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Kids, young and the young at heart, love the holidays and there are an almost limitless number of crafts that can be made to keep the kids busy, especially when the weather gets bad and they are home from school. Many projects can be done with common items found around the house.

Paper snowflakes are always a favorite and all you need is white paper, scissors and possibly glue and glitter. Fold the paper in half, half again and again, until you have a triangle. Cut small shapes, unfold carefully, you have beautiful one of a kind snowflakes. If you have glue and glitter, the kids may want to make them a bit fancier. They also make wonderful decorations to hang from the ceiling and windows for the holidays.

Recycled cards - let the kids cut the message parts off the cards, and by gluing them to the front of either folded construction paper or lightweight card stock, they can create their own cards to send to friends and family. Ribbon, glitter and other items can make nice decorative touches.

Ornaments/gift tags * by cutting out the pictures from the cards in different shapes (stars, circles, etc), maybe even using scrap booking edging scissors, some ribbon and glitter, they can make cute ornaments for the tree that can also be used as gift tags.

Candy dish * cut a hexagon of plain cardstock and then six pieces from Christmas card fronts (trying to get the nicest part of the picture showing on the shape) that taper slightly wider at the top than the base for the sides. Cover all the pieces with clear contact paper and punch holes along all the edges, evenly spaced. Sew the pieces together using ribbon or yarn, and you have a one of a kind candy dish. Let the kids experiment with different shapes and sizes.

Styrofoam ball snowmen are an easy project. Stack and glue together (use toothpicks to support the pieces) different sizes, and decorate with buttons, or scrap pieces of felt for the eyes and mouth and buttons. To make a cute hat for the snowman, place a standard size styrofoam coffee cup upside down on a foil lined baking pan. Place in the oven at a low temperature (adult supervision). Watch carefully as the cup begins to melt, shrink and reshape itself into a funny top hat. Remove carefully, let them cool, and they can be painted and decorated and glued onto the snowman's head.