[For Seniors] January Craft Ideas for Day Service Activities
In January, we have the longstanding Japanese traditional event, the New Year’s celebration.
Many day service centers and welfare facilities likely put a lot of effort into decorations themed around January, the start of a new year.
So this time, we’ll introduce January crafts recommended for day service programs.
It’s still quite chilly, so let’s enjoy craft activities you can do indoors!
Even after the New Year’s holidays, winter-themed decorations like snow motifs and plum blossoms can stay up and be enjoyed as they are.
In addition to decorations, we’ve assembled many works that are perfect for January.
There are lots of ideas, including auspicious items, practical pieces, and projects that incorporate creative twists in the materials.
By all means, use these January craft ideas as a reference.
- [For Seniors] January Craft Ideas: Boost Your Luck with New Year Decorations and Good-Luck Charms
- [For Seniors] Recommended Wall Decorations and Crafts for January
- For Seniors: Auspicious Handmade Zodiac Ornament Craft Ideas
- [For Seniors] Let’s Make New Year Decorations by Hand! A Collection of Easy Ideas Using Everyday Materials
- [For Seniors] Recommended for day services! Simple and cute small craft ideas
- [For Seniors] Recommended Origami for January
- [For Seniors] Enjoy the Cold Winter! Simple, Recommended Crafts
- Lucky Daruma: Craft ideas for decorating January wall displays for seniors
- For seniors: Snowman crafts to brighten January wall displays—fun ideas using origami, paper plates, and papercutting.
- [For Seniors] January Activities and Recreation Games
- [For Seniors] Craft Ideas Recommended for New Year’s and the New Year
- [For Seniors] Perfect for winter events! Easy craft ideas
- [For Seniors] Decorate your January wall with rabbits! Packed with ideas like snowball fights, New Year’s festivities, and rice cake pounding
[For Seniors] January Craft Ideas to Make at Day Service (91–100)
Felt Fukuwarai
If you make a fukuwarai game out of felt, you can enjoy its soft texture.
Cut out the face base and each facial part like the eyes and mouth, then add expression by layering different felt pieces or using embroidery on the eyes and mouth.
You can also draw directly with a marker pen if you like.
The detailed handiwork will serve as good finger dexterity training.
Once it’s finished, everyone can of course play fukuwarai together, and above all, the soft look is just adorable!
Felt ema (votive plaque)
This project involves attaching decorations—such as zodiac animals and lucky charms made of felt—onto a felt base shaped like an ema plaque.
While ema are typically thought of as flat, using felt for both the base and the decorations creates a soft, three-dimensional effect.
A key point is to finish the decorations with a soft feel by adding stuffing inside or layering pieces when gluing them on.
If making each decoration from scratch is challenging, another recommended approach is to prepare the parts in advance and have participants arrange them to create their own design.
[For Seniors] January Craft Ideas to Make at Day Service (101–110)
cardboard ema (votive tablet)
Cut cardboard into the shape of ema (votive plaques), then decorate them with New Year–themed illustrations such as the zodiac animals and with each person’s wishes.
By making use of the cardboard’s natural brown color, you can evoke the soft, wooden feel of real ema.
You can certainly have everyone draw their own design on the front, but if you prepare illustrations in advance and let participants choose from them, they can focus more on thinking about their wishes and writing the text.
Selecting an illustration that perfectly matches each wish is another enjoyable part of the process.
Lucky God Ornament
A “god of good fortune” is a deity believed to bring luck, with the Seven Lucky Gods being a representative example.
In particular, good-luck decorations made using paper clay in molds have a soft texture that soothes hearts tired from everyday study or work, making them a great New Year craft idea.
Try carefully crafting various types of deities while wishing for a year of happiness.
Displaying these auspicious gods—filled with your hopes—makes you feel excited, as if something good is bound to happen!
God of Good Fortune in Paper Clay
If you like kyogen, the play “Fuku no Kami” might be the first thing that comes to mind.
But how about stepping away from kyogen for a moment and making a God of Good Fortune out of paper clay? The fluffy feel of paper clay even has a touch of nostalgia.
When we think of gods of good fortune, there are many, like Otafuku and the Seven Lucky Gods.
It’s fine to make your personal favorite, but it could be fun to have everyone complete the Seven Lucky Gods together—“I’ll make Daikokuten,” “I’ll do Bishamonten,” and so on.
You could divide into groups of seven and create lots of sets of the Seven Lucky Gods; with a bit of creativity, it becomes a good-luck recreational activity for the spring.
A life-sized ema made from A4 copy paper
This is an easy-to-make ema (votive plaque) using A4 copier paper that doesn’t even require scissors.
You trim both ends of a rectangle into roof-like shapes, fold it in half, and tuck it in, resulting in smooth finishes on both sides.
You will need small creases as guides for shaping, but to keep the final product looking neat, it’s best to make these guide creases as inconspicuous as possible.
If you insert a piece of cardstock while shaping, it will turn out sturdier and should also make it easier to write your wish.
Bunny Wreath
One animal that suits winter well might be the rabbit.
Its fluffy white fur is like snow and matches the season perfectly.
How about making a rabbit wreath using pom-poms made from yarn? Use a pom-pom maker sold at 100-yen shops to wrap the yarn and create fluffy balls.
Since wrapping the yarn uses fine motor skills, it’s also great for rehabilitation.
Once the balls are ready, attach ears made from precut fabric and felt.
Finish by gluing on ten rabbit heads with a hot glue gun.
