Red Ted Art

Cute & Easy Crafts for Kids

Kids Get Crafty – Nikolaus Sterne or Santa Stars

Welcome to Kids Get Crafty. On Monday the 6th December was St Nikolaus day. In Germanic countries this is celebrated with St Nikolaus visiting the children and bringing them Satsumas/ Mandarines/ Clementines, nuts and dried fruit. The specific tradition varies from country to country and family to family, but at our house, IF Red Ted has been good (!) we leave a little basket outside the bedroom door (traditionally it is a shoe or boot) and St Nikolaus comes during the night and fills it with goodies! To celebrate, we also made a little “Nikolaus Stern” or “Santa Star”. This is a widespread craft and I really cannot take any credit for it. Non the less, it is cute!

Simple Santa Star cards for Preschoolers and Kindergarden. I remember making these as a child and loving both the process and outcome!

These darling Santa Stars were first published in Dec 2010 and have been updated and republished for your convenience.

The Craft

I cannot stress enough, that many of the crafts we do, are really simple and VERY quick. They require a tiny bit of set up time and then the children can really enjoy it. Again, I made one “first” and Red Ted copied. As we craft more and more together, I have noticed how Red Ted really is “ready” to listen to instructions and “knows” that if he does something fun will result. This is great for demonstrating crafts, but equally, I am aware that I must make sure to let his own creativity develop… I digress. The craft:

Materials: Red card or paper, pink card or paper, cotton wool, black pen, glue, scissors

1) Cut a 5 pointed star (I am rubbish at getting mine evenly, so here is a template)

2) Cute a semi circle for the face – glue on

3) Glue on some cotton wool

4) Draw in some eyes and some boots (I love how seriously Red Ted is concentrating whilst drawing on the little boots!)

Done aaaaaAAAAAND HANG:

Hang on your Christmas Garland: we have our Christmas Trees, our Snowmen and now our Nikolaus’s. Red Ted was SO excited to see them all together and insisted on attaching them himself (with some masking tape). It was the first thing he showed Daddy when he come home in the evening!

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Filed Under: Card making, Christmas, Kids Craft 48 Comments

Comments

  2. Tasha says

    December 8, 2010 at 10:48 am

    This is lovely. I am definitely going to make a lovely garland like this with Milo to hang up. He is enjoying the Christmas crafting a lot at the moment – our house is permanently covered in glitter!

    Reply

  7. nicole says

    December 8, 2010 at 3:34 pm

    cute idea- will save this idea for our annual st nicholas event at chruch (which i’ll be in charge of again!).

    was the book worth buying to copy illustrations for kids to color (ie scan and put into cartoon form?)?
    thanks!

    Reply

  8. kewkew says

    December 9, 2010 at 8:15 am

    That Santa is so cute, though I have been avoiding Santa crafts as we don’t “do” Santa and I want to focus on the true meaning of Christmas. Not knocking anyone who does include Santa, it’s just something I don’t believe in. I like that the book shares the true story of Saint Nicholas. When Santa comes up around here I am careful to make sure the girls know there was such a person once. Sorry the book didn’t live up to your expectations.

    Reply

  13. JDaniel4's Mom says

    December 10, 2010 at 11:33 am

    I love the Santa garland. You are so right about simple crafts coming together to make beautiful things.

    Thanks for linking to Read.Explore.Learn. I have Stumbled and tweeted about your post.

    Reply

  17. Red Ted Art says

    December 10, 2010 at 4:55 pm

    Thank you all for your lovely and kind comments!! We are very much enjoying our Santa’s and Red Ted is so proud of himself!!!

    Reply

  18. Jackie says

    December 10, 2010 at 5:26 pm

    That’s such a cute craft. My husband’s family celebrate St. Nicholas’s day- but I didn’t grow up with it and I always forget.. until my MIL gives my boys a sock of stuff. I guess I’m going to have to try and remember as they get older!

    Reply

  22. Natalie says

    December 10, 2010 at 9:06 pm

    Very pretty craft, and I like how it works on your chain with Christmas trees and snowmen! We celebrate Nikolaus as well even though I was very tempted to leave the shoe empty this year, since daughter was particularly naughty on the Nikolaus Eve!

    Reply

  23. Red Ted Art says

    December 10, 2010 at 10:02 pm

    Natalie – I know just what you mean!!! Our little ones do test us! (and Liz) As to the chain, it was a bit of a fluke! I never really thought of putting them all together like this until the very end! We were lucky it worked!

    Alethea – I love it when they take pride in their crafts!

    Reply

  25. texttussi says

    December 11, 2010 at 2:02 pm

    I just made the stars with my daughter and we had so much fun! They are not as well done as yours, but I’m sure the grandparents will love them. We attached little clothes pins on the back so we can attach them to presents.
    Thanks for the idea!

    Reply

    • Red Ted Art says

      December 12, 2010 at 8:05 am

      Texttussi – Oh I like the little clothes peg idea! Fabulous and you prob attach them to the tree that way too!
      Lizzy_o – Yes, will do my best to remind you of crafts pasts!!!

      Reply

  26. Lizzy_o says

    December 11, 2010 at 8:40 pm

    Thank you so much for all the really interesting information about St Nikolaus Day! I love the piccies of Red Ted – he’s concentrating so hard! I think it’s safe to say that your little man will have no problem on the creative front! I can’t wait for my Boo to get a bit older so that he can take part in this kind of crafting! I hope you’ll remind us of this post next year too! 🙂

    Reply

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