Feeling crafty or just want to add a touch of homemade flavor to your Christmas this year? Well, you and your kids can make presents instead of buying them by getting busy at a couple of Beijing’s most kid-friendly DIY workshops, which are perfect for scratching that artsy itch with painting, building miniatures, woodworking and more!
Handmade DIY Experience Center 洋芋手作DIY体验馆
This DIY spot located in the heart of the CBD offers a huge choice of crafts but seemingly specializes in miniatures. Choose from an array of tiny decorations to pimp your phone cover or Airpods case, or add some bling to your hair with a customized hair clip. You can also design a plaster wreath, picture frame, and fridge magnet with all the tiny decorations they provide.
Other craft offerings include painting plaster figures of popular cartoon characters such as Hello Kitty and Stitch, and candle-making in the form of cookies, cakes, or a classic glass jar. For kids still learning to handle their fear of the dark, what better way to help encourage bravery than by getting them to design and put together their own night light?
All these workshops last at least two hours, and instructors provide one-on-one guidance in Chinese. On Dianping, there’s a special voucher that lets you choose two trial experiences from candle-making, plaster figures, fridge magnets, and more for RMB 188.
Search 洋芋手作DIY体验馆 on Dianping to choose your craft and see more pictures!
木本木工坊 Wood Workshop
If you’ve got a thing for wooden toys as I do, why not get the older kids involved in making their very own? Mu Ben Mu Gong Fang, located in the east of Beijing near the Antique Furniture Street, specializes in woodwork and proudly displays wooden toy planes, swords, guns, rocking chairs, and more on their walls.You can even make your own wooden music instruments such as a ukulele or finger piano.
There’s plenty of DIY and learning to be done as kids will be involved in the actual sawing, sanding, drilling, and gluing of the wooden craft they choose, under the watchful guidance of the store instructors of course. Adults are welcome to help, and you should be prepared to spend almost a full day there.
As with wooden toys, these workshops come with a heftier price tag, though one can argue that the durability and longevity of the wood is well worth it. Prices start from RMB 299 for a parent-child combo to make their own toy gun.
Search 木本木工坊 on Dianping to pre-book your wood crafting session!
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Images: Pexels, Dianping
