Religious Christmas crafts are a great way to teach children about the true meaning of Christmas. There are a variety of religious Christmas craft ideas that parents or teachers of Bible school classes can share with children, tweens and teens as fun and educational activities as detailed in this guide.
Religious Christmas Calendar
Description:
This Religious Christmas Calendar is my own DIY craft idea designed with Christmas images from Biblical scenes and calendar sheets that are printed from Microsoft Outlook.
Materials:
Microsoft Outlook; religious Christmas images and quotes (downloaded or drawn); glossy photo, cardstock, or construction paper; internet; printer; drawing utensil; box of round head paper fasteners; hole puncher
Instructions:
1. Open Microsoft Outlook.
2. Click the Calendar shortcut command.
3. Click Day in the toolbar to preview sample calendar months and year. Click January 1, 2010 (or the desired year) in the sample calendar section to make it the active year.
4. Click Month in the toolbar to display full-screen images of all of the months in 2010 that you view when scrolling down.
5. Click print and select the print range using the arrows: Friday 1/1/2010 is the start date and Friday 12/31/2010 is the end date.
6. Add a sufficient amount of glossy photo, cardstock, or construction paper into your printer and print.
7. Download 13 religious Christmas images or draw them on construction paper if you are an artist or student in an art class. One image will be for the cover. Image examples include: baby Jesus and the Holy Family, angels, three wise men, and the shepherd boy with a camel.
8. Copy it into Microsoft Word and insert a text box above it to add a religious Christmas quote.
9. After previewing the design, print it out one by one on the back side of each calendar sheet that you just printed from Microsoft Outlook. (Note: Reverse the calendar sheet so that the top of the front and the top of the back are in opposite directions. See a regular calendar for the standard visual layout). Print the thirteenth image on a one-sided page.
10. Stack the front and back printed sheets so that the one-sided page is the cover and the calendar side of the sheets lie face up.
11. Punch at least three holes through the top of the stack of sheets.
12. Insert round head paper fasteners through each hole.
Religious Christmas Scrapbook
Description:
Since the images in scrapbooks tell a story, creating a religious Christmas scrapbook is an excellent way to teach children about the religious aspect of Christmas.
Materials:
scrapbook or scrapbook kit sold at any craft store; religious Christmas images and quotes (downloaded or drawn); glossy photo, cardstock, or construction paper; internet; printer; drawing utensil; glue
Instructions:
1. Download or draw a wide variety of religious Christmas images that relate to the Nativity scene including: baby Jesus and the Holy Family, angels, three wise men, and the shepherd boy with a camel.
2. Print and cut out the images.
3. Arrange and glue the images within the scrap book.
Cross-stitch Nativity Baby Blanket
Description:
This religious Christmas craft is designed to be completed as a group activity by a children’s or adult’s Bible school class since the blanket is made using a compilation of many nativity cross stitch patterns.
Materials:
1 yard of solid-colored fleece fabric (sold at fabric stores or Walmart), 20+ extra small or 10+ medium-sized nativity scene cross-stitch kits (sold on ebay.com at low prices or available for free download on websites such as www.freecraftdownloads.co.uk/paper/v/crossstitch/nativity/), sewing machine or sewing needle and thread
Instructions:
1. Demonstrate the cross stitching procedures to the Bible school students and have them create their designs.
2. After all the designs are completed, evenly arrange them over the fleece fabric, and sew in place.
On a final note, all of these religious Christmas crafts work great for personal use and are especially ideal to give as Christmas gifts. They are enjoyable activities for the age range of elementary school children to seniors. Of most importance, these crafts express the religious meaning of Christmas.