7 Pinterest-inspired Christmas crafts and activities

Winter is nearly upon us and it's time to start thinking about Christmas!  I'm generally pretty rubbish at planning ahead - every year I have so many good intentions to do and make all sorts of Christmas-themed crafts and activities but then the time flies away from me and I don't get round to doing very much.  Last year I wanted to make Emma an advent calendar and found lots of amazing ideas on Pinterest.  But then I couldn't decide which one to make and then suddenly it was December and it was too late.

This year, I'm determined to be more organised, start some family Christmas traditions and generally infuse the season with more magic and Christmas spirit.

Advent Calendars

I always had advent calendars as a child, but it's not something people do in Mexico and I've never seen any in the shops here, so Emma has never had one.  I think she's at just the right age to begin to appreciate it; now she has more concept of time and is starting to recognize numbers.  One of my priorities is to make her an advent calendar during the month of November so that it's ready to use by December 1st.

Here are some of the best homemade advent calendar ideas I found on Pinterest (I just have to decide which one to make and how to adapt it):

1. Christmas cracker advent calendar from The Sweet Life





2. Another cool recycled toilet roll calendar from Mamaskram via Frugal coupon living (the pin I found leads to a roundup post with lots of other ideas, but this one I liked best).





3. Yet another recycled toilet roll calendar - I'd better start saving them!  This one is from Parents.com in a post with lots of other winter craft ideas.




Here's the advent calendar we actually made: How to Make a Simple and Cute Owl Advent Calendar

Christmas decorations

4. I love this idea of making tree ornaments out of old Christmas cards from Petticoat Junktion.

5. These orange slice Christmas tree decorations from Thimble and Twig look really gorgeous.

Other crafts and activities for the winter season

6. This wishing tree could be an inspiring activity to start the New Year from Baby Budgeting.





7. Visit this post by Teaching Mama for lots of gorgeous Christmas-themes crafts and activities to make and do with kids.

For more ideas take a look at my Handmade Christmas Pinterest board:

Stay posted to see which of these crafts I actually do!   I´m also tempted to update this post with more pins - seven is not many when there are so many more amazing ideas out there.

Photo credit: Joanna Kosinska on Unsplash