Kids Get Crafty – Nikolaus Sterne or Santa Stars

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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 free 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!