This was a fun and easy craft for my youth group. Unfortunately I was in charge of the activity, but was not going to be able to attend. Because of that, I tried to prep as much as possible. With the extra prep, they were able to assemble together quickly, without too much work from leaders during the activity.
The kits looked like this, with a pre glued star out of popsicle sticks. Mary, Joseph and baby Jesus are made from tongue depressors. With four colors of yarn for each part of the ornament. Since I wasn't going to be there, I put together some basic steps - more of an order of operations.
The steps included were mostly to avoid any potential problems. I feel like it’s a pretty simple design to look at and copy, but steps can still be helpful, especially if you have kiddos who like to go at their own pace. If you don’t paint your star first, for example, you will be waiting for it to dry. When painted first, your star is drying while you do other things.
Here’s some of the tools and items you might need:
Wire cutters (or similar tool) to cut the depressors
Yellow paint for the star & paint brushes
A hot glue gun and extra glue sticks
Fine tip marker for the faces
Scissors to cut the yarn
Brown marker to add to the “hair”
To measure my yarn, I wrapped everything and then unwrapped it to use for my template for cutting more. Here's some guidelines you could follow.
The star has12 yards of yellow
Joseph has 3 yards of brown
Mary has 2.5 yards of white
baby Jesus has 2 yards of light blue (my blue was a little thinner, so you could get away with less if needed)
Hanging yarn was 6" (and can be any color)
Other tips:
Joseph is 1/2 a tongue depressor
Mary & Baby together, are made out of one tongue depressor (approx. 2/5 baby & 3/5 Mary)
If you plan to glue the stars during your activity, make a template on paper. I find getting the star symmetrical was more challenging than anything else.
Step two in my instructions is to draw the faces on. I personally didn't do it in that order, but I thought if someone makes a mistake and the face doesn't turn out, it would be much easier to start with a new stick if it hasn't been wrapped yet. This will make it less stressful - and I try to avoid tears when crafting.
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