Christmas is a great time for families to enjoy being together. While the kids are out of school, why not keep them occupied with making a few Christmas crafts? They'll love creating their own stockings and showing them off "by the chimney with care." This activity is fun, easy, and inexpensive!

What you'll need:

stockings from the dollar store

E6000 glue

toothpicks

acrylic stones in a variety of shapes, colors, and sizes

ribbons.

bows

colorful buttons

scraps of material

squeeze bottles of fabric paint

Before you start, place a piece of paper or cardboard inside the stocking so that if the glue or paint bleeds through, the stocking will not be glued together. Write the child's name at the top of the stocking and allow to dry over night. The next day, set out all the adornments and let the kids use their imaginations! Use toothpicks to place a drop of glue on the backs of buttons and stones. To make a "patchwork" stocking, glue fabric scraps onto the front side of the stocking and glue ribbons on to cover the seams.

You can use the stones to create butterflies, palm trees, suns, candy canes - wherever your imagination takes you! Or you might want to use them simply as accents or as borders. Buttons make great borders, also.

You and the kids can use the paints to create pictures, geometric designs, patterns, polkadots, or outlines. Use the stones and buttons to spice up your drawings. For example, you might want to draw a gingerbread man and use small black buttons for eyes and green and red stones for the "gumdrop buttons" down his chest.

Once the stocking is decorated, place it in a dry place for 24 hours to "cure."