Burns Night crafts for kids
Emily Gulla
WriterCelebrating Burns Night? Why not enjoy an afternoon of crafts and activities with a Scottish flavour with our Burns Night-inspired ideas below?
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Burns Night is a great chance for a celebration in January, once Christmas and New Year are out of the way. Held every year on or around the 25 January, Burns Night celebrates the life of Scottish poet Robert Burns, and his contributions to Scottish culture.
As you can expect, Burns Night is filled with fun Scottish traditions, including food, toasts, poems and songs.
If you want to get in the spirit, there are plenty of Burns Night crafts you can make with the kids at home. Plus, if you're throwing a party at home with the family then some handmade crafts will be the perfect way to decorate your home.
Getting involved with Burns Night is a great way for your kids to learn about some Scottish traditions and to have fun in the process! Check out our ideas for Burns Night crafts below.
You can also find out more about Burns Night traditions and activities here, as discover traditional Scottish Burns Night recipes here.
5 Burns Night craft ideas
1. Make some Scottish flag bunting
Burns Night is a celebration of Scottish culture, so it's only fitting to decorate your house or garden (or wherever you're celebrating) with some Scottish flag bunting.
Thankfully, the Scottish flag is made up of just a blue background with a white cross, so it's a fairly simple flag to make – especially for kids.
Making some Scottish flags is also the perfect opportunity to teach your child about the flags of the world, and to explain a little bit about the different countries that make up the United Kingdom.
You will need:
- some sheets of white paper
- scissors
- blue pens
- crayons or pencils
- a length of string
How to make Scottish flag bunting
This easy activity makes the perfect Burns Night decoration for your home. All you need to do first of all is cut a length of appropriately-sized string for your bunting to be attached to.
Then, take some sheets of A4 or larger paper, fold them in half and then draw some triangle shapes. Use the fold of the paper as the base of the triangle, so that when you cut the triangles out you'll have a diamond shape which can be folded in half to 'sit' on the string. This is what makes it look like bunting!
Draw the outline of the Scottish flag and colour in the blue bits on each side of the folded triangle shapes. Then place them on the string to make your bunting! You can string your bunting across a wall, a window, or outside to make a colourful Burns Night decoration.
Need some craft supplies? Visit Baker Ross for all your kids crafting gear from paper to glitter – all at purse friendly prices. See more details here.
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2. Create your own Celtic badges
Celebrate Scotland's Celtic heritage by making simple Celtic brooches as part of your Burns Night celebrations. The ancient Celts were tribes living in various places across Europe, including Scotland.
Celtic jewellery is still popular today. It uses interlinked patterns and symbols, including animals, trees, horns and swords. Triangles are often used as the backdrop of a scene.
Kids will love wearing a badge or piece of jewellery that they've made themselves!
You will need:
- some card – you can buy card in bulk here at Amazon
- coloured pens (silver and gold metallic pens work well)
- safety pins
- scissors
- sellotape
- biodegradable glitter
How to make your own Celtic badges
To make a badge, start by cutting out some card into small circle shapes (however big you want your badges to be).
Kids can decorate their badges however they'd like. You can get some simple Celtic designs up online to help inspire them! Gold and silver pens will be especially effective, but use any colours you have!
To decorate badges even more, you can add some biodegradable glitter for extra sparkle.
When the designs are complete, simply stick a safety pin to the back of the card with some sellotape and voila! You have your Celtic badge.
3. Design your own tartan
In true Scottish style, why not try making your very own family tartan with this colourful activity?
Tartan is an important part of the Scottish clan tradition and almost all Scottish clans lay claim to several tartans. The most famous are the Black Watch tartan (also known as the Campbell tartan) and the Royal Stewart tartan. Why not try coming up with your own unique designs?
You will need:
- a selection of different coloured paper (including one piece for the background)
- some different coloured ribbons, coloured fabric off-cuts or felt
- scissors
- glue
How to make your own Scottish tartan
To start making your tartan, cut fabric and papers into pieces of varying lengths and widths. Try to use as many different colours as possible. Then, take a piece of background paper and start sticking pieces of fabric and paper on to it.
Start by sticking the fabric/paper pieces down lengthways and then across the page, or vice versa, to create a proper tartan effect!
Once your piece of tartan is made, you can choose what to do with it. Depending on the size of your piece of tartan, you could even wrap and staple it into a kilt for your child's favourite cuddly toy!
4. Make some heather collages
Purple heather is an icon of Scotland, so why not try your hand at making a colourful heather collage to commemorate Burns Night?
If your kids like crafting, they'll love the chance to get creative with a collage and the purple flowers look so pretty.
You will need:
- some paper or card (white works well but you can use any colour)
- some purple tissue paper
- other collage materials (different textured papers, paper scraps, magazine pictures, felt or fabric etc.)
- scissors
- glue
How to make your heather collage
Make a Scottish-themed collage including some of the country's amazing scenery. You can look up some pictures online if you need some inspiration.
You might want to try creating a magical Scottish mountain scene, complete with a deep blue loch. You could even make your own Loch Ness Monster to have popping out of the water!
For the background, add some rolling heather-covered hills. You can use small scrunched-up pieces of purple tissue paper to make your flowers.
To finish your collage you could even add a Scottish castle with fairytale turrets and an iconic Scottish flag on the top. Use your imagination!
5. Decorate some print-outs of Burns' poems
Burns Night is a celebration of Robert Burns' work, so it makes sense to celebrate by decorating print-outs of Burns' famous poems.
They make the perfect accompaniment to a traditional Burns Night supper – and you can display the finished poems arounn the room as decoration or even as a table centre-piece.
You will need:
- some card
- pens or a computer print-out of a Robert Burns poem
- decorating materials (coloured pens, biodegradable glitter, sequins, etc.)
- scissors
- glue
- laminated sheets (optional)
How to make your decorated Burns poems
Get kids to copy out one of Burns' poems in their best handwriting. For younger children, download a Burns poem from the internet to print off and stick onto the card.
A good poem for children is 'To A Louse' as it's funny. Or you could use the shorter 'Selkirk Grace', which is a traditional element of the Burns Night supper.
Once you've got your poem printed or written out, your child can decorate around their poem with pens and stick-on materials. If you want to make it more sturdy, you could laminate the finished poem to make it more hard-wearing.
Happy crafting!
Looking for more ideas for ways to celebrate Burns Night this year? Check out our articles below or exchange ideas with parents in the forum.
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