Can you hear those jingle bells? Christmas crafting has begun! This homemade gift wrap made with Christmas scented paint is the first of many Christmas crafts that are on the way – but this one is the best smelling!
Homemade gift wrap with Christmas scented paint
This article is one of our Christmas sensory play activities and part of our Christmas activities and crafts for children.
To make our homemade gift wrap, we used a big roll of brown parcel paper, some Christmas-themed cookie cutters, and some special Christmas paint.
The children loved using our homemade spice paints, so I thought we would update them for the festive season and make some Christmas paints. It’s very easy to give your paints an extra sensory dimension: just add scent!
Christmas scented paint
You can use food oil, essential oil, herbs, spices or perfume to scent your paint. Just think of the key scents of the season and match them up with the colours of the holiday. You only need a little of the oils or spices to get the effect, but do take care to consider any allergies or intolerances your individual children might have before you pick your scents. We used:
:: white paint with vanilla extract {I’m thinking you could also stir in some toothpaste for a peppermint?}
:: red poster paint mixed with cranberry juice
:: green paint with a drop or two of peppermint extract {my daughter thought a pine fragrance would be good too}
:: brown paint with a sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg
Then we set out our roll of brown paper – with a tablecloth in place to protect the table – and used the red and white paints to make some gift wrap.
Cookie cutters are great for printing. They’re easy for children to hold and of course you can get all sorts of shapes, to match whatever theme you like. If you set the paint out on plates or shallow bowls it’s easy to dip the cutters into the paint.
You can play some Christmas music while you print, and enjoy the festive smells from the paint! I think the finished gift wrap looks so pretty.
We’re going to be using some of it to make a homemade advent calendar, and we’ll use the rest of the paint to make a handprint Christmas wreath.
Download your ready-made Nativity Unit
Download the Play Academy’s ready-made Nativity Unit and you’ll have everything you need to lead a set of activities to introduce your children to the Nativity story.
This Unit includes artist-drawn puppets/colour-in nativity scene characters and printable Bible verse cards, that your children can use year after year.
In this Nativity teaching unit your children can:
:: learn about the Nativity and create their own Nativity book or small world scene using colour-in puppet / nativity scene characters
:: learn about Mary and Joseph’s journey, and explore junk modelling
:: learn about the shepherds role, and explore loose parts
:: learn about Jesus’ birth
:: learn about the three wise men, and complete their book / re-tell the story in their small world
Bonus Nativity thematic unit printables
The Play Academy’s thematic units come with practical printables that make the lessons more engaging for your children and easier for you to teach.
No need to go searching for printables to accompany your lessons, they’re all included when you download your chosen unit.
In this Nativity Unit you’ll receive these bonus printables:
:: My Nativity Story book to write, colour and complete to tell the Nativity story
:: a set of artist-drawn My Nativity Puppets to colour, cut out and use to re-cap and act out the Nativity story
:: Nativity Vocabulary Cards to recap and consolidate learning
:: Nativity Bible Verse Cards to read, narrate your own acting out of the story, and perhaps to memorise
How to download this Nativity thematic unit
You can download this unit along with over 50 more from NurtureStore’s Play Academy.
If you are already of the Play Academy, you can download this unit straight away from our Library here.
If you are not yet a member, find out more and choose your first unit here. Your teaching is about to get a whole lot easier!
This is a great idea. I work where our supplies come in boxes with the long brown paper that they use for filler. I carefully flatten it with my hands as I roll it like any other wrapping paper. I then take it home and iron it on a low setting and re-roll it just for such crafty occasions as this. It’s not pristine but a bit distressed. How cool to add a pretty scent to a package.
Great recycling Patsy! I love free craft supplies.
Lovely idea. Does the scent last long after the paint has dried? Will the recipient of the parcel be able to smell these wonderful smells?!
Hi Lolita, I guess that’s going to depend on just how much scent you add to the paint. We didn’t use a huge amount, as it was mainly for the children to enjoy the sensory element of it, so ours doesn’t have the fragrance any more.