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Traditions surrounding Christmas encompass a great many things, such as creating crafts during the holidays as gifts or new ornaments for the tree. The idea of crafts began in the 1700’s. People would gather with family and friends to make crafts for decorations and their trees. Many times the gifts would be sweets like toffee or almonds, which would be wrapped in a craft the sender created. Other crafts like stars would be made or ornaments from pine cones. Today many children in younger grades are taught arts and crafts. During the last few weeks of school they often make a Christmas craft for their tree or for a family member as a gift. One very popular Christmas craft in this instance is the reindeer. A reindeer is made with two pieces of brown pipe cleaners for the antlers, two fake eyes, a round red cotton ball, and a candy cane. The pipe cleaners, eyes, and cotton ball are glued to the wrapper to create a reindeer face. Another tradition in Christmas crafts is the pine cone being made into an animal that represents Christmas. Sometimes the pine cone is used to create a candle centrepiece. In this case the pine cones are hooked together with florist wire and fake holly, and placed in a rounded shape to fit a specific size candle for a table or window display. The best part about the Christmas crafts is that everyone can participate. No one has to be left out from making a simple Christmas favour for a friend or family member. Some families will even have a night of Christmas crafts, where they will each make a new ornament for their Christmas tree. This tradition gives the family years of crafts to remember and look back on for years to come. Crafts also make a nice exercise during the Christmas break for children. Children often have days where they have nothing to do but watch TV or play video games. By offering crafts the children can hunt up the materials for the entire family to use one day or night before Christmas.
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