Easy Christmas Craft with Kids: Nativity Scene Foam Stickers with an Upgrade!

I love crafting with my kids, but I have certain rules:

1. It has to be washable

2. No glitter (good God, no glitter! Have I mentioned I'm a bit of a neat freak? No? Hi, nice to meet you...)

3. It has be completed in 20 minutes or less.

This craft accomplishes all three, plus they got a little reinforcement of the true meaning of Christmas. 

When I was at Michael's last week, I came across this package of foam stickers meant for a nativity scene. They were 60% off, so I grabbed them knowing we would need lots of fun activities to stay busy this week without school.

Meanwhile, I had these neat little pine boxes I had been saving from a prepackaged Melissa & Doug craft set that my aunt had given the boys for their November birthdays. I knew they would come in handy for something, so I held on to them.

When I had the foam stickers at home, I realized how perfectly the two items came together! The pine boxes, turned on their sides, would be the perfect little nativity scene to house Mary, Joseph, and Baby Jesus. Add a few popsicle sticks and some hot glue, and we could even make a roof!

I had envisioned also painting them, but the kids were eager to get to sticking the stickers on once they saw the completed houses. 

The set came with enough stickers to make at least six more scenes, so this will be a great little craft project to do when friends come over, too! 

Materials:
- Foam Stickers or Regular Stickers of Nativity Scene Figures (or you can draw them and cut them out from paper!). Mine are from Michael's, but you can get similar ones from Oriental Trading Company here.

- Small wooden or cardboard boxes (a kid's shoebox would work, too!)

- Wooden popsicle sticks

- hot glue gun and glue sticks

- crayons, markers, paints, and other creative materials

Instructions:
1. Turn the box on its side so the opening is facing you. Glue the popsicle sticks on top of the box to make a roof shape. Add some sticks to the backs and sides to reinforce, if necessary. I also added a few extra globs of hot glue to all the corners where the popsicle sticks met for extra stregnth.

2. Paint the box and roof if you like, using markers, crayons, or washable paint. Let dry.

3. Add the stickers.

4. DONE!