Make These Cute Christmas Carolers

I just love these Christmas carolers that my kids and I made years ago when they were much younger. The picture really doesn't do them justice. Every time I pull them out of the box, their expressions make me smile.

The year we moved back to the mainland from Hawaii, we moved into my brother's rental house and only had two bar stools and two air mattresses in this big 5 bedroom house. It was just a few weeks before Christmas, so we sat around on the floor making gifts and decorations. These are still my favorite.

If you would like to make some for yourselves, all you need are:

• empty cardboard toilet paper tubes
• marker pens and a permanent marker
• scraps of white paper
• an old piano music book or a copy of a page from one
• tiny scraps of wrapping paper
• yarn scraps
• little girls socks (old used ones will do)
• tape and glue

Start by coloring your toilet paper tubes with markers in colors of your choice. Then, cut out the face shapes from the white scraps of paper. Glue these on and draw on the eyes and a mouth with the permanent marker. Be sure to make the eyes low enough that they won't be covered by the hat. Use a colored pencil to make their cheeks slightly rosy. (It's cold out, you know.) You can reinforce the glue by putting some tape up at the top, under where the hat will be covering it anyway.

From the music sheet, cut out rectangles in the size you like. Ours are about 2" x 3". Fold these in half to make their books. Next, cut out mittens from the wrapping paper scraps and tape these to the music books and then to the body. Make sure the books are sticking out away from the body a little (so they can read their lines!)

Last of all, cut the tops from the socks. You just need about 5-6" from the top of the sock for each caroler. Double fold one end for the brim of the hat and tie the other end with a piece of yarn. If the sock is too wide to stay on the caroler, fold a pleat in it before you roll the brim. This will keep the pleat in place. Also, the tie at the other end will hold it, too. I think we may have used toddler ribbed tights or knee high socks. Now, put their hats on and be amazed at their cuteness!