Festive procrastination: simple DIY Christmas tips

Is student life getting in the way of you having some Christmas fun? If so, you’re not alone. Essays and exams have a tendency to suck all festive feeling from the soul.

But there is a remedy. Even if you’re not very good at DIY because you have the patience and attention span of a goldfish (i.e. me), there’s an incredibly simple, fun, and relaxing way to get around this. So get your creative caps on and pop round to your local craft shop or supermarket. It’s about to get glittery.

Christmassy Candle or Jar

This one requires a few more tools and a little more skill but is still simple to make. This idea’s perfect for decorating the home and what’s more Christmassy than glitter and candles? If you’ve gone for the jar, you can always use it to store sweets or other treats, creating the perfect gift.

You’ll need:

• A candle or a mason jar with a lid (a Yankee candle or an Asda own brand, any will do)
• Glue or varnish such as “Mod Podge Matte Finish” (found in Hobby Craft)
• Coloured glitter. Red and green are a go-to combination, but it’s totally up to you.
• Ribbons
• If you’re feeling extra fancy, a pretty gift tag that you can tie around the lid (Paperchase and even Wilko do very nice ones).

Method:

1. Cover your jar or candle with a layer of the glue (a paint brush of some kind will be the easiest way to do this).

2. Fully coat your jar with the glitter.

3. Wait until it’s all dry and then tie your ribbon and your gift tag, if you’ve opted for it, around the lid.

Homemade Ribbons

For this you’ll need pasta. Yes, you heard that right. In particular, you’ll need farfalle, the pasta that’s in the shape of a ribbon. However, if you’ve decided to make the previous craft, you won’t need much else beyond that.

Method:

1. Using varnish glue, coat each pasta piece and then dip it in glitter. Gold glitter works best because it blends well with the natural colour of the pasta. Alternatively, you can spray paint the pasta to match other colours.

2. While the pasta dries, grab a long piece of string (preferably twine) and coat it in glue and glitter.

3. Once everything is dry you can proceed to tie your pasta ribbons to the string. Simply place it where you want it to be on the twine and loop the twine around the middle, securing it with a simple knot. Finally, hang it wherever you like!

Strawberry Santas

This one isn’t technically DIY; it’s a recipe. However, it’s still incredibly simple and super cute.

You’ll need:

• Strawberries – grab as many as you want
• Whipped cream, which is super easy to make – there are a ton of recipes online (alternatively, you can try squirty cream).
• Any variety of small seed (e.g poppy or sesame – this will be used for the eyes of your Santas). Alternatively, you can use chocolate sprinkles.

Method:

1. Cut your strawberries about a quarter of the way down from the pointy end of your strawberry. The cut end should roughly look like a triangle as this will become the hat.

2. Take the other half of the strawberry and dollop some cream on top; your triangle hat will need to sit on top of this to form the basic structure of the Santa.

3. Add a dot of cream on the hat to create a bobble.

4. Add two dots of cream on the body to act as buttons.

5. Finally, pop the two seeds/chocolate sprinkles into the middle of the cream (the face) to create the eyes of your Santa. And voilà! A simple treat even kids can make.