Easy Swedish Christmas Craft for Kids

All my life I have adored Swedish Christmas crafts and traditions, and woven paper heart ornaments have always graced our trees.  Making a proper woven heart ornament is not an easy task for little fingers still working on developing their fine motor skills. So instead, inspired by our very favorite Christmas picture book, we made an easy, kid-friendly Swedish Christmas craft: a sponge painted version of the Swedish woven heart.

(Note: this post contains affiliate links.)

Originally I planned to do the actually weaving part with my kids, and although woven hearts are not exactly rocket science, I knew that my kids would get frustrated very, very quickly. Remember, we only do EASY holiday crafts. Our version of the woven heart is so easy, even preschoolers or toddlers can make this Swedish ornament.

The first step to making these heart ornaments is to read the SPLENDID book, Christmas in Noisy Village. This is my must read Christmas book. It's by Astrid Lindgren (of Pippi fame) and is a cozy story about neighbor children preparing for the holiday. You can find the book(and more!) on my list of Swedish Christmas books.

What you need:

• Red and/or green paper
• Heavy card stock to make the template, or a heart shaped cookie cutter
• Glue stick
• Scissors
• White paint
• Kitchen sponge cut into a strip with a small square shape at one end

Instructions: 

1. Make a half-heart template out of thin cardboard. (If you have a heart shaped cookie cutter you can skip this step and simply trace your hearts using the cutter.)
2. Fold the red or green paper in half.
3. Line up the template with the folded side of the paper. Trace and cut out.
4. Make as many hearts as you want.
5. Using white paint, stamp squares on the hearts. Kids can decide if they want to mimic the look of a woven heart (see top photo) or just stamp freestyle. Follow your kids' natural creative instincts!!
6. Cut several strips of paper. These will be the handles.
7. If you want to turn them into baskets, glue two hearts together, applying glue only along the bottom-side edges. Glue on handle.
8. Hang on tree.
9. Read more Christmas books!

So what do you think? Is this "woven" paper heart not the easiest Swedish Christmas craft ever? If we can do it, so can you!

More: Swedish Christmas books and Scandinavian folktales are perfect for snuggle time after your ornaments are on the tree.

Or, make our cutest ever tomten garland and then read some tomten books.

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