Love The Nutcracker ballet? You won’t want to miss these adorable Nutcracker popsicle stick puppets for kids. One of the cutest nutcracker craft ideas!
Every year, our family tries to see a production of The Nutcracker. Sometimes we go to a ballet (my favorite are small ballet company productions) and sometimes we only manage to watch the movie ballet, but the Nutcracker is a firm Christmas family tradition.
This year, I’m doubly excited because Bo is finally old enough to attend with us!
In celebration of her attendance at the ballet, I came up with these Nutcracker craft ideas to make popsicle stick puppets so she can act out the story!
I kept things simple and only made three Nutcracker characters to start with. Each puppet is made the same with a jumbo craft stick as the body and a regular craft stick cut in half as the arms. The arms are hot glued to the sides of each jumbo popsicle stick.
If you want to copy our designs exactly, this is how we did it.
Clara/Sugar Plum Fairy
Our clara is blue. We have her a blue nightgown, blue shoes, yelllow hair, and a blue bow. We also had a bit of sparkly blue fabric that we glued to her waist to give her a prettier skirt. We painted silver snowflakes on her nightgown. In some versions of The Nutcracker, Clara ends up being the sugar plum fairy. So we made her outfit suitable for both characters.
The Nutcracker
Our nutcracker is mostly red like a classic tin soldier. He has a red body and arms, black hat, black boots with gold buckles, and shiny gold accents. We also gave him a gold sword and a jaunty mustache!
The Mouse King
Our mouse king was the most complicated puppet (although he was also easy). We cut out ear shapes from cardstock paper and glued them to the back of his head. We were also going to give him a tail, but we forgot. He has green arms and a green soldier suit with gold accents. The king has a gold crown with a red jewel and a gold sword.
If you wanted to take this activity further, you could make a whole cast of Nutcracker-themed characters. It would be a lot of fun to see some of the dancers and party guests in craft stick form! These adorable puppets could be turned into ornaments, or used as handmade gifts and stocking stuffers.
More Popsicle Stick Christmas Craft Ideas
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About Brenda Priddy
Brenda grew up thinking she hated science.
But when her 4-year- old daughter was more interested in reading science facts than fairy tales, Brenda realized she had to learn more about science to keep up with her daughter.
Through simple at-home science experiments, Brenda developed a passion for science and now acts as an advocate for STEM education for kids at her website STEAMsational.com.
