Card Holder Holiday Wreath -Kids Make For Their Parents

Christmas wreath clothespin

I’ve had the same daycare group for a few years now and I needed a new gift idea for the holidays.  Finding new unique gift ideas that small children can make for their parents can be challenging. My criteria is something the children can be actively involved in making and something that is useful. Yes, I can always fall back on the ever popular macaroni necklace but I would prefer something a little more personal and helpful for my busy daycare parents.

I found a clothespin wreath that holds photo cards on Pinterest and decided to dress it up a bit to make it more festive for the holidays.  My fridge is constantly overflowing with crafts being displayed so I figured my daycare parents could use their clothespin wreath to hold Christmas cards or their children’s artwork.

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Start with a large flat piece of cardboard.

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Using a stencil (or a large serving plate) allowed me to get a nice round circle. My daycare child “helped” me trace the plate.

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A bowl was the perfect size to trace the inside circle.

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Cutting the cardboard was a bit difficult so I handled this step of the project.

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Now comes the painting part.  Here is a two year old painting his cardboard wreath.

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This project was very inexpensive to make. I used about 50 clothespins per wreath.

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We started out painting each clothespin individually with red paint. Our two year old found it tricky because the clothespins slide around and tipped over. He was reluctant to hold the clothespin with his other hand because he kept getting paint on it.

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However, once I gave him a whole row of clothespins clipped to a strip of cardboard (they came in the package this way), he was very happy.

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What good little painters I have, they love to paint and paint and paint. Painting 50 clothespins takes a bit of time but they persevered until they were all done.

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We let the wreath dry and then gave it a second coat later in the day to make the green colour more vibrant.

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The kids helped me place the clothespins on the cardboard wreath before glueing to get an idea of how far to space each one. I thought a holiday bow and some red gems for holly berries would add a nice touch.

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Make sure you hot glue the clothespins so the opening clip part is on the outside edge.

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I glued a ribbon on the back so it was easy to hang up.

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Ta-da….., one holiday card/craft/picture/note holder! I hope my daycare parents enjoy the gift we made for them this year.