Christmas Placemat Craft

Christmas Placemat Crafts: Why Bother?

You can't eat them. You can't hang them on the tree. Chances are, they won't even last past one or two years. So why bother with Christmas placemat crafts? They're an easy way to bring the Christmas spirit to the table, literally.

Since you can make them as simply as you can draw a picture on a piece of construction paper and cover it with contact paper, placemats are perfect even for your young children to help you with. No kids, or no kids interested in crafts? No problem. You can make your own placemats without feeling silly; there are more sophisticated Christmas ideas out there, too.

If you've done the grapevine and sandwich bag wreaths too many times, fear you'll drop dead of a heart attack if you make one more batch of fudge you can't help but sample, and your tree is already full of handmade ornaments, placemats make a nice change of pace.

Placemats For Kids

Catalogs.com has a brilliant snowflake placemat you can make with your children. As the article mentions, these will make beautiful place settings for Christmas morning breakfast. You'll cut a snowflake shape from one piece of paper, glue it on to another, sprinkle on some glitter, and cover with contact paper.

Kaboose has a placemat idea that involves actual placemats rather than paper, similar to some of the adult ideas. It also involves fabric paint, stencils, and a pen. The article has pictures for inspiration, but feel free to let your imagination run wild.

Crafts For Adults

Wall to Wall Stencils has a placemat that looks a little more grown-up than some of the kiddie crafts and takes more time, patience, and skill to complete. As the name suggests, you'll be using stencils to design festive placemats and coordinating napkins. Instead of using paper like you did with the kid crafts, you'll use real placemats and napkins. Although this is more expensive, your project should also last longer.

As soon as Thanksgiving was over, you probably started receiving Christmas cards in the mail. What do you do with them all when you run out of display space? Make a collage, placemat-sized! Cut out the pictures on the front, or glue the whole card onto a piece of paper. It's up to you. This is listed as a craft for adults due to the necessary dexterity to cut out some of the shapes correctly, but you could enjoy this with your older children, too.

Common Needs for Making Your Placemats

What you'll need exactly will depend on the type of Christmas placemat craft you're interested in. If you're making them with your kids, for your kids, you will need a different set of tools than if you're making them for entertaining adult guests. Here' s a list of things you might need:

• Construction paper
• Glitter
• Scissors
• Stencils
• Ink or paint
• Plain placemat
• Placemat making kit (for everything you need in one place and a predetermined outcome)
• Glue/glue stick
• Clear contact paper
• Pen for drawing your pattern

Making placemats may not have been on your list of things to do for the holidays amidst the cooking, shopping, and party preparation. If you find yourself looking for a breather or a short-term project, though, pull out some of the tools listed above and make placemats for your family. You can make them as silly or sophisticated as you'd like, following the suggestions above or using them as a springboard for your own ideas. Have yourself a merry little Christmas—and a delicious holiday breakfast on your new crafty placemats.

Additional LoveToKnow Resources

For more tips on preparing for the Christmas holiday, visit LoveToKnow Christmas.