Handmade Christmas Crafts: A Christmas Wish Box Makes a Great Gift

Before you begin with handmade Christmas crafts, it is wise to have a quick sort through all those boxes of art and craft supplies that you have collected throughout the year. You will probably discover that your handmade Christmas crafs can be easily and quickly made from recyclables and left over items that you already have in the classroom, rather than needing to go out and buy new supplies.

To make a Christmas Wish Box, you will need:

• choice of paints - bright colors give the best effect, or go for colors you know will blend well together
• painting utensils - brushes, rollers, sponges
• some old cardboard boxes
• glue or paste suitable for student use
• safety scissors, or board mounted scissors for students who cannot independently grip scissors (the cutting component of this task is a great way of building fine motor skills with special needs learners)
• access to a computer with a basic word processing program such as Word
• some decoration, such as the silver string used in the photo above
• samples of student artwork, messages, stories or other special items to include inside the box

1. Students paint on a piece of plain paper (eg. butcher's paper) Encourage choice making through colors and textures, and language skills through naming colors and paint utensils.
2. Allow paint to dry.
3. Cut paper to size, so that pieces can be fitted to the cardboard box. You will need to cut two large rectangles for front and back, and narrower strips for the sides. Leave the top of the box open.
4. Paste the colored paper to the box.
5. Assist students with special needs to write the text for the front of the box using the computer. 'The Wish Box'. Encourage choice making through choice of font color and size, and if suitable introduce new program functions such as Word Art. Some students may prefer to use a program such as Dragon Naturally Speaking to dictate their message if they find keyboarding difficult. Some students may use adaptive programs or equipment to help them create the text of the message, such as a tracker ball mouse or a head pointer.

Dragon Naturally Speaking article by this author

The concept behind this simple Christmas gift is to include a 'wish' for the person the box is being given to. This is often simply a message wishing a happy holiday season, a happy Christmas, or a happy holiday. For some students, the message may be more personal, or contain a wish which expresses their thoughts and feelings about the person, or something they wish for that person.

Along with the 'wish' students can include special gifts, pieces of artwork collected over the course of a year, stories, samples of their classwork, or other handmade items which have particular meaning.

Ideally, anything included in the box should be personal and have meaning, and should be handmade rather than store bought. This helps students understand that Christmas does not have to be about buying expensive gifts for others; it can be simply about the act of sharing a wish and a handmade present with someone special. And by using recylables and left over art supplies to make your handmade Christmas crafts with special needs learners, you are also teaching your students about caring for our environment through reducing our 'shopping footprint'.