Santa's Little Crafters: Unwrapping Christmas Magic with Kids' Crafts and Activities!

Cardboard Gingerbread House 

Can you decorate a gingerbread house with all the different art materials? This is a fun and easy holiday themed process art activity that allows you to give new life to cardboard boxes.

Take a cardboard box and cut it in the shape of a house! Cut out houses of multiple sizes. Then take your PlayTray and fill the compartments with all kinds of art materials. Offer white chalk markers or tempera paint sticks to look like icing!

Wrapping Paper Fine Motor Cutting Tray

This is a fun and festive way to build fine motor skills and put that spare or post gift opening gift wrap to use. 

Ways to extend the play:
-Measure different amounts of the cut up gift wrap
-Cut out different designs to paste in a collage!
-Sort the different designs!
-Cut out different shapes

Reindeer Food Sensory Bin 

Can you make a tasty treat for the reindeer when the stop by tonight? This is such a fun and easy activity to do to celebrate Christmas Eve.

Simply fill a PlayTray container with oats and add peppermint and glitter in containers for your children to pour, measure and mix! To make it outdoor friendly add cake sprinkles in metallic shades to be your glitter!

"Sprinkle on your lawn on the night of Christmas Eve and let the moon sparkle bright so it can guide Santa's reindeer as they roam and fly to your home"

Count & Match Christmas Trees 

Can you match the numbered clothes peg to the correct number of ornaments on the christmas trees? 

All you need for this activity is construction paper, shape stickers (or foam shapes) and clothespins! Using green construction paper cut out the shape of a Christmas tree and stick a different number of circular shapes on the trees to act as your ornaments. On clothespins write corresponding numbers and place them to the side! Encourage children to then clip and match!

Colour Match Gingerbread Village 

Can you create the gingerbread houses and match the house pieces together? This activity is a fun and festive way to explore colours, building and open ended creativity!

Simply lay out your magnatiles and create a 2D house. Once you are happy with the design of the house take your chalk markers and begin creating designs on them that resemble gingerbread houses! For an additional challenge for your child you can create designs that link to other pieces so they can piece them together that way.

Ways to extend the play:
-Encourage them to create their own houses and use chalk markers to create their own gingerbread houses!
-Create 3D gingerbread houses
-Create a gingerbread village small world

Decorate the Ornaments 

Can you create unique ornaments with the loose parts? This is a fun and easy holiday activity that allows children to express their creativity!

On your tuff tray take a chalk marker and draw different ornaments of all designs, shapes and sizes! Place different loose parts around your ornaments and then invite children to create and design their own.

Ways to extend the play:
-Can you make an ornament with a certain amount of loose parts?
-Can you use only a certain colour?

Pony Bead Ornaments 

These ornaments are a fun and easy crafty keepsake you can make in less than 20 minutes! Each one turns out SO unique.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees! On a baking tray cover it with a piece of parchment paper, then place your holiday cookie cutters on the paper. Invite children to pour pony beads in the cookie cutters and then pop them in the oven for 15 minutes until they are melted!

Once your timer is up pull them out and leave them overnight to cool. Once cooler pop them out of the cookie cutters and then using white glue or hot glue add a loop of ribbon or twine to hang them with!

Then pop them on your holiday tree.

Loose Part Christmas Tree Decoration 

This activity is a fun way to allow children to be creative as they decorate their own Christmas trees.

Using green construction paper cut out the shape of a Christmas tree and pour loose parts into a bowl to act as your ornaments! Encourage them to create their dream tree; is it themed? Is it using ornaments of one colour in many shades?

Holiday Light Patterns 

This activity is a fun & easy way to build fine motor skills and explore beginner patterning concepts with a fun holiday twist.

All you need is paper, a black marker and dabbing makers! On your strips of paper draw a waved line to resemble a light strand and then add bulb ends for your lights! Then using the dabber marker create patterns at the beginning of the light strand and invite children to talk about the patterns and the kind of patterns they are then finish the pattern!

Ways to extend the play:
-Create fill in the blank light pattern strand cards
-Count how many holiday lights of each colour are in each pattern
-Label each kind of pattern! Is it AB, AABB, ABCD, etc
-Create your own pattern

Candy Cane Counting Stripes 

Can you bead the right amount of stripes on the candy cane? This activity is a fun and easy way to practice counting while building fine motor skills!

Take white pipe cleaners and cut them to different lengths and at the top of your candy cane gently bend it to have a curve like a candy cane! Then sort and separate the red pony beads out and place them in a wooden bowl. Invite children to bead! 

Ways to extend the play:
-Have them bead the correct answer to a math equation
-Bead a different number of stripes on all your candy canes and invite children to count them and identify how many

Gingerbread Small World Village 

Can you tell a gingerbread story? This fun and easy small world is a great way to encourage language and have fun! Also a great use for your gingerbread houses.

