• Paint puzzle pieces seasonal colors to make a Christmas picture frame.pieces of puzzle image by timur1970 from Fotolia.com
  
  The Christmas season is a time to do special projects with your children. It's fun to work together on secret projects and crafts with the little ones. The best Christmas crafts are those that can then be given as gifts that are useful, beautiful or both. If you are looking for Christmas projects, consider the ages of the children involved and adapt the directions to suit their skill levels to prevent them from becoming bored or frustrated. This way the memories will be perfect, even if the end products aren't quite.
  
  

Apple-Cinnamon Ornaments

• This craft works well with a variety of ages. The directions for these ornaments are simple: Mix cinnamon and applesauce with white glue, roll it out and cut shapes with cookie cutters. The dough can be worked like any sculpting clay and left as-is or painted when dry. The ornaments retain their cinnamon smell when they are finished and will last for years. Have an adult nearby to help younger children with stirring and drying the ornaments in an oven, while the older kids can do all the work themselves and let the ornaments air-dry.
  
  

Puzzle-Piece Photo Frame

• This makes a great Christmas-themed gift and recycles those stray jigsaw-puzzle pieces as well. Have the kids paint some of the pieces red, some green and three of them brown; cover a small dollar-store photograph frame completely with the red and green pieces, then glue one brown piece "wide-ways" in a corner. Then add two googly eyes and a small red pom-pom nose to make a reindeer face, then glue the other brown pieces "long-ways" to make antlers.
  
  

Sachets

• Sachets are simple to make: Cut two squares from some non-raveling fabric, glue three edges together with fabric glue, add a couple of teaspoons of potpourri and glue the remaining edge shut. The creativity comes in the trimming. Have younger children make their sachets out of felt cut with pinking shears and decorate with stickers or stick-on rhinestones. Older kids can use squeezable puff paint on denim, fabric-paint pens on muslin or embroidery on delicate shirting material. Older kids can sew on buttons, while younger children could glue on patches.