Boxing Day Cottage

Boxing Day Cottage craft

Celebrate a traditional British holiday! Recycle boxes to create a gift-giving diorama, and let the message of generosity shine through every day.

  • 1.

    Boxing Day is a British holiday observed the first weekday after Christmas Day. It was originally observed as a day, according to Charles Dickens, "on which postmen, errand boys, and servants of various kinds received a Christmas box of contributions from those whom they serve." Learn all you can about Boxing Day by reading books or researching it on the Internet. Then make a diorama, either historic or contemporary, showing how the holiday is celebrated.

  • 2.

    Cover your work area with recycled newspaper. Paint the inside of a recycled box with Crayola® Washable Kid's Paint and Paint Brushes. Choose a color for the house door, and paint the door on white construction paper. Paint another piece of construction paper in green for trees and shrubs. Dry.

  • 3.

    Peel the paper wrappers from Crayola Crayons. You might choose red and brown for bricks. Yellow and brown mix well for a straw or hay to make a traditional thatched roof. Rub the sides of crayons on papers placed on textured surfaces. Cut out a large, two-sided house and its roof from your crayon rubbings with Crayola Scissors. Attach the shapes to light cardboard with Crayola School Glue.

  • 4.

    With Crayola Colored Pencils on white construction paper, draw a big window showing a family inside the house celebrating Christmas. You might draw a decorated tree, a fireplace with stockings, or anything that reminds you of Christmas. Cut out the window

  • 5.

    Draw and cut out a front door for your house. Glue the door onto a piece of recycled produce tray. Draw the outline of a door opening on the front of the house and cut it out. Glue the painted door next to the opening so it appears to be standing open. Glue the house front and roof to the shoe box.

  • 6.

    On another piece of construction paper, draw, color, and cut out figures of a person who lives in the house and a postal worker or other helper. Glue people in front of the door. Create a small box with strips of paper and tie it with a ribbon. Glue it to

  • 7.

    Draw and cut out various shrubs and trees on the green painted paper. Glue them around the house.

  • 8.

    To make a sidewalk, use gray, white, and black crayons to create a texture rubbing on white construction paper. Cut out the walkway and glue it to the front of the house.