Welcome back to my 5 Days of Construction Paper Christmas crafting! I hope you had fun with your pretty winter tree paper art project yesterday. Today we are on Day 2—get that Christmas music back on and get ready to make a…. (is the suspense getting to you?!)

Ripped paper candy cane craft!

Woohoo! This Christmas craft is nice and easy and PERFECT for even the littlest of crafters to join in with. 

These mosaics can turn out so beautifully! You can cut the candy cane out afterward and hang it with ribbon on the fireplace mantle or above a bedroom doorway.

I am going to continue my plan that I shared yesterday—being entirely easygoing and open to the (very real) possibility that one or more of my children might decide to take this craft in a different direction. Should this beautiful candy cane mosaic be turned on its side and slightly adjusted to become a candy cane pistol, I solemnly vow to simply smile and remember that the memories are what I am choosing to treasure. 

For this candy cane paper craft, your will need red and green construction paper cut into strips. I suggest doing this one colour at a time so you end up with a pile full of red construction paper pieces and then a pile full of green construction paper pieces. 

Rip up all of the red strips with your children into small squares. My kids like to call this confetti. This is great for strengthening little hands and ideal for even very young toddlers to help with. Once all the red strips have been ripped up into small pieces, put them aside and do the green strips.

Now take a piece of blank construction paper and draw on a simple candy cane shape, splitting the candy cane with some stripes. Make sure each section of the candy cane is a good size.

Next, add some glue (I found glue sticks work perfectly) to the first section of the candy cane and cover that with the red ripped pieces of paper. Add more glue over top of the construction paper and keep adding the red ripped pieces until the whole section is covered. Have some wet washcloths handy to get glue off little fingers.

Once that first section is covered, do this again to the second section but use the green bits of paper.

Keep going, alternating back and forth between your red and green bits of ripped construction paper until your whole candy cane is filled in. 

Voila!

Once this is dry, if you have some little ones who really loved this activity, flip your paper over and do this to the BACK of the paper as well, matching the shape and the colours. This way, should you choose to cut your candy cane out and hang it somewhere, it will be beautifully coloured with the construction paper on both sides.

You can cut this candy cane out and pop it on a wall or a bedroom door, or you can hang it from the ceiling with a ribbon. This also makes a lovely gift if you wanted to pop it by a loved one’s porch.

And don’t worry one little bit if you have ripped construction paper confetti all over the floor. It turns out most young children LOVE to try out the vacuum hose! 

There you have it, my friend. Your construction paper Christmas craft number TWO! What do you think? I hope you and yours love it.

Now for the giveaway! 🎉

UPDATE: The giveaway is now closed. Congratulations to the winner, Kaitlyn G!

You may have heard me talk about Playful Days, my brand-new toddler program launching in January 2023. It has one activity or craft every day full of fun, learning, and beauty. The program is organized into 7 themes, filled with beautiful printables, songs and poems, gorgeous vocabulary cards, recommended books, and of course, your daily craft or activity. Take a peek at it right here: https://www.howweelearn.com/playfuldays/

As a super special bonus, I have decided to give away a copy of Playful Days to one lucky crafter! When you do one of the 5 Christmas Paper Crafts, snap a picture and share it with us in the comments below. No picture? No problem! Just leave a comment saying, “I did it!!” Every person who comments will be entered to win!

 

I will be back tomorrow with our third project! See you then, my sweet friend,

xo
Sarah