Try out some fun crafts this holiday season. Getting crafty is a great way to have some family fun. Try these holiday crafts with kids. The masterpieces you create can make great décor for your home or gifts to give to friends and family.

Toilet Paper Roll Reindeer

Toilet paper took on new significance in 2020. Make a playful nod to TP with this craft!

What you need:

• Toilet paper or paper towel tubes
• Colored paper, felt, paint or markers
• Glue
• Googly eyes
• Small red pompoms or red M&Ms
• Brown or tan pipe cleaners

Cut the TP tubes into 3 inch lengths.

1. Near the top, insert the pipe cleaner into one side and out the other. Curl the ends of the pipe cleaner to look like antlers.
2. Glue on paper or felt or use markers or paint to decorate the tube.
3. Glue on 2 googly eyes and a red nose just beneath them. (You can also use the markers for eyes and nose.)

All done! Add a hangar to use as an ornament or sit them on the table as part of your holiday place setting.

Gingerbread Houses

Here’s a no-bake method of making gingerbread houses that is fun and easy!

What you need:

• Two sizes of graham crackers: double graham crackers (two rectangular crackers per piece) and quadruple graham crackers (four rectangles per piece)
• Serrated knife
• One batch of royal icing
• Cake-decorator bag or plastic sandwich bags with a small hole poked in one corner
• Assortment of candy

Make the Icing

Ingredients

• 3 egg whites (at room temperature)
• 4 cups powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
• Optional: food coloring

Make sure the egg whites are at room temperature before beginning. In a clean, dry bowl of a stand mixer, place the egg whites, powdered sugar, and cream of tartar.

Beat together using a whisk attachment on low speed until well combined, for about 3 to 5 minutes. If you use a hand mixer, it will likely take longer for the icing to reach the right consistency.

Stop the mixer and scrape down the sides of the bowl. Restart the mixer and beat the mixture on medium speed until very thick, shiny, stiff and white. This should take about 7 to 10 minutes. Check the texture to ensure that it is suitable for your needs. If you require a stiffer icing, add a little more powdered sugar at this point.

If you want to dye your icing just one color, add a few drops of food coloring into the bowl and mix it for a few seconds until the coloring is evenly distributed. To make several different colors, divide the icing into several different bowls and stir in the food coloring by hand.

Use immediately or cover with a damp paper towel to keep it from stiffening.

Make the Houses

1. Fill your piping bag (or decorating bag substitute) with royal icing.
2. Using the serrated knife, saw off the top left and right corners of a quadruple cracker to create what will be one of the house’s gables. Repeat with another quadruple cracker.
3. Place one double cracker on the table and pipe icing along all four edges. Working quickly, place the house’s four walls (including the two with gables, which should stand across from each other) onto the icing and pipe more icing where the crackers touch vertically.
4. Pipe icing along the top edges of the house and rest the two remaining double crackers on top of it to form a roof. Allow time to dry and harden.

Decorate the Houses

Some candy decorating items you may want to use include:

• Gumdrops
• Candy canes
• Peppermint rounds
• Skittles, Reese’s Pieces, or M&M’s
• Sno-caps candies
• Sugar wafer cookies
• Mini marshmallows

Use the piping bag filled with icing to attach candy to decorate the house.

Popcorn Garland

What you need:

• Popcorn
• Tapestry needle
• Heavy duty sewing thread, waxed dental floss, or fishing wire
• Fresh cranberries (optional)

If a kid will do the stringing, be sure to use a needly with a relatively dull tip. Or, have the child pick the elements and have an adult do the stringing.

1. Buy or pop some popcorn. Popcorn without butter or salt is best. Leave it out for 24 to 48 hours since freshly popped popcorn has a tendency to break easily.
2. Thread the needle with heavy duty thread. You can also use either fishing wire or waxed dental floss. Tie a fat knot at one end of the string.
3. Begin stringing! Push the needle straight to the center of each popcorn piece and carefully push it to the edge of the thread before adding another one. If you wish to add cranberries to it, string the popcorn and cranberries in whatever pattern you want.

Add to the string until you’ve reached your desired length, then tie a knot at the end of your thread to hold the garland together. If you’re using cranberries be caeful, as the berry juice can stain.

Happy Holidays!

Whatever you do this holiday season, we wish you all the best. Thank you for being part of The O’Gorman Team story.

Here’s to a wonderful 2020 for all!