• small paper plates
• aluminum foil
• old Christmas cards
• glue
• scissors
• yarn or decorative string
• hole puncher

• glitter
• other Christmasy little odds and ends: holly cutouts, bells, etc.

This craft has been tested first-hand by me, and works sucessfully on kids aged 4-12. If you have a bunch of li'l ones on your hands and can't possibly imagine how to keep them all busy, then this is the Christmas project for you!

1. Cover the paper plate with aluminum foil.
2. You can punch the hole anytime you want (obviously), but if you're going to be working with glitter and the like, I find it's usually better to punch your hole and string it before you glue anything on it.
3. Cut out from the old Christmas cards any appropriate picture.
4. Glue it onto the aluminum-covered plate.
5. Next I usually tell the kids to find any words that they think really describes Christmas and put them on around the picture. Ex. peace, joy, happiness, Jesus, etc.
6. Here comes the really fun part:GLITTER! Does this part REALLY need instructions?! :) It's good to have a larger plate at hand to shake the excess glitter onto, although it doesn't really prevent the glitter from going everywhere ;) but you can reuse it afterwards.
7. Once finished, you can hang it basically anywhere but they look very nice on the Christmas tree as the aluminum foil reflects the lights.

And there you have it--a simple yet meaningful way to give the children an opportunity to help decorate the Christmas tree, and pass a few hours (they can't make just one! It's virtually impossible! :)