with you. Just don’t stick it in there! Once a week or every few weeks, put it on a bathroom counter, close the door, and take a long, steamy shower. Your plant will love you and you’ll feel pretty good, too!
-If all else fails, start from scratch next spring by purchasing a small rosemary plant at a nursery, or even at Walmart. Plant it, pot and all in a sunny, well-drained location and make sure it gets plenty of water. I did this with one, and my rosemary grew beautifully. Make sure that there is plenty of room in the pot, and mix the potting soil with sand or vermiculite- anything to keep it draining well. Before the first frost, bring in your rosemary. You can then shape it into a tree, and enjoy the “trimmings” on your Thanksgiving or Christmas turkey.
Decorating a Rosemary Christmas Tree
You can use any mini ornaments and lights, as long as they don’t weigh much. Rosemary branches are pretty tender. I saw a very cute idea done on a mini tree that would work well for rosemary. You spray-paint pasta bows red, then hot-glue string or twist ties onto the back and attach to the tree. You could even make a star out of gold gift wrap and light cardboard (like cereal-box cardboard) to put at the top.
Now that my rosemary trees are looking so much better, I’m going to deck them out. Good luck, and enjoy your culinary Christmas tree!
