Advent calendars begin on the closest Sunday to November 30th and help children count down the days to Jesus' birth on Christmas. Make a paper wreath for each Sunday on the advent calendar and let the children paste paper candles and flames on the wreath for each day that goes by in the week. You might consider hanging the calendars up in a prominent place in the dining room, for example. Use the opportunity to read them a story from the biblical accounts of Jesus' birth or sing a song.
Help the kids create their own nativity scenes using a board, glue sticks and colored construction paper. If you design the nativity scene beforehand and draw dotted lines on the construction paper, the children can cut them out with safety scissors. Provide some assistance with assembly of the nativity scene by showing them where to glue the pieces of paper, and maybe even add some extras to it like sparkles. The kids can also cut out pictures of barnyard animals and paste them in the nativity scene.
This craft involves turning a candy cane into a reindeer that you can hang on the tree. It requires a piece of red or brown pipecleaner, small wiggle eyes, red beads, red ribbon and white glue or, preferably, a hot glue gun. By tying the pipe cleaner at the top of the candy cane, reindeer horns are created. Then, to make a face, all you need are wiggle eyes and a red bead "nose" at the hooked end of the candy cane. The ribbon goes around the middle of the candy cane to complete the look.
Craft-stick Santa ornaments start with a cutout of Santa's head and hat from some thick white paper. Let the kids draw his face on it and color his hat red. Pieces of cotton glued to his face make his beard, hair and the tip of the hat. Use construction paper for the red suit and glue it to a tongue depressor, leaving enough room on the stick to attach the head. When you have finished attaching the head, glue both ends of a piece of ribbon to the tongue depressor at the back of Santa's head so you can hang it up on the tree. Kids can decorate the ornament further by sticking extra decorations on with a glue stick.