Christmas Nature Crafts for Red & Lulu!

Books become even better when you pair them with fun activities!

See what we did to go along with this month's Christmas-themed Monthly Crafting Book Club theme.

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My bloggy pal Hilary over at Raising Fairies and Knights started a fun Monthly Crafting Book Club - a challenge to create activities to go along with some of the most beloved children's books.

We had some great times last year (see links at the end of this post) and have continued the fun this year:

January - Ladybug Girl Addition Bugs
February - Giraffes Can't Dance Roll-a-Dance Die
March - How Do Dinosaurs...Social Skills Game
April - The Very Hungry Caterpillar Box
May - Unique Nature Creations
June - Pinkalicious-Inspired Collage Art
July - Miss Bindergarten Gets Ready for Kindergarten Can Craft
August - Homemade Bow and Arrow Flight Investigation
September - Who Can Blow the Biggest Pumpkin Challenge
October - Pete the Cat Shoe Fun!


This month, our little group is having fun with nonreligious Christmas books. We love Christmas books around here, so that made choosing a book to focus on incredibly difficult.

However, we recently discovered a new favorite and knew it would make a good theme for some Christmas crafts:

Red and Lulu

Gv and I had actually never heard of this title before, but after seeing it on the Preschool Morning Time Hibernate plans, we figured we needing to check it out.

It's a sweet tale combining the love of two birds, a special tree, and a magical NYC that's sure to charm you this time of year.

As soon as Gv and I read through it the first time, we knew exactly where to head for inspiration to go along with this book. Do you remember this nature-inspired post I wrote a while back?

Not only have we continued to enjoy our natural creations from that fun printable pack, but we visit MotherNatured.com for new ideas and inspiration all the time.

I just knew she would have some great natural Christmas tree crafts and I was definitely not disappointed -- I even came up with a list of four different projects we were interested in trying:

• Christmas tree leaf ornaments
• Homemade nature craft Christmas cards
• Christmas tree weave
• Layered leaves Christmas tree

We ended up making all but one of these (and that's only because the piddly sticks we could find in our yard kept breaking), but we had the best time and I suspect Gv will actually continue to create these same crafts over and over again during the next few weeks.

We raided my scrapbooking supplies for star, square and circle punches that would make the tasks easier and got right to work.

Gv cut off (with permission) a waxy backyard leaf that made a perfect Christmas tree. She decided not to decorate it, aside from the brown-leaf star on top:

This was soooo simple, yet so cute! I think these little trees would liven up anyone's holiday decor!

Gv already set up a scene using her tree -- I can easily see her creating a forest of these things in the next few days!

We then punched a bunch of bougainvillea leafs to make our Christmas tree cards:

How fun is this card idea? We might just have to make some more of these to hand out for Christmas this year!

And we cut what seemed like a zillion squares to thread onto a strong stick for our layered leaves Christmas tree:

We had a hard time finding in-between-sized leaves in our yard, so we've already decided to spend a day at the park next week, collecting a more varied assortment of foliage!

I just loved being able to pair such a unique book with these unusual crafts -- and our supply fee was practically nonexistent, since Gv gathered everything from our backyard (Bonus! Tons of time spent outside, on top of all the crafting!)

These crafts are easy for anyone to do and they look so sweet livening up our entrance table -- I love decorating like this for the holidays!

Have you had the chance to make any of these fun nature-themed crafts yet?  I'd love to hear!  Either leave a comment below or email me at lisahealy (at) outlook (dot) com.

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Check out the other amazing crafts that my fellow bloggers came up with for this month.

Come back next month and see what crafts and activities we come up with to go along with a nonreligious holiday book. Join our Facebook Group HERE to participate.

Want to see all the great book activities from last year? Just check these out:

January - Barnyard Dance Animal Action Dice Game
February - If You Give a Moose a Muffin Cause & Effect Box
March - Dr. Seuss's ABC alphabetical scavenger hunt
April - Piggy in the Puddle Handwashing fun
May - 5 Little Monkeys Fold 'Em Up
June - The Princess & the Pony Pinecone Princess & Cozy Sweater Warrior Paper Dolls
July - Curious George Goes Camping Lantern craft
August - Froggy Goes to School Mini backpacks & dress-a-doll fun
September - It's Pumpkin Day, Mouse! Pumpkin fun
October - ave You Seen My Monster shape-sort bags & other crafts
November - Bear Stays Up for Christmas Cozy paper quilt

December - Millions of Snowflakes activities

 

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