Beyond the South End

Christmas Art Class

 

I’ve always enjoyed artsy-crafty things. I don’t have a chance to do much in that area these days, but I remember the day the red and green construction paper came out every year and we got to make Christmas decorations in our Christmas art class.

South End kids usually didn’t come from families who could afford to buy fancy Christmas decorations, so making something bright to take home for our Christmas holiday was a special treat. No doubt the teacher spent some of her own hard-earned money to supply us with that red and green construction paper.

Sometimes we were asked to bring in some things we may have at home that we could use to help us in our Christmas art class project. It may be paper plates to make angels with; or odd pieces of ribbon or yarn; or pipe cleaners to make figures out of; or cotton balls to make snow and the tip of Santa’s hat. Anything we could contribute was appreciated.

Remember how we made Christmas trees to put up on our windows for decoration? We took a piece of green construction paper; folded it the long way; made the outline of half an evergreen tree going from small to larger at the bottom; then leaving it folded we cut out the outline ending up with a perfect tree form on both sides.

We might then draw colored balls on our tree with our crayons and maybe paste a star on top we’d also cut out.

Some kids became expert in cutting out snowflakes from white paper. I was never good at that but always marveled at any kid who was skilled enough to do it.

How about Christmas tree ornaments? Many of us cut strips of green and red construction paper and then glued them together into a chain which we could then drape around our Christmas tree. Popcorn was also used, strung together with a needle and thread.

We also made Christmas cards for our mother and father. These cards were often decorated with a Christmas scene using crayons, and the above mentioned supplies.

There were always an abundance of snowmen; Christmas bells, made the same way as the trees were; Santas and elves and green wreaths in the making during this Christmas art class. We put everything together with that terrible thick glue they made us use, which some kids ended up eating.

What we ended up with was decorations for the classroom windows and bulletin boards and plenty of decorations, cards, etc. to take home with us. It was a fun day and one I always looked forward to every year.

 

 

 

This year I offer you instructions to make a paper plate angel. This site has instructions for making all kinds of angels for different uses during the season. Have fun making them with your kids or grandkids. www.activityvillage.co.uk/paperplateangelcraft

 

Enjoy your own Christmas art class at home and thanks for listening.