Construction Paper Ornaments

When you celebrate the holidays for the children despite how you might feel inside, by getting past that to help make their light shine, you bring some comforting light to your own soul as well.

This is my story about this lesson learned.

• Let imagination and creativity flow.

• Gather other tools, for adults, such as precision scissors and an X-acto stencil knife for more creativity.

• Cut out shapes, such as circles, squares, bells, snowmen, and etc. The children will probably recognize that you do the cutting and shapes better and will probably ask you to cut so they can draw and color and place their glitter glue.

• Use the knife to cut out designs and shapes within the ornament; outline them with glitter glue.

• Do share your tree trimming with guests. They really will enjoy it.

• Have hot apple cider, hot chocolate and lots of snacks. It's party time!

• Start each holiday season anew. After the holidays, instead of keeping everything to use on next year's tree, take pictures of the tree before you dismantle it, remove the hangers or hooks from the ornaments, and keep those construction paper ornaments that are extra special to you. Place your chosen ornaments and your pictures in a special holiday photo album. You might even take closeups of each ornament and keep the whole catalog on CD.

• If you want to give the regular ornament hooks, like I recommended earlier, a nicer appearance, take two needle-nose pliers and place one on each end of the hook. Straighten it out, then start curling your wire back up into a curly, stylized "S" shape. They look better, don't they? ...Here are some curly hooks that you can buy already made.

• Adding the ornament hanger without making a hole first will bend or crease the construction paper ornament as you try to force the hook through the paper. Have a section of newspaper folded on the supply table. Place the ornament flat on the newspaper and use a stick pen to go through the ornament to make your hanger hole. Or use the Fiskars 1/16-Inch hand punch, which makes a smaller circle than the usual office hole punch.

• Cut strips of construction paper and make a chain to wrap around the tree. We also sometimes string popcorn and add that to the tree as garland.