When it comes to Christmas crafts for kids, I always aim for something that's easy to make and will last a long time.
I also try to brainstorm crafts that are great for a wide range of ages and abilities so that my kids can make them together. It's a bonus if my kids can collaborate on the same craft too.
Well, these giant Christmas light suncatchers happen to do all of that!
It's a perfect craft for kids of all ages and all abilities to make. For instance, toddlers will love ripping the tissue paper for these suncatchers, while older kids can do this entire Christmas light craft independently. They can even opt to use scissors if they want to work on some additional fine motor skills.
Everyone can make one, two, or more of these lights and then they can combine all their hard work into making one big long string of lights to decorate the house with. Or, they could collaborate on each individual light bulb together.
I promise that these Christmas suncatchers are super easy to make. They even use items that you can find at the dollar store, making it an inexpensive craft too.
A version of this post originally appeared on the CBC Parents website.
Make Giant Christmas Light Suncatchers to Decorate Your House!
I love decorating for Christmas, especially with homemade Christmas decorations and ornaments. Every year, I decorate our tree with some of the homemade ornaments that I made when I was in school. And I absolutely treasure every single one of them!
My hope is that my kids will make some Christmas decorations and ornaments that they will love for years, even when they're grown adults.
Thankfully, these giant Christmas light suncatchers are made with contact paper so they'll hopefully last many years. (2024 edit: these suncatchers are still going strong 9 years later!)
Like I've mentioned earlier, this suncatcher craft is great for a variety of ages, works on fine motor skills, and looks so beautiful hanging in the windows. Trust me, the pictures just don't do this Christmas lights craft justice! Plus, photographing around a grand piano is challenging so that's why some of the angles are weird, okay?
What You'll Need for these Christmas Suncatchers
As I've touched on above, kids of all ages - toddlers, preschoolers, and up - can make this Christmas craft. Don't worry, adults are allowed too! I wouldn't leave you out like that...
Here's what you'll need to make your own DIY Christmas suncatchers:
- Clear contact paper - You can pick this up at Dollarama. It's usually called vinyl book protector there. It's what we use for all of our contact paper projects around here. How much you need will depend on (a) how big you want to make them and (b) how many you want to make.
- Tissue paper in a variety of colors, cut into squares or torn into small pieces - We used blue, green, red, and pink for the bulbs and gold for the bases of the light bulbs, as that is what we had on hand. Feel free to use whatever colors you have on hand or can find at the dollar store.
- Black permanent marker - To draw the outline of the bulbs.
- Scissors - To cut the tissue paper into small pieces (if you're not interested in ripping/tearing) and to cut the final bulb out when it's fully covered with tissue paper.
- Tape - You'll need this to hang up your finished suncatchers, but you might also want to use some tape to keep the contact paper in place while crafting. More on that below.
Once you've gathered all of your materials, you'll first need to do a little prep work in order to make these Christmas light suncatchers.
How to Make this Christmas Light Craft
On the non-sticky side of the contact paper, draw a large light bulb shape with the permanent marker. Repeat until you have the number of bulbs you want to make. We made eight giant light bulbs using just over one roll of contact paper. Eight happens to fit perfectly across our front window (as you will see in a bit).
Once your light bulbs are drawn, tape the contact paper to a flat surface with the sticky side up. Then remove the cover from the sticky side. Now it's officially time to turn them into colorful Christmas lights!
Encourage your kids to cover the entire light bulb shape on the sticky surface of the contact paper. Continue until the entire light bulb shape is covered. You or your child can either use scissors to cut the tissue paper into small pieces or you can let the kids rip the tissue paper into smaller pieces. My boys always enjoy ripping tissue paper (and it's great for fine motor skills!) so we went that route.
Once the light is covered with tissue paper, it's time to cut it out. Depending on the age and abilities of your child, you can either cut it out for them or encourage them to follow the lines and cut it out themselves.
However, before cutting, you may want to cover the tissue paper side with an additional piece of contact paper to seal everything in. But this step is optional. Personally, I find it works great without having to cover both sides of the craft with contact paper. Plus, it uses fewer materials!
Now that you've finished one light bulb, it's time to repeat the process for a second, third, fourth, etc. light bulb.
Or, if you have multiple children (or are a teacher with a full classroom!), each child could make their own light bulbs.
After all of your light bulbs are assembled and cut, it's time to decorate your window! Simply tape each light bulb up on a window with two pieces of tape, one at the base and one at the top, like so:
I arranged ours in the front window and the look fantastic hung up in a row. It's almost as if they're a string of real Christmas lights! And, as you can see, we chose to make big lights since we have a huge window out front to decorate.
I think they look beautiful! So, what do you think? Are you going to try making these giant Christmas light suncatchers with your kids?
