I have a lot of great memories of when my mom made the month of December so much fun when growing up. One of our favorite things as kids was the Christmas paper chain she made. Each chain contained a paper inside that told us what special thing we were going to do for the day. Not everyday contained a fun craft type project but sometimes it focused on what we could do for others. Regardless of what the chain link contained, we were always so excited to open it for the day.
As a young family, we’re slowly establishing traditions for our own children now and I knew I wanted to keep up the paper chain. I tried it in the past but our children were just too young to really enjoy it or understand what each link contained so I stopped for the last several years. This year, I decided to reintroduce it and the response from our children has been sheer excitement.
I think the paper chains are fairly common and if you do a Google search, I’m sure you’ll find lots of ideas but here is the one I made and how I did it.
You will need:
25 strips of Christmas paper
25 strips of white paper (optional)
Number stickers (optional)
Adhesive (optional)
List of 25 things to do
Pen
Stapler
I used to be a Creative Memories Consultant so I have a ton of scrapbooking supplies left and to make it easier on me, I decided to use some of their pre-cut strips of paper and the number stickers. The strips of scrapbooking paper are approximately 2″x12″. I cut them in half instead of using one full strip per chain link. And since I had some Creative Memories white card stock paper, I went ahead and used that on the under side of the scrapbook paper, tacking it down with some adhesive.
I then used a chiseled chip pen to write on the white card stock for what each chain link should contain. You can skip the whole white paper if you want to write on the underside of the decorative paper. I remember my mom used wrapping paper for the chain links and some years she would write on the underside of the wrapping paper. Other times, she used a typewriter and cut the list to size, slipping it into the wrapping paper and folding the wrapping paper over like a present. I flipped the paper over and used the numbered stickers on the decorative side. After all the links were done, I started stapling from day 25 and working my way down to day 1.
[Tweet “Make your own Count Down to Christmas paper chain #frugalliving #frugalholidays”]
In the picture, the chain is hooked up so I could fit it mostly in one picture but really, our chain is just dangling straight down from a wall sconce. My mom would attach it to either the wall or a bookcase but you can put it anywhere where it’s reachable for the kids.
25 Days ‘Til Christmas Ideas:
- Cut Christmas tree
- Bake cookies
- Sing Christmas carols
- Decorate the tree
- Make corn husk dolls
- Make apple face ornaments
- Read the Christmas Story
- Do something nice for sibling
- Send a Christmas card to someone special
- Sleep by the tree
- Make peppermint hot chocolate
- Go see Christmas lights
- Make paper snowflakes
- Decorate the gingerbread house
- Make gifts for Grandparents
- Make peppermint meringues
- Make Ting-a-lings
- Make doggie biscuits
- Make play-doh
- Draw names for Christmas present exchange
- Go shopping for exchange
- Make/decorate gift bags
- Make homemade soap
- String popcorn for tree
- Make gift baskets
So tell me, do you make paper chains for Christmas? What are some of the things you put inside each link?
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