One of my earliest memories of Christmas as a child was making Christmas paper chains. Licking, looping, sticking. Hours of fun, and really creative.
I recently heard that the old-fashioned ‘lick’ variety are being phased out due to health and safety. I don’t recall receiving a paper cut from one, but I’m sure someone has.
That’s not to say that you cannot still make them, there are plenty of ways to do the sticking part of this. In fact, it just takes away the need to buy any paper chains at all as you may well have everything you need to hand already.
Like our popcorn garlands, these look great and are very low-cost!
Step-by-Step
1) Firstly, get the equipment together you will need. This will be:
– Paper: You can use any paper at all, from newspaper, to plain printer paper or coloured paper. Our tip, try using left-over Christmas wrapping paper, even if it’s an assorted collection. It will look great.
– Scissors: Some child-friendly scissors are recommended. Or alternatively, why not try using some crinkle cut scissors to add a little more variance to your chain?
– Something sticky: Glue stick is probably best, although staples, selotape or double sided sticky tape can all be used.
2) Gather all your paper together and cut it in to strips. Ideally, the strips will need to measure around 3cm wide and 10-12 cm long, but it’s entirely up to you. Best to keep them the same dimensions though.
3) Once your paper is cut and you’re ready to go, loop your strip or paper around in to a circle and then stick one end to the other by overlapping. If using glue, it’s best to glue perhaps the final 1cm of one end of the strip.
4) With the first loop complete, take another strip, thread it through the middle of the other loop and then stick this one