In a container, pour hot chocolate powder and flour as a base and add your gingerbread houses! Then add different small world pieces and begin to play.

Number Representation Holiday Trees 

Can you build the tree based on all the representations of the number? This is a fun and easy way to practice number recognition.

Take a piece of green construction paper and cut it in the shape of a large triangle, then make four separate cuts to have different sections! On each of those sections using a chalk marker or white pencil crayon write & draw different representations of a single number. I used dots, tallies, ten frames and the written out number. Then take a piece of brown construction paper and cut a small square and on there write the number and it will be your tree stump!

Spread all the different sections out and then invite children to create their number forest!

Magnatile Holiday Wreathes 

This is a fun and easy activity that is inspired by the holidays and allows children to be creative as they design their wreath with magnetic tiles and loose parts! 

You can either create the base wreath for children to decorate or offer them the challenge to create the wreath from a photo or based on their own inspiration! You can even extend the learning by asking how many of each shape they used, why they chose those shapes and more!

Gingerbread Button Counting 

Can you count all the right amount of buttons for each gingerbread person? This is a super fun and easy counting activity that allows children to work on early numeracy skills!

Take brown construction paper and cut it out in the shape of a person! Lay them all out around your tuff tray and on the head write a number with chalk marker! Then pour buttons in a container and place them in the middle of the tray and invite children to count and match the correct number of buttons.

Ways to extend the play:
-Instead of just numbers add number sentences for children to solve and use that amount of buttons
-Make colour button patterns.

Christmas Tree Playdough Tray 

This invitation to create allows children to create and decorate their own Christmas tree! Play dough is a great opportunity to help children build fine motor skills and inspire their imagination as they create. 

In tray offer play dough, dough cutters & tools, and loose craft pieces and let your child's creativity lead!

Holiday Cookie Sensory Tray

Can you create, bake and decorate your holiday cookies! This is a super fun and easy sensory play activity.

To make your cookie dough sensory base pour flour in the tray, mix in rainbow sprinkles and add a cup of oil and mix! This will create cookie cloud dough. Then add different bowls, mixing utensils and cookie cutters!

Candy Cane Counting 

Can you count all the stripes on the candy canes?

This activity is a fun and festive way to work on early numeracy skills! Simply take a piece of anchor chart paper and draw candy cane outlines all over the paper - they can be varying sizes. Using a red marker draw a different number of candy stripes on your candy canes then invite children to count and match the numbers!

Rainbow Pebble Christmas Tree Ornament Puzzle 

Can you match the ornaments to the outlines on the Christmas tree? This is such a fun and easy activity children will love! This activity builds visual comprehension and fine motor skills as they play and decorate the tree! 

All you need is colourful markers, a sheet of bristol board and your rainbow pebbles! On your bristol board draw the outline of a Christmas tree and cut it out. Then take rainbow pebbles and shape buttons of every size and colour and trace them on the tree in different places. Once finished, place the pebbles and buttons you traced in a bowl and offer to children to match!

Gingerbread Man Craft Tray 

This is a fun open ended craft activity that allows children to uniquely create their own individual masterpiece! Will they create a self portrait? A fantasy character? Create the classic gingerbread man? It is up to them!

Simply cut out the shape of a gingerbread man out of construction paper and place a variety of loose craft pieces in a tray and encourage children to create! 

Magnetic Tile Present Match 

This fun and festive activity is a great way to practice shape recognition & colour matching!

All you need are magnetic tiles, coloured markers and bristol board! Trace your magnetic tiles with the same colour marker and in different orientations. Once traced draw a bow on top to help children orientate the shape! Place the loose magnetic tiles you used in a basket with additional ones and invite children to start matching!

To extend the play:
-You could ask them to identify the colour and shape of Magnatile before placing it!
-To add an additional challenge you could combine multiple shapes of the same colour for a large design to act as a puzzle!
-Talk about the orientation of the shapes!

Colour Match Ornaments 

Cut a large piece of paper to fit the base of the active world tray and tape it down. Then take a marker and draw christmas trees all over the paper, once you have your trees draw different sized coloured circles to be your ornaments on the trees.  Make sure you have a different number of coloured ornaments on each tree!!

Offer dot markers so children can colour match and count the ornaments. To extend the learning you can ask them to count how many ornaments are on each tree, how many of each colour?

Line of Symme(tree) 

This activity is a fun & festive way to explore patterning! All you need is loose parts, craft materials and a sheet of paper! Create a Christmas tree shape out of construction paper and cut it in half and place a line of paper to act as the line of symmetry. Create a design of loose parts to act of ornaments and encourage children to reflect the pattern!

Loved these ideas but need a few more? We have you covered! Check out our Christmas printable crafts and activities here.

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