Crayon Melt Christmas Tree Craft

The boys headed of to the woods, with the Man of the House, this afternoon, in search of a Christmas tree. The minivan can't make it safely up the logging roads, and there is only room for two children to ride along, in our truck, so they have to take turns going on the quest for the tree.

The older girls, who got to go last year, consoled themselves by walking to the library. But, the younger girls, who haven't had a turn yet, were despondent, until they realized they would get to make their own, Christmas tree craft, while the boys were gone.

To begin with, I folded a piece of green construction paper in half for each of the girls, and drew a triangle on it, for them to cut, so they had two, matching triangles.

Then, they used a hole punch, to make holes through both triangles at once. I had to help C (age 4) with the puncher, but E (age 6) was able to manage it on her own.

When they had their trees covered in holes, I laid out a piece of wax paper on top of an old towel, with one of the triangles underneath, as a guide, for them to drop crayon sharpenings onto. They used mainly red, silver, and yellow crayons. Though, C added in some purple, and E used some pink.

I covered the crayon bits with another sheet of wax paper...

...folded the towel over it, and ironed across it, with a hot iron...

...to melt the crayon, between the sheets of wax paper. This is probably a very familiar technique to anyone working with children's crafts, and is just like what we did for our fall trees.

I let the crayon cool for a few seconds, and then traced the triangle onto the wax paper, for the girls to cut out, inside the lines - making it a little smaller than their paper triangles.

Then, they glued it between the triangles, making sure to line up the holes, on each side, and sandwiching in a small brown rectangle, at the bottom, for a trunk.

When, we hung them on the windows, the sun shone through the holes, to make the "ornaments" glow, in a very satisfying manner.

It's great to be a homeschooler.