A World Full of Christmas Crafts: A Festive Countdown to the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

Craft around the world this Christmas and find out how children from different cultures celebrate the festive season.

Christmas is celebrated in so many different ways around the world. This sparkling, illustrated treasury of 24 festive activities and recipes inspired by different countries keeps kids busy in the count down to Christmas, by encouraging them to create their own treats, decorations, and more!

Children and adults alike will delight in the wide range of activities to choose from. Whether it’s baking or making, there’s something for everyone:

• Paper woven hearts originating from Denmark
• Mini lanterns from the Philippines
• Paper pine trees from Japan
• Gingerbread reindeer cookies from the US
• Maracas to shake from Trinidad and Tobago

Each craft features a little description about the tradition or celebration it’s inspired by, how it may have started, and the country it originated from. With simple step-by-step illustrated instructions, each activity is easy to follow for children and adults to do alone or together. It also includes stunning double-page illustrations that capture the widespread joy and magic of Christmas. Learn how Christmas is celebrated across the world and get excited for this time of the year!

Crafts/recipes from Denmark, Australia, Syria, Germany, Greece, Sweden, Peru, Philippines, Mexico, New Zealand, Portugal, Finland, South Korea, Ukraine, United States, Poland, Trinidad and Tobago, United Kingdom, Canada, Spain, Japan, Italy, France and Ethiopia.

Joy Laforme is a self-taught illustrator and an artist with an M.A. in interactive design from the Savannah College of Art and Design. Born and raised in the Hudson Valley in New York, Joy eventually settled in a small town outside New York City near the Ramapo Mountains. Her mother’s love of all things Americana and garden have informed Joy’s contemporary folk art style and her work with brands, publishers, and print publications. She works in a variety of mediums, including digital, gouache, and pastel.

For more work, please visit www.joylaforme.com, and follow her on Instagram and Pinterest @joylaforme for the newest available artwork and behind-the-scenes images.

Helen Mortimer grew up in Hertfordshire and as a child she loved the preparations for Christmas, especially searching local hedgerows for holly and ivy to make into a wreath and decorating the tree on Christmas Eve while listening to carols. Helen now lives in Oxfordshire where she works as a children’s books editor and has also had some of her own titles published including The Winter Wish (HarperCollins) and Omar, the Bees and Me (Owlet Press).