Take-Home Craft Ideas for Winter: Perfect for Day Services for Seniors
Many people enjoy doing crafts at nursing homes and day service centers, don’t they?
This time, we’re introducing craft ideas for seniors to make in winter that they can take home from day service!
We’ve gathered easy-to-prepare projects, including those that use recycled materials and supplies from 100-yen shops.
When it comes to crafts, aside from large decorations to hang on the wall, most items can be taken home.
More intricate projects that require fine motor skills may take several days to complete, but the sense of accomplishment and joy when they’re finished is exceptional.
Of course, there are also cute crafts that can be made in a single day, so please use these ideas as a reference for craft activities at nursing homes and day service centers.
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- [For Seniors] Practical Crafts to Make in Day-Service Recreation: Idea Roundup
- [For Seniors] Enjoy the Cold Winter! Simple, Recommended Crafts
- [For Seniors] Fun Crafts Recommended for December
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- [For Seniors] Fun to Make, Soothing to Display! Snowman Craft Ideas
- [For Seniors] Small craft ideas: for yourself and as gifts!
- [For Seniors] Easy Origami Recommended for Winter
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- [For Seniors] DIY Strap Craft Ideas. Great as Gifts, Too!
[For Seniors] Take-Home Craft Ideas for Day Services to Make in Winter (91–100)
Rabbit ema (a wooden Shinto votive tablet featuring a rabbit)
Let’s try making an ema plaque featuring the zodiac using a kit.
Many facilities probably create New Year’s crafts around the year-end and New Year holidays.
Using a kit makes preparation easy and allows you to create lovely pieces.
Cut out the parts with scissors and attach them to the ema plaque that serves as the base.
The process of applying glue to the small parts and sticking them onto the plaque seems like something you can really focus on.
There are reports suggesting that, for dementia prevention, concentrating on new tasks is more beneficial than doing familiar ones.
By using a kit to create a beautiful piece, you can also expect brain-training benefits.
Easy DIY: Ema with Traditional Japanese Patterns
This craft strongly conveys that ema are part of Japanese culture by using thick paper as a base and decorating the edges with Japanese-patterned origami.
Cut the thick paper into the shape of an ema, then wrap and paste Japanese-patterned origami around the border.
Leave the center white to write a wish, and finish by attaching illustrations—such as the zodiac animals—prepared separately from the backing.
In addition to origami, it’s recommended to prepare various Japanese-style patterns using masking tape and more, so participants can enjoy choosing their favorite combinations.
[For Seniors] Take-Home Craft Ideas for Day Services to Make in Winter (101–110)
Flower memo stand
Here’s an introduction to a recreation craft using plastic bottle caps.
First, prepare two plastic bottles.
Put them together and wrap them all around with double-sided tape, except for the bottom.
Wrap brown paper cord around the outside.
At the top, wind a brown pipe cleaner around and stick it on.
If you add double-sided tape at the top and wrap a ribbon around it, it will look cute.
Poke a hole in the pipe cleaner and shape a pink pipe cleaner into a flower.
Attach it to the pipe cleaner that will serve as the stem, and insert it into the hole you made.
Your flower pot is complete! Have fun making it!
Cute Santa and an origami Christmas tree
Just by putting a little decoration in your room, you can instantly get into the Christmas spirit with these “cute Santa and origami Christmas trees.” The charm of this craft is that you can make it with familiar materials like colored construction paper, origami paper, and toilet paper rolls! For both crafts, the main steps involve cutting and pasting colored paper or origami.
A key point is using toilet paper for Santa’s hat and outfit’s white trim, as well as his beard! For the beard in particular, the toilet paper is torn by hand to give it a fluffy finish.
If you’re incorporating this into a day-service craft activity, it might go smoothly if you assign roles and have everyone divide up the tasks.
Shimenawa wreath decoration
Why not try making a handmade shimenawa wreath, an essential New Year’s decoration? It’s perfect for seniors’ finger dexterity training, and the handmade touch gives it a unique charm you won’t find in store-bought items.
For the shimenawa rope, you can unravel paper cord available at 100-yen shops and braid it yourself.
You can also enjoy decorating it however you like with items such as fans made from chiyogami paper, camellia flowers crafted from colored paper, and mizuhiki cords.
If making the shimenawa from paper cord feels too challenging, using a store-bought wreath base could be an easier way to finish it.
Daruma Fukuwarai
Some seniors may remember playing fukuwarai with their families during New Year’s.
Here’s a craft kit that will bring back those fun times.
Using fabric, you can make a daruma-themed fukuwarai decoration.
Attach fabric pieces, cut into each facial part, onto a felt base.
Since it only involves cutting and pasting, it’s also recommended for older men who have never tried sewing.
The best part of this kit is placing the facial features.
You can start with the eyes or the nose—whichever you like.
Let seniors arrange the pieces however they prefer.
It’s a fukuwarai kit that makes the process itself a joyful time.
Fukumamori
Why not try handmaking a Fukumamori, a charm said to bring happiness? It’s a great idea both as an accessory for seniors to wear and as a gift for someone special.
Cut slits at both ends of the center of a piece of felt, then attach a string and decorative pom-poms onto tape and sandwich them between the felt.
After sticking fabric and buttons onto the felt, decorate with triangular fabric and beads, and finish by tying the string.
Create a heartwarming gift with a Japanese or Christmas theme!
