Christmas placemats

My parents arrived yesterday to spend the holidays with us, and we've had lots of kid-related activities going on since they pulled in the driveway.  Basketball games and Christmas shopping are filling our hours, and tomorrow night we head over to Missouri to see The Story Tour!

So, lots going on around here, but I wanted to take a minute to share a fun craft that the kids just finished!  I'm sure many of you have seen these before- they're super simple and a great keepsake you can use for years to come :D  They're Christmas placemats......

Each of our children now have one, and we keep them in our Christmas decorations and only use them for the holidays.  The kids love making them- it's a great way for them to be crafty and add they're own personal touch!

You start with a piece of poster board cut to a reasonable placemat size.  You can use colored or white.  You then take some of your old Christmas cards (hopefully you've saved them over the years!) and let the kids choose some to cut and add to the front of their mats.  You can use the whole card or cut pieces of them.  We like to use stickers too!

In the past, we've written the kids' names on the back to identify the placemats, but this time we wrote their names on the front with glitter glue!

The best thing about this craft is that there are so many different ways to do it....no ONE right way!  Just have fun with them and let the kids make something they will really love.  When you're all finished, you can laminate the boards so that they are waterproof and easy to clean.  We have used contact paper on ours in the past, but I wasn't able to find any at Wal-Mart today, so I'm going to check a craft store tomorrow (the laminating stuff can get pretty pricey).

Enjoy!