Make it Christmas, with The Week Junior

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Scroll down to find three step-by-step Christmas crafts – they're simple enough for kids to make with minimal adult supervision.

Make your own Christmas wrapping paper

Try out this crafting projecting with your child by making this amazing wood-block printed wrapping paper, created by children's illustrator, author and artist, Olaf Falafel.

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You will need:

• A small sheet of foam
• A ballpoint pen
• An old plate or tray
• Some paint
• A roller
• Large sheet of white paper
• Felt-tip pens

1. Before you start, prepare your workstation. Protect your table with paper. Then, take the foam sheet and the pen (a ballpoint is best).

2. Draw your festive pattern onto the foam sheet. Be sure to press down quite hard so the pen makes a groove in the foam.

3. On a covered surface, mix up some paint on a plate or a tray. Roll the paint roller into the paint, then roll the colour onto the foam sheet.

4. Press your pattern onto the large sheet of white paper. Peel off the foam to reveal the design.

5. Repeat stages 3 and 4 again until the whole sheet is covered with your design.

6. Leave the paper to dry. Use felt-tip pens for extra detail. Your wrapping paper is ready!

Craft Christmas houses

What you need:

• Cardboard boxes or cartons
• A pencil
• Scissors
• Old magazines
• Glue
• A ruler
• Fairy lights or LED tea lights

1. Flatten a small box. To make the house shape, draw matching triangles on facing sides of the box for the roof. Cut out the roof shape on both sides and across the sides of the box.

2. Cut some magazine pieces to cover the box. Glue the magazine then press it smoothly around the corners and sides of the box. Trim off the magazine ends.

3. Cut thin rectangular holes for the windows. It's easiest to cut up from the bottom of the house – and downwards from the top if you want upstairs windows.

4. Stick card strips covered in magazines below or above the window holes. Glue thin strips across the windows, sticking from inside the house.

5. Measure the top of the house, cut a piece of card for the roof then glue magazines over the top. Trim or fold the magazines around the edges. Fold the roof in half then glue it to the house. Finally, add lights; use LED tea lights or mini fairy lights.

Bake festive ginger snaps

This recipe is from Sam Bilton, a member of the Guild of Food Writers. She's a food historian, writer and cook. She says “Christmas is the time of year when spicy scents fill the air, especially when a batch of gingerbread is baking.”

You will need:

• 225g flour, plus a little extra for dusting
• ¼ tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp white pepper
• 110g Demerara sugar
• 55g butter, cut into cubes
• 120g golden syrup
• 50g treacle
• Sieve
• Mixing bowl
• Wooden spoon
• Chopping board
• Rolling pin
• Cookie cutters
• Baking sheet lined with non-stick baking paper
• Pastry brush
• A small bowl of water

1. Preheat the oven to 150C, then wash your hands.

2. Sieve the flour, bicarbonate of soda, ginger and white pepper into a bowl. Add the sugar and mix.

3. Rub the butter into the spiced flour mixture until the butter is mixed into the flour.

4. Use a wooden spoon to mix in the syrup and treacle until you have a soft dough. If necessary, use your hands to bring the dough together.

5. Lightly dust a clean surface such as a chopping board with a little flour. Onto this, roll out the dough.

6. Use the cutter to create the desired shapes from the dough then place them on the lined baking sheet. If you don’t have a cutter, use a mug to cut out circles.

7. Brush each shape with a little water and bake in the oven for 10–15 minutes.

8. When they are ready the snaps will be slightly darker around the edges but still soft.

9. Allow the snaps to cool on the tray for five minutes to harden up, then transfer to a wire rack and leave them to go completely cold.

Give The Week Junior this Christmas

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