Paper Chains for Christmas or Halloween

by Kelly D.

Paper chains are a great way to get little children (even starting at about 3 years old) into the holiday crafting spirit. They're easy to do, and require only a few inexpensive materials.

what you need:

construction paper (in whatever colors you want, you can do red and green for Christmas or black and orange for Halloween)
scissors (a great thing with this craft is that you can have the kids use the non-sharp kids scissors)
tape

what to do:

Cut the paper into strips. Length doesn't matter, one end of the paper to the other is fine, but you'll want them to be at least an inch wide, but you can show the kids how to do it which will save you time and keep them occupied.
While the kids are cutting strips of paper, you can get pieces of tape ready by tearing them off the roll and sticking the very end of them to the edge of the table.
Take a paper strip and bring the ends together, overlapping then and making a circle, and then place the tape over the overlapped ends. You should now have a secure paper circle.
Take another paper strip, put it halfway through the circle you just made, bring the ends together and overlap them, secure it with tape. You should now have 2 interlocking paper circles, thus beginning your chain. To continue the chain simply add as many strips as you want to make it as long as you like.

As you can see, this is a very simple craft, but I personally think if you show your kids how to do everything and then just let them do it themselves (maybe with a little gentle guidance now and then) they'll feel they accomplished something more then if they are handed all the pieces ready to be put together. It will also give them something to do, and when the chain is done, they have their very own decoration they've made for the holiday!

About the Author-
Kelly D. is a staff writer and site editor for HolidaysDot.com.