Santa Claus Craft | Advent Calendar | Christmas
 Preschool Lesson Plan Printable Activities

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Fun with Santa Claus!  

Santa Claus' images, holiday traditions and his name vary from place to place, and has a long history.   In essence, St. Nicholas is associated with the birth of the spirit of Santa Claus and the many different variations.  St. Nicholas Day is celebrated December the 6th.

Visit the Santa Claus theme lesson plan printable activities for various activities to incorporate with this craft activity:  alphabet letter S is for Santa, fun with colors and shapes, Santa songs, online stories and more.

The craft for this activity is a Santa Claus face and his famous white beard/mustache, and winter hat.  The black and white templates will help children everywhere to adapt the craft to their special St. Nicholas version.  Optional:  Decorate beard, mustache, hat's trim and ball tip with cotton balls, cotton batting or white yarn.    

Activity #1:  Santa Craft Calendar | Christmas Activity Calendar Version
The second version of the craft (print template 1a with calendar days December 1 to 25) is a Christmas Activity Calendar and (print template 2a - with 24 days for an Advent calendar)  
Note:  The religious Advent season varies from year to year - starting with the first Sunday closest to November 30th.    These calendar versions offer the opportunity to write and plan family, child care, preschool and Sunday school activities for each day and write them under the day number.  The calendar is a great way to preserve what happened during the holidays.  It also makes a cute gift for children to make for friends and family.  For a simpler activity for toddlers (18 months and older)  it can also be used to simply glue a cotton ball on each day as Christmas approaches.  Below are some examples of 2-3 word activities that can be written and fit in the limited space and adults can help the children plan and write them:

bake cookies,  call Grandma/pa, wrap presents,  skating or skiing day,  snowman fun, make paper snowflakes,  sing  Xmas songs, play group day, show & tell day, Xmas video night, read ___(Title of a book), Bible passage information, etc.  

Other activity ideas:  Learning with Santa
Use the Santa calendar to keep a  winter learning / reading log.  Write the title of a holiday or winter themed book read & discussed, online story/activity, poems, songs,  recipe (fun in the kitchen).  Suggested themes:  religious or traditional holiday stories, learning about international winter holidays other than Christmas, winter theme (weather conditions- snow, snowflakes), or learn about animals that live in the Artic regions or are associated with winter - for example:  bears-hibernation.

Read a Biblical passage and activity every day leading to Christmas Day, and combine with the activity of an Advent Wreath

Review here information that may be helpful to prepare for Advent  activities,
Advent Defined, History, Advent Wreaths & Calendars at factmonster.com

Activity:  Santa Claus Craft
(Optional Traditional Calendar Version)
Printing and assembly options:
Option 1:  Print color template version and choose blank beard or calendar template versions 1A or 1B, cut out, conduct learning activities of your choice and assemble (add other decorations as desired-cotton balls, etc.).  Discuss colors on the templates.
Option 2:  Print black & white templates.  Children can color or paint, cut out and proceed as above.  

Craft Assembly Procedure (after pieces are colored in and cut out)
Show the small image of the finished craft briefly (featured in the template) to help the children see how the finished craft looks and to aid them in positioning the pieces.  

1.  Color pieces that apply in template #2 (hat, eye ball, nose).  Assemble hat pieces first:  Glue hat trim and circle tip.

2.  Glue assembled hat to head close to the edge.

3.  Glue eyes close to the edge of the hat and then glue nose very close to eyes.

4.  Non-calendar version (plain version):  Glue mouth (oval in horizontal position) behind mustache with about half of mouth  showing.  Glue mustache/mouth piece on the beard.  Glue this assembled piece on the face under the nose and align with the edges of the hat (refer to illustration).

5.  Calendar Version 1a or 1b:   Proceed with steps 1 to 3 above. Glue mouth (oval) on the indicated oval of the beard.  Glue the mustache on top.  Glue this assembled piece on the face under the nose and align the piece with the hat.

 Optional decorations:  After the craft is assembled, glue divided cotton balls to the beard, mustache, hat trim & circle tip (one standard cotton ball can be divided into two to three portions) - approximate total cotton balls needed: 10 to 14 cotton balls depending on the size of the cotton balls.  Tip:  For the hat and mustache - take one cotton ball and stretch slowly and measure over the templates .  The children can now glue these on their own.
Tape an envelope  next to the craft with cotton ball portions ready for each day, if conducting the daily cotton ball pasting procedure on the beard with numbers.   

Other decorating ideas:

1. Use the craft to decorate plain gift bags, or as a large gift tag for a large gift.

2.  Instead of gluing cotton place a Post-it Note pad or photograph on the beard for a note holder or photo frame.

3.  Make a more permanent craft by tracing templates onto "foamies" and assemble.

Santa Claus Craft
Color Version:
Print #1, 1A or 1B on white paper
*Template #1 

*Template #1A (Activity Calendar Version-with printed days 1-25))

*Template #1B (Advent Calendar Version-with 24 days - print numbers manually)

*Template #2-color

Black & White
*Template #2
Print 1, 1A, or 1B above.

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