SANTA’S LITTLE HELPERS : They’ll Be Hammering Out the Homemade Gifts at Workshops Throughout the County This Season

Say you’re a kid. You’ve fed the cat, walked the dog, basically done the indentured servitude thing for months, just to raise some cash for the holidays. Feeling flush, you head for the mall (OK, Mom drives, but you ditch her at the frozen yogurt shop), and shift into consumer overdrive: an “I’m With Stupid” T-shirt, a mushroom-shaped candle in a stars-and-stripes motif and a Troll with a faux ruby sprouting from its navel. Throw in sales tax, a Slurpee and--ka-ching!--you’re out 50 bucks.

Back home, your little sister leaks to Mom and Dad that she’s giving them a matched set of macaroni-studded pencil cups. The folks promptly go ballistic.

Dang, you think, why didn’t I remember? Grown-ups are suckers for cheap gifts.

Given the choice between a store-bought trinket and a homemade gift from their child, most parents would opt for the crafty stuff, no matter how rugged the finished product. There are several museums, stores and community programs around the county that can help children make the most of their creative impulses (and holiday budget) and, in the process, possibly spark a continuing interest in arts and crafts. Unless otherwise noted, program fees include materials.

Here are just a few:

At the Discovery Museum of Orange County in Santa Ana, kids can take home everything from toy puppets to a Victorian-style centerpiece, plus some painless history lessons. Most classes are held in and around the museum’s turn-of-the-century Kellogg House and are inspired by crafts and traditions of the late Victorian era, said program director Nancy Robins.

“Become a Puppeteer” (Dec. 1, 8 and 15) teaches children age 8 to 12 to make several types of hand puppets, props and scenery, then stage their own show. Aspiring chefs age 7 to 12 can sample “Kids in the Holiday Kitchen” (Dec. 3 and 10), where they use turn-of-the-century and modern cooking methods to create seasonal specialties (although it’s anybody’s bet how many treats make it home).

“Make a Paper Gingerbread House and Victorian House Greeting Cards” (Dec. 3, 10 and 17) helps 6- to 12-year-olds create a keepsake holiday centerpiece and cards using paper, scissors and imagination. And the museum’s “Children’s Holiday Workshop” (Dec. 19) combines old-fashioned games and refreshments with crafts projects ranging from pomander balls to candles filled with rose petals, herbs or, as one child did last year, ants.

“Our goal has never been perfection,” explained Robins with a laugh. “It’s been fun and an experience.”

Workshop fees range from $12 to $27.50. Call (714) 540-0404.

The Children’s Museum at La Habra is hosting “Holidays Around the World,” a pair of holiday crafts sessions that dovetail with the museum’s current geography exhibit. Using simple materials, children can create an English hobbyhorse, a Swedish folded bird, Italian “stained glass” ornaments and other items.

The first session (Dec. 12), open to kids age 6 to 12, will be at Nordstrom in the Cerritos Mall. The workshop is a fund-raiser for the museum; fee is $4. The second (Dec. 19), for ages 5 to 12, will be at the museum and is included with admission of $2.50 to $3. Call (310) 905-9793.

No special workshops are planned at the Irvine Fine Arts Center, but the facility will offer its regular Open Studio sessions for children ages 5 to 9 each Monday and Wednesday through the holidays, as well as a Family Clay Time on Dec. 20. Fees begin at $5. Call (714) 552-1018.

Mom Nature provides the inspiration and much of the materials at the Holiday Nature Crafts Workshop at Anaheim’s Oak Canyon Nature Center on Dec. 19. Workshops are led by staff naturalists; projects--including sand candles, grapevine wreaths and clay ornaments--are designed for ages 6 to 10 (younger children may participate, but parental assistance is required). Fee: $6.50. Advance registration is required. Call (714) 998-8380.

There are also retail stores countywide that offer classes and one-shot seminars for children. For sheer variety, the granddaddy of these may be Piecemakers in Costa Mesa. According to Joanna Nelson, one of the store’s class coordinators, the facility offers dozens of children’s classes taught by a staff of 80 local and visiting instructors.

Classes, available to preschoolers through high school students, range from beginning sewing to rubber stamp quilts to wooden toys. For the junior procrastinator, there’s “Kids’ D-Day,” a Dec. 24 program where ages 7 and up can churn out three different gifts. Fees range from $8 to $35; materials are additional for some classes. Call (714) 641-3112.

Michael’s Arts and Crafts, a mega-chain with seven stores in the Orange County area, offers one of the best bargains in town with Kid’s Club, a year-round program for ages 4 to 12. The Saturday morning sessions are free; more elaborate projects may require a materials fee. Small groups arrange their own special interest classes for a buck a head. Stores are in Tustin, Garden Grove, La Mirada, Cerritos, Fullerton, Orange and Huntington Beach.

And Yorba Linda’s Tall Mouse offers weekly or semi-weekly classes in clay, basic jewelry-making and T-shirt decorating. Fees begin at $5. Call (714) 996-0101.