We had a few blank and leftover holiday cards, so today we turned them into crafts in two ways: one for Hanukkah and one for Christmas!

For the first, we had a few Hanukkah cards with bumpy 3-D elements, and I thought these would be great for holiday rubbings, similar to fall leaf rubbings. I removed the paper wrapper from a blue crayon and showed Veronika how to place the cards under a sheet of blank paper, then rub sideways with the crayon to reveal the images underneath.

Neat images of dreidels and the Star of David seemed to magically appear before her eyes. If you don’t have cards with these bumpy elements, you can also cut shapes from poster board, place under the paper, and rub over them. It was hard for Veronika to get the mechanics down of rubbing with the crayon sideways…

…but big brother Travis could do it!

Meanwhile, Veronika really enjoyed simply scribbling with blue on the leftover cards and envelopes, or pretending to “mail them”.

We also had a few Christmas cards to upcycle, and these made perfect Christmas Card Ball ornaments.

Cut an old Christmas card into strips, then punch a hole in the top and bottom of each.

Arrange the strips in order, then insert a brad in the top holes.

Fan all the pieces out, then begin adding them to a second brad through the bottom hole, bending each so you form an orb shape as you work.

Finally, loop a string around the top brad, securing with a knot, then tie into a loop that can hang from a Christmas tree. Veronika loved playing with all the materials as I worked on these, particularly mimicking me with safety scissors and extra brads.

This was a fun activity to do side-by-side with a toddler, and so pretty hanging from the tree.