Holiday Crafts for Kids: Christmas Around the World

Looking for some fun holiday crafts for kids during Christmas Break? Christmas Around the World is always a fun theme to incorporate into your holidays. Kids love learning about other cultures and countries and how they celebrate the holidays this time of year. Not only are crafts from around the world fun, they're educational as well. What more can you ask for? Before you dig out the paper, glue, and scissors, do a little research. Decide with your children what countries you want to learn about and make crafts. There are all kinds of wonderful resources on the internet for you to use in your research. Once you decide on which countries you'd like to learn more about, you can get started on the crafts. Try some of these fun ideas.

Flags of the World Ornaments

Use real ornaments or make paper ornaments with the countries flags on them. For this activity, you can also head on over to your local craft store such as Michaels Arts & Crafts to buy supplies to paint your own flag ornaments. They will have plain ornaments that you can paint on. For a image database of the world flags and countries, visit this website from the CIA.

Traditional Holiday Crafts

During your research, find traditional decor or a tradition the country enjoys during the holidays and recreate it with crafts. For example, The Nutcracker is a traditional ballet done in Russia. Design and create your own nutcracker using things from around the house like milk jugs or cartons, paper rolls, Legos, or wood pieces. For ideas, check out this great post from Multicultural Kids on DIY Christmas Ornaments Inspired by World Cultures.

Holiday Nature Crafts

Many countries have "treasures" that come from nature that you can recreate at home. For example, Poinsettias come from Mexico. You can make paper or tissue paper Poinsettias after learning about Mexico. Christmas trees originally came from Germany. In the link above, there is a beautiful Mexican Felt Poinsettia you can make with the kids. Do you have any Christmas crafts that you do with your kids that you can share with the Little Pim community? There are tons of fun Christmas tree crafts to make! Share your traditions in the comments below.

Holiday Dress Crafts

Many countries have traditional clothing they wear during the holidays. Make paper dolls or clothes pin dolls with the traditional clothing worn from the country you researched.

Paper Crafts

Make crafts of the countries you researched out of paper and hang on a tree or decorate your home. Origami is a great idea for Japan, or make paper chains from Sweden. Let your imagination run wild!

Whatever crafts you decide to use for Christmas Around the World, you know your kids are having fun learning and creating great crafts! For more fun activities, print out our Winter Coloring Pages or fun Hanukkah Crafts for Kids.

The Healthiest & Unhealthiest Christmas Dishes In The World

The holidays are a season of indulgence for most people around the world, when people come together to celebrate with loved ones over special dishes. We've been known to overdo it on the Christmas cookies, but there's more to holiday food than sweets. From France to Brazil to South Africa, every country has their own special healthy--and not-so-healthy-- traditional foods they enjoy around the holidays.

But some countries are definitely more indulgent than others, according to Yahoo. The website ranked countries by how healthy their traditional Christmas meals are.

Spain came out as the unhealthiest, with an average of over 70 grams of fat in their traditional meal, which often features roast lamb for dinner and nougat for dessert. The United States was right behind, thanks to Americans' love for fatty eggnog.

To contrast, Kenya's traditional Christmas meal of lean roasted goat and chapatti (unleavened bread) contains just 10 grams of fat, the lowest of any country in the list.

It's fine to enjoy the less healthy items on a special occasion--just make sure to get those veggies in too, like the Spaniards do with white asparagus. Or make like the Swedes do and serve herring as an appetizer instead of fatty dips.

As long as you don't overdo it at dinner, there's no reason to skip dessert. Add an international twist to your dessert tray with a French Yule Log Cake (Buche de Noel) or a delicious German Stollen, a fruit cake with dried fruit and marzipan.

Check out the infographic below to see how the meals ranked and find out the healthiest and unhealthiest Christmas dishes of each country.

Holiday Treats From Around the World

If you’ve been looking for some new treats to get your holidays off to a sweet start, all you need to do is spin the globe. We’ve found a selection of easy, and delicious, international treats that your whole family will enjoy both making and tasting for the upcoming holiday celebrations.

Swiss Basler Brunsli

(Courtesy of Saveur)

Courtesy of Saveur

These gluten-free chocolate-almond-spice cookies from Switzerland taste like chewy brownies. Note: Be sure to use the parchment paper when rolling out your dough to avoid sticking.

• 8 oz. whole blanched almonds
• 1 ½  cups sugar, plus more for rolling
• 6 oz. semisweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 ½  tsp. ground cinnamon
• ½  tsp. ground cloves
• 2 egg whites, lightly beaten

1. Finely grind almonds and sugar in a food processor. Add chocolate; pulse until finely ground. Add cinnamon, cloves, and egg whites; pulse until dough comes together.
2. Sprinkle a large piece of parchment paper with sugar; transfer dough to paper. Lay another piece of paper over dough; roll dough to 1/8" thickness.
3. Cut out cookies with star-shaped or other cutters; transfer to parchment paper lined baking sheets, spacing cookies 1" apart. Reroll scraps and repeat. Let dough dry for 3 hours.
4. Heat oven to 300°.
5. Bake until cookies are slightly puffed, 12–15 minutes.

French Palmiers (Elephant Ears)

(Adapted from Saveur)

Easy baking alert! You can make these light and crispy French pastry treats with just 2 ingredients!

• 1 package puff pastry dough
• ½ cup of granulated sugar

1. Cut dough square in half and roll out ¼ inch thick, sprinkling with sugar as you work. Roll or fold the short ends 2 or 3 times inwards to reach the middle. Fold the dough in half along the center and press gently to seal. Repeat with remaining half of puff pastry. Refrigerate at least 30 minutes.
2. Heat oven to 350 degrees.
3. Slice the rolled dough about 1/3 inch thick and sprinkle with more sugar. Place dough on an ungreased baking sheet about 1 inch apart.
4. Bake until golden brown, about 30 minutes, turning the cookies once halfway through.

Norwegian Crowns

Melt in your mouth butter cookies from Norway.

• ½ cup butter
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 egg
• ½ tsp almond extract
• 1 ¼ cups sifted all purpose flour

1. Heat oven to 375 degrees
2. Cream butter with an electric beater and then gradually add sugar. When mixed, add the egg and the almond extract.
3. Slowly add the sifted flour.
4. Fill cookie press and use a half moon shape to create crowns.
5. Bake 10 to 12 minutes until golden.