[For Seniors] Fun Crafts Recommended for December
December brings fun events and major occasions like Christmas and New Year’s.
Let’s help older adults feel the season with crafts that capture the spirit of December! We’ve gathered many projects that are easy to prepare and simple to make, using recycled materials and items from 100-yen shops.
Moving the fingers during crafting can also have brain-training benefits.
You can display the finished pieces, or take them home to use if they’re practical items.
Enjoy a wonderful time with crafts that are perfect for wrapping up the year.
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[For Seniors] Fun Crafts Recommended in December (51–60)
Christmas tree
When you think of the biggest event in December… yes, it’s Christmas.
These days, it feels like fewer people shy away from Christmas by saying their religion is different—how is it around you? It’s said that Christmas began to take root in Japan around 1900.
A calendar featuring a Christmas tree as the main motif feels perfectly December-like and lovely.
Folding stars out of origami for the tree and using beads for ornaments makes creating it even more fun.
Cotton is perfect for adding a three-dimensional snowy effect!
Santa Claus and Presents
The gold coins that Saint Nicholas threw into poor households happened to land in stockings that were drying by the fireplace.
Thanks to those coins, everyone became happy.
From this anecdote came the custom of putting Christmas presents in stockings.
It’s a lovely story, isn’t it? Did you also receive presents in your stockings when you were children? Let’s use Santa and presents as decorations for the calendar.
Presents can be box-shaped, a big sack, or of course the stocking type—anything is OK! It would be great to create a colorful calendar!
Christmas tree made with origami
Why are fir trees used for Christmas trees? It varies by country, but in Germany it’s believed that little spirits dwell in fir trees, and that decorating them with food and presents brings good luck.
In Japan, do many places substitute cedar trees? Let’s try folding a Christmas tree with origami and make a calendar that features it.
The folding method is surprisingly simple, so please share it with everyone.
You can also use pipe cleaners or beads to decorate the tree!
Christmas tree made with an eraser stamp
Eraser stamps are a lot of fun, even if you feel a little sorry for the eraser itself.
A similar activity might be the rubber block prints we made in elementary school art class, right? I remember carving the zodiac animals to use on New Year’s cards.
If you’re good with your hands, making a calendar with eraser prints would be great, too.
Try carving Christmas-related motifs like fir trees, stars, presents, and snow.
Your sense of style will show in how you combine them and arrange the colors.
And please be very careful with the carving tools!
[For Seniors] Fun Crafts Recommended for December (61–70)
Simple Christmas decorations
These days, supermarkets and convenience stores start putting up Christmas decorations even before December.
It’s exciting how the year-end mood suddenly ramps up, but there’s also something a bit lonely about the year coming to a close.
How about you all? I think a calendar featuring all the Christmas characters—Santa, reindeer, snowmen—would be a lot of fun.
You can make them all, including the Christmas tree, by arranging triangles.
If there’s a chance to make it together, you could even divide up the tasks—like having Yamada-san make the reindeer.
Simple Santa Claus
Christmas has become firmly established in Japan.
In fact, until 1947, December 25 was a national holiday because it was the anniversary of Emperor Taishō’s death.
Seniors will remember that.
Speaking of Christmas, Santa Claus comes to mind.
With just red triangular paper, you can make something that already looks like Santa, so even if you’re not particularly skilled at crafts, don’t worry.
Use cotton for the beard and beige-colored paper for the face.
Giving him a cane or something might be stylish! A hat and scarf are great too—even a slightly dapper Santa is OK.
plastic bottle cap art
Introducing PET bottle cap art that lets you enjoy a pixel art–like expression.
As prep work, draw a grid on the base board.
Once you’ve decided on your subject, determine which colors are needed and where they should go.
The colors required will vary depending on the subject, so it’s important to work together to collect bottle caps.
After you’ve gathered enough caps, attach them with glue while checking their positions.
If you make it together for an event at a senior facility or another gathering, it can foster interaction among participants, and the sense of accomplishment when it’s finished will be all the greater.
Be sure to plan the process when you create it.
