Christmas can be a wondrous time for the whole family. But in these fast-paced modern times, it may often seem like you spend all your time running from work to shopping to sleep, only to do it all again the next day. It can be hard to spend a little special time with the family. It may even feel like you will be lucky to have a little time off for Christmas!

Making time for family Christmas crafts projects is a great way to make the holidays magical. Making your own Christmas cards can be particularly fun, and it's really quite simple.

There are basically two ways to make your own Christmas cards: the old-fashioned way and the modern way.

In the old fashioned way, you can use construction paper, crayons, paints, and glue to create hand-made Christmas cards. In the modern way, you can create the card on a computer and print it out. You can even buy paper specially designed for printing greeting cards at most office supply stores or online.

Surprisingly, both ways share a great deal in common. After all, a Christmas card is fairly simple. You just need a nice picture for the front and some short, nice text for the inside and perhaps for the cover.

I recommend picking the picture first. The colors in the picture will give you a better idea of what color of paper to use if you are not using white paper. Often the picture you choose will give you the perfect idea for the text.

You can get the pictures from old Christmas cards or from magazines and paste them onto the front of the card. Or you and your family can draw the pictures with crayons or paint the pictures with water colors. You can even find Christmas graphics online. Whether you are pasting a picture onto construction paper, painting or drawing it, or copying and pasting on a computer screen, a great picture goes a long way to creating a beautiful card. It sets the tone of the card. Do you want a funny card? A religious card? The picture sets the stage.

For the text, you can either write your own greeting or you can borrow a couple lines from Christmas stories like, "Twas The Night Before Christmas." If it's a religious card, you can even borrow a line or two from scriptures. You can have text on the cover of the card with the graphic or you can just have a picture on the front and only have text inside the card. It's totally your choice.

Fun for young and old alike, making your own Christmas cards is easy and it doesn't take long. But the fun in making them and the smile on the face of the person who opens the card will be remembered forever. Whether making your own cards or doing other family Christmas crafts projects, the key is that these family activities create fond memories that last a lifetime.

Copyright (c) 2008 Mike Adams