Paper Plate Santa Craft with Cotton Balls Beard

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This is one of those classic Christmas crafts, often done in preschool or kindergarten, because it’s so simple. But here, I have two simple paper plate Santas made by granddaughters, one of whom is seven and the other is two.

Here’s the key: they both enjoyed the simple process of gluing on a construction paper hat and the cotton ball beard and hat trim. That’s it, really. Because they had fun, and both paper plate Santas look fab, one on my fridge and the other sticky-tacked to my front door.

DIY Simple Paper Plate Santas

You Will Need:

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paper plates
sheet of red construction paper, cut in half to make two Santa triangular hats
cotton balls and optional cotton squares
felt tip markers in black and red
white glue or tacky glue
magnet for the fridge or sticky-tack for a wall or window

Directions for Simple Santa Paper Plates

Assemble supplies, starting with a paper plate for each child.
Fold a sheet of red construction paper in half. This does not have to be an exact triangle. I folded one piece of construction paper in half, then roughly cut out two triangles making sure the bottom width measurement of each triangle roughly fit the top area of each paper plate.
Glue the construction paper triangle in place as Santa’s hat. It won’t look great. Take a cotton ball, dip it in white glue or tacky glue, the attach it to the top of the hat as a pompom. Makes a huge difference!
Draw on a Santa face using black marker for the eyes. Using red magic marker, also add a red, cheeful mouth, and a red nose if you like.
My seven-year-old wanted red cheeks, the two-year-old didn’t. These can be added with red or pink markers, crayon or even lipstick or blush makeup.
Dip cotton balls into a small bowl of white or tacky glue and apply as desired as the Santa’s beard. You can use the cotton balls as is, or pull them apart a bit to make a flufflier effect.
Oponal: after the beard was finished, my 7-year-old granddaughter want to add a moustache and the pink cheeks. I had flat square pieces of cotton makeup removers which we cut into rounded slivers and used to make a moustache but wisps of cotton ball would work equally well.
Use a black marker to draw a snowflake at the top of the hat or leave it blank. Let the child decide.
Hang with pleasure! Use a magnet to hold it to the fridge or sticky tack to attach the paper plate Santa temporarily to a wall or window. Happy Christmas!

Two-Year-Old Paper Plate Santa

Two-year-olds Paper Plate Santa

My sweet, two-year-old granddaughter made this. She helped glue the red construction hat down then dipped the cotton balls into a small bowl of white glue and added the pompom for the hat and a cotton ball beard.

I added the eyes and mouth using black and red markers to help her orient the rest of the features.

Not satisfied with that, with cotton balls left over, she added some feature fur to adorn Santa’s hat.

More AllFreeCrafts free projects on this site: Child-Friendly Paper Plate Wreaths, Glass Bowl Santa Jar with free Santa face painting pattern or DIY Recycled Light Bulb Santa.

Variations on a theme: Making Paper Plate Santas

You’ll be leaving AllFreeCrafts, but the following three paper plate Santas follow the Paper Plate Santa theme with creative style so I’m happy to feature them here. All the hats are slightly different, from a triangle of glitter paper to painted individual hats Moustache, or no-moustache. Blushed cheeks or no blushed cheeks. Wonderful inspiration, so check them all out!

My personal favorite is the last option, by artycraftykids.com where Santa’s hat is painted down the right side and finished with a pompom. The minimalist black eyes and prominent red painted nose all come together, very simply, very well!

We’ll miss you while you’re gone. Come back and visit AFC soon!