Passover Crafts: A Great Way To Spend Fun, Quality Time with Your Children

Passover is approaching and our kids will be off from school for vacation. While it’s fun to play games with them to keep them happy and entertained, doing crafts with them is not only fun, but educational as well. Whether you would like to make decorative Afikomen covers for your Seder or a Seder plate your kids will be proud to have on the table, there’s something for everyone. Here are a few ideas for fun crafts projects that will keep your children happy and busy, while you spend quality time with them.

These crafts are fun options for teaching children the many important reasons you celebrate Passover. Use them at your Seder or have fun making them during vacation to use at next year’s Seder.

Passover Seder Plate

Make this special seder plate to use throughout the holiday. Explain to your little ones what each part of the plate symbolizes.

You Will Need:
• Cardboard
• Bowl or platter, for a circle pattern, about 16” in diameter
• Pencil
• Scissor
• White paint and paint brush
• Markers
• Rick rack
• Buttons and other embellishments, as desired
• White tacky glue
• 6 silicone or paper baking cups

Directions:
On cardboard, trace around the top rim of bowl or platter with pencil.

Place board on a well-protected surface, and an adult only should use a scissors to cut out the circle.

Paint your cardboard white and let it dry thoroughly.

Place baking cups or bowls around the rim of the plate, spacing them evenly. Using them as a guide, draw a squiggly circle around each cup with a black marker. Remove the cups.

Outline each squiggly circle with another, slightly larger one. Then using another baking cup or bowl as a guide, draw a squiggly circle at the center of the plate and outline this one, too.

Draw a Star of David inside the center circle. Use the markers to color in each circle and outline. When done, use the black marker to indicate the symbolic food on each circle—a shank bone, haroset, bitter herbs, hard-boiled egg and leafy, green vegetable.

Glue bright buttons around the center circle and rickrack around the board rim. Add other embellishments as your artist desires. For those unfamiliar with rickrack, it’s a flat, narrow braid woven in zigzag form, used as trimming for clothing or curtains or in this case, a Seder plate.

Older children can use glass bowls and decorate them with rick rack or ribbon trim and buttons. Younger ones can simply place the silicone cups at each marking.

Older kids might enjoy using a ceramic or plastic platter instead of cardboard. Use paint markers instead of regular markers to write on these.

The Cup of Eliyahu Hanavi

Kids of every age can beautifully decorate Eliyahu’s cup with just a little colorful string, a few rhinestones and some glue. Eliyahu’s cup is an important part of the Passover Seder. Every year, Eliyahu is invited to the Seder, a place is set for him at the table, and we pour a cup of wine in his honor. We decided it would be fun to create a beautiful, crafty wine goblet for Eliyahu—an easy craft that children can participate in. While you wrap the colorful string, let little fingers help and tell your children the story of Eliyahu!

You Will Need:
• Natural jute or wool string in several colors
• Paint brush
• An inexpensive wine glass or goblet (plastic is safer)
• White craft glue or Mod Podge,
• Gems or sequins for decorating the cup (optional)
• Scissors
• Damp paper towels or wipes for cleaning up sticky fingers

Starting at the top of the glass, paint a liberal stripe of glue all the way around the circumference. Carefully wrap your first color of string around the top. You can secure the end by overlapping a length of string. Don’t worry too much about loose ends. If you can’t get the end to hold, dab an extra bit of glue onto it and hold for ten seconds or until it is secure. Wrap the string around and around, descending with each lap until you have created a stripe in the width you desire. Cut off your string and hold it for ten seconds before you start with your next color. You can overlap your ends with the next color or just wrap the string close enough that there is no visible stop and start. Wherever the string does not feel tight and secure, paint on some extra glue. Don’t worry about it looking messy, because your glue will dry clear. Keep wrapping more stripes of color. As you get to the curve of your glass, it might be easier to turn the glass upside down. Wrapping the underside of the glass is probably the trickiest part but have patience and apply glue liberally. It will hold, just wait and see.

