Paper bag puppets aren’t just crafts—they’re creative toys for the kids to play with throughout the season! Have everyone make a different character and then create your own little skits or action songs. It works out well in our house because Kaitlyn’s always liked making the craft and Tasha has always liked making up plays (and “teaching” her little sister her role).

Kaitlyn has always loved to paint things (including the walls in her bedroom… *sigh*). I make sure to give her an extra large paintbrush to speed the process up a bit. While she’s painting away, I’ll often color in a few of the pieces from the template for her (she’s not as fond of pencil crayons). In this particular case, you can use the red paint from painting the paper bag to paint a few of the template pieces too (hat and sleeves).

Painting the paper bag is Kaitlyn’s favourite part.

While Kaitlyn loves painting, Tasha loves writing, it turns out I love pencil crayons, hehe. Darren always chuckles at me when he sees me “helping” the kids color in a craft (who’s helping whom?) They even bought me my very own fancy tin container of pencil crayons one mother’s day!

When they were very young, they were horrified when I colored outside of the lines, but they soon say the ‘efficiency’ in ignoring the lines that you’re just going to cut out anyways. It’s not something I ever explained to them, but it’s something we all tend to do now (except Darren, he’s definitely an inside the lines kinda guy!)

Scribbling or painting a bit outside the lines on the edges you’ll be cutting out is no big deal!

Anytime you have a character with a beard or other white hair, you can tear up cotton balls and glue them on to give the furry look. This time we just glued a cotton ball onto the pom pom of the hat.

Assembling the puppet tends to be the fastest part of the project.

Don’t be shy—get crazy with your characters—it can make for more creative stories and playtime.

Feel free to add a few animal paper bag puppets (maybe a turkey left over from Thanksgiving?) or stuffed toys to the creative play area and then leave the kids alone to make up their skits. You can even give them the task of creating the gift of a play to put on for grandma and grandpa (either when everyone gets together over the holidays or via skype). Our friend Rylan has become an expert at making little Apple iMovies (it’s AMAZING how quickly kids pick up technology). The nice thing about the little movies is they can share it with friends and family without the stress of a live performance.

Check out the following Christmas themed paper bag puppets from DLTK’s:

• Reindeer
• Santa Claus
• Snowman

All photos in this blog post are copyright Leanne Guenther.