Help kids consider God’s marvelous gift of Jesus with this fun paper Christmas garland craft you can hang from the mantel or on the tree!
This fun paper Christmas garland craft is a great way to remember the story of Jesus’ birth, and the visits of the wise men and the shepherds. You can hang the garland from your mantle, or string it up on your Christmas tree. To save it from year to year, carefully fold it up, place it in an envelope, and store it with your Christmas ornaments!
Paper Christmas Garland
Check out this fun video of the craft!
Grab your Christmas Garland Craft
Head on over to the Thinking Kids Press store to grab your step-by-step instructions (also shown below), and your Nativity garland templates. 
Tips for Making Bible Crafts with Kids
Doing art projects with kids can be a challenge. For that reason, many parents forgo this valuable time altogether. As an art major and a parent who has done frequent art projects with my four children, I have a few suggestions for you.
- Cover your space. Use painting drop cloths and plastic to keep your furniture and flooring protected.
- Cover your kids. Grab a couple of your old T-shirts and throw them over your kids, buy them painting aprons, or designate clothes specifically for crafting.
- Do the prep work in advance. Do as much prep work for a project as you can before you get the kids involved. Not everything on the page needs to be their work. It’s OK to help.
- Schedule several short sessions for one project. Children need several days to be able to create larger projects. Art is time-consuming and requires energy.
- Encourage your kids. Children are likely to be frustrated by the disconnect in the artwork they envision and the art they actually create. Remind your kids that they improve every time they create, and tell them how much you love their work (even if you don’t know what it is!). Also, stick figures are fabulous.
- Operate the hot glue gun and X-ACTO knife. Hot glue burns are terrible and X-ACTO knives are razor sharp. Until your kids are old enough to cook, I’d advise you do the hot gluing and razor cutting. For this project, you may want to pre-cut the Nativity Scene.
Supplies Needed to Make Your Nativity Garland Craft
You’ll need a few supplies to make your project. You may have a few of these items already. If not, these are all fairly inexpensive and will serve you well for multiple projects.
- Colored Cardstock
- Glue Stick
- Pencil
- Permanent Marker
- Scissors
- Twine
- Templates
Make Your Christmas Garland
Here are the steps for your garland craft:
1) Print and cut out your template pieces.
Print the template pages from step-by-step instructions and cut out the pieces.
2) Create your Magi.
Glue the hair and beards of each magi over the head. Glue a cloak over each tunic, as shown.
Glue each head to the top of a body.
Glue a crown to each head and a gift to the middle of each body.
Use a permanent marker to give each wise man a simple face.
3) Complete Mary and the baby Jesus.
Use a permanent marker to decorate the manger, as shown, and to give Mary and the baby Jesus hair.
Glue the hay into the manger, as shown. Glue Mary’s cloak over her dress.
Glue Mary’s head onto her body, as shown, and the baby’s head onto the body.
Glue the baby behind the manger, and use a permanent marker to give both Mary and baby Jesus simple faces.
4) Complete Joseph and the Shepherds.
Glue the hair and beards of Joseph’s head. Use a permanent marker to give hair to the shepherds.
Glue a head covering over each tunic, as shown. Glue each head in the center of the head covering.
Glue a band onto each headcovering, as shown. Use a permanent marker to give Joseph and each character a simple face.
5) Complete the sheep, camels, and star.
Glue a saddle on each camel. Glue a head on each sheep, and a puff of wool on top of each head.
Use permanent markers to give each camel and sheep a face, and to decorate each saddle.
Glue the star on the tail. Use a permanent marker to outline the star and draw lines on the tail.
6) Display your Nativity garland.
Glue each Nativity figure to the twine.
Your 12-month Bible verse calendar has themed devotions focusing on:
- The Bible
- Love
- The Church
- Resurrection
- Jesus
- Prayer
- The Holy Spirit
- The Fruit of the Spirit
- Salvation
- Our Father
- Thanksgiving
- Advent
Want a sample calendar? Grab your free Christmas Advent calendar here.
Books Make Great Gifts!
Teach the kids about the Bible and Christian history…
…with fun books they’ll love reading!
Introduce your children to engaging stories written in an engaging narrative they’ll want to read. As they learn more about God’s Word and gain real-life heroes, they will learn to apply Scripture to their own lives. And, give yourself the gift of a book that will help your kids learn and love the Bible.
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