Then wrap the stem and move onto the base. Coil your string around and around until you reach the outside of the base. Tuck your end under and apply another dollop of glue. Hold for ten seconds to secure. If the cup isn’t colorful enough for your taste, you can add sequins and gems. Just dab on some glue and apply wherever you fancy. When it’s done just let it sit for an hour or so, until it is dry. Then set your Seder table and wait to see what Elijah will think! I’m sure he’ll find it quite beautiful, especially because it was made with little hands. Note: If you fill this cup with wine at the Seder table, you will need to rinse it very carefully– best to use a damp cloth to wipe it out, rather than put it under running water. Or, use it as a decorative, symbolic Elijah’s cup. Just be careful if you’re adding liquid or washing the cup, if it touches the jute string on the outside of the cup, the colors may run.

Afikomen Bag

Finding the Afikomen is one of the most exciting Passover traditions for kids. Now they can make a lovely cover for their favorite hidden treasure. Traditionally, the afikomen is placed in a cloth bag before it is hidden, however, your kids will be thrilled when it’s placed in the bag that they created.

You Will Need:
• Felt: one large piece for the envelope (11.5” x 16”) and smaller pieces in various colors for decorating it
• Pencil
• Ruler
• Scissors
• Fabric puff paint, in glittering silver, sold in an applicator bottle
• Acrylic paint, or fabric paint, or both
• Rickrack or ribbon
• Freezer paper
• Iron
• Small manicure scissors
• Small piece of dense sponge or a stencil brush
• Hot glue gun
• The word afikomen written in English or Hebrew
• A button, snap closure, or hook and eye

Following the diagram provided, this will make your bag in the shape of an envelope. Cut your felt with sharp scissors. You can draw on the felt with a pencil and ruler.

Cut a piece of freezer paper to roughly 8½” x 11” and using the word afikomen in English or Hebrew, print the document onto the freezer paper, making sure that the printing will happen on the non-waxed side.

Using small manicure scissors, carefully cut the black letters out, and iron the stencil onto the flap of your felt, or anywhere you choose. Make sure that the freezer paper is securely adhered to the felt, particularly around the letters.

Using a dense sponge or a stencil brush apply paint to your stencil, making sure not to overload the sponge or brush with paint. Dip sponge or brush in paint, and remove most of the paint on a piece of scrap paper before applying paint to the felt. Too much can cause the paint to bleed under the edges of the freezer paper.

Allow paint to dry, apply another coat if necessary. Iron pieces of freezer paper to the pieces of felt you’ll be using to decorate your bag.

Create felt applique pieces by getting the kids to draw small simple pictures on the freezer paper side, and then cut them out to use as decorations.

You don’t need a closure, but if you want one, sew on a button and simply cut a slit on the other side or sew on snaps or hook and eye closures. If you choose to do this, do it before you start laying out the felt applique pieces.
Create designs on two sides of your bag using your felt pieces, and moving them around until you’re happy with the results, and then attach them with hot glue. Add ribbon or delicate rickrack for a nice touch.

Set aside to dry overnight (or a full day) as the fabric puff paint takes a while to dry. Glue the bag closed with a line of hot glue on each of the side seams. Since it’s hard to make a totally straight seam with hot glue, it looks much better to leave the edges on the outside.

Enjoy using at your Seder for many years to come!

Matzo Cover

The best part about this Passover craft is that it requires no sewing whatsoever, so you can make this with even your youngest kids in less than half an hour. Instructions:

You Will Need:
• Satin fabric
• Fabric glue
• Puffy paint
• Big gems
• Embroidered patches

Begin by cutting out two square pieces of satin or any fancy fabric of your choice. Make sure they are the same size and bigger than a piece of matzo. Glue the backs together with fabric glue. Once the glue has dried, gather up all your trims that you have and place them on the front cover in any special sequence you like. Lift each trim and put a dot of glue on the back and glue down to your fabric. With some puffy paint, draw any type of design or pattern around the trims any where on the cover. Finally, write the word Matzo in Hebrew or English on the cover. Enjoy your cover during your special Seder.

Send pictures of your little ones making these crafts and of their finished products. Send them to editor@imageusa.com and we’ll print them in an upcoming issue.