Make your own Christmas Decorations

If it's December, then it must be time to get the Christmas tree up!

Raid the local pound shop for craft materials, and plain plastic baubles. If you're feeling really ambitious, a quick trip to a craft store for a hot glue gun might be useful for more ambitious DIY Christmas ornaments, but otherwise a good craft or PVA glue will be all you'll need. 

The best thing about felt is that you don't need to hem it. It doesn't fray, and it's brilliant for cutting out shapes and gluing then together to make familiar Christmas shapes or characters (as anyone old enough to remember Fuzzy Felt will know!). Felt ornaments are great for garlands or for hanging from the tree.

If you have small presents that need an extra special wrapper, these are gorgeous, and very easy to make. They're also equally good stuffed with scraps of material from your other crafting efforts. Draw around a saucer on the wrong side of your material with dressmaker's chalk and cut out carefully. Again, velvet doesn't fray very easily, but you may choose to hem the edge, or cover it with braid or ribbon. Wrap your present, bauble, or craft scraps, and tie the top with a Christmas ribbon. Glue small sparkly beads or paste jewels onto the outside of the bag for an extra festive look.

Here's a good way to make those dull plastic decorations into DIY Christmas ornaments to be proud of. This will only work on a smooth surface, so discard any baubles that are glittery or otherwise uneven. Tear up small pieces of colourful tissue paper and glue them to the ornament with PVA glue. Continue until the bauble is completely covered, and make sure there's a good extra layer of glue on the outside to seal the paper down. Note that these will take days to dry properly, so either hang them on the tree to dry (well out of the reach of the cat or other small hands!), or in the airing cupboard or above a radiator.

If you're an avid knitter, you've probably got the end of several brightly coloured balls of wall laying around that you can't quite bear to throw away. Pom poms on their own make stylish and fun DIY Christmas tree ornaments, or you can make snowmen or Christmas puddings. Pink wool will be great for an elf face (glue on small pieces of felt for features, and glue in a piece of card covered in bright felt for a hat), and you could even make a pom pom wreath instead of using greenery. You can buy pom pom makers from most craft shops, but it's easy to make your own card templates at home, especially if you want to make lots of different sizes.

These are an excellent craft activity for younger children to join in with - especially if they're in the habit of thinking that Santa will 'know' what they want for Christmas and they happen not to mention it to you! Save as many cardboard toilet roll holders as you think you might need Christmas lists (grownups are not exempt!) and paint them in bright, Christmassy colours. Put them aside to dry and get writing your Christmas lists on a long strip of paper narrower than the width of the toilet roll holder. Glue the top edge of the list to the cardboard holder and wrap the paper carefully around until you can pull it down to read...well, like toilet paper! Thread a ribbon through each holder and tie a Christmas gift tag to each one with the list-writer's name on it. Hang them up along the mantelpiece, or on the tree.

After you've finished your crafting sessions, you'll be feeling well and truly in the Christmas spirit. Why not make yourselves a mug of hot chocolate (or mulled wine for the grownups!) and sit and watch a Christmas film, or better still, book yourselves a live video call with Santa Claus.