Paper plate Nutcracker craft

I love this time of year and my head is bursting with Christmas crafts to make with the children. My son is an early riser so we managed to squeeze a lovely craft in this morning – a paper plate nutcracker craft. If you are enjoying my Christmas crafts and are looking for more then pop on over to see a great round up of Christmas crafts here.

Our paper plate Nutcracker craft is super easy and a lovely way to sit and re-tell the story to little ones. Do you know the story of the Nutcracker? It’s a beautiful story. The Nutcracker and the Mouse King is a story written by E. T. A. Hoffmann in the early 19th century. Marie Stahlbaum’s favourite Christmas toy, the Nutcracker, comes alive and, after defeating the evil Mouse King in battle, whisks her away to a magical kingdom populated by dolls. The story was later set to music by Tchaikovsky and is a lovely thing to see at Christmas.

One day I’d love to take my children to the ballet to watch The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House.

We used:
paper plate
pink tissue paper
coloured card
glue stick

How to make a paper plate Nutcracker:

We have a large Nutcracker figure we bought in Belgium a few years ago. We used this as a basis for our paper plate Nutcracker.

First my son covered the paper plate in pieces of pink tissue paper.

Then he cut eyes, cheeks, hair and a moustache from the coloured paper, and glued these in place.

Then he added a colourful crown from coloured paper.

His face is really jolly, just as we would expect from such a fearless soldier.