- Metal coat hanger
- Pantyhose (one pair)
- Cotton balls
- Construction paper or card (red)
- Pair of scissors
- Glue
It is up to you whether or not to use a hot glue gun on this project. Drying time is reduced, but so is the child's independence. Keep in mind that white glue (PVC glue) will take hours to dry, and it's a little harder to make it stick to the pantihose while drying.
Begin with Santa's smile. Step one in making the adorable Santa Claus is to shape the hanger into Santa's head. Simply get the loop of hanger and the other end and pull tightly in opposite directions – this should make a diamond shape out of the hanger. Then just keep pulling until you have a rounder shape. You do not need to make it exact - and it is perfectly acceptable for the children to be creative when it comes to the shape of Santa's face. Maybe he has chubby cheeks or a long face. Just about any shape looks like a face will be fine.
Put the pantyhose over the face. After you are satisfied with your face shape, attach Santa's skin to the hanger. The first thing you need to do is attach the top (the waist) of the nylons to the hanger's hook. Use an elastic band to hold it firmly in place or tie it tightly. Make sure that you tie the stocking legs off so that they won't come off of the Santa face. Then cut off the legs of the pantyhose leaving about two inches of excess nylon above the knot.
Make Santa's hat. Here is the fun part- you and the children can use your imaginations to make something really unique. All Santas need a hat! Get the red construction paper, measure Santa's face in width and put a mark on both edges of your construction paper. The next step is to cut the shape of a triangle from the construction paper, but do make sure that the hat is not any less wide then Santa's head. Put some cotton balls around the base and one on top of the hat. After this you should glue the hat at the top of Santa so that it covers the hook of the hanger.
Create a face for Santa. With colored paper, you should cut out Santa's eyes, nose and mouth (plastic googly eyes would be good in this situation too). On the nylon skin glue the features of the face. Be cautious and don't touch them until they have fully dried, or they might move.
The beard. Without a beard it wouldn't be a Santa face! You can make a very fluffy beard for Santa using many cotton balls. Be careful that you don’t cover up his mouth though!
If you would like to make Santa's beard longer, you can add a little bit of construction paper. You have completed your Santa face once you have done this.
Tiffany Provost writes about Christmas and holidays for HowToDoThings.com.
Tags: christmas, holiday, kids, recreation, santa face