Cozy Christmas Crafts

Peppermint, pine trees, and pony beads… the perfect start to a Christmas crafternoon. Creating traditions that bring the magic of the season into your home starts by finding activities that your family enjoys doing together! Whether the weather is warm or cold, you can get cozy at the kitchen table and kindle your child's creativity with these fun holiday crafts!

Create a Candy Cane

Enjoy these simple and low-prep candy cane crafts. First, twist a white and red candy cane together to create an ornament for a tree or a decoration in a child's room (this can be a great option for children to young to string beads on a pipe cleaner). Another option (for children who are old enough), tie a bead to the end of a pipe cleaner. Then, let your child string white and red Pony beads through the pipe cleaner in a pattern to create a candy cane. This is great fine motor skill practice and is easier than making a bracelet from beads and string. It is also good math practice for children learning about patterns and colors. Lastly, the mosaic candy cane. Have your child paste red and white paper squares in a pattern on a piece of paper. This activity can easily become a fun window decoration if you use transfer paper for your base (just stick the paper squares down instead of using glue) and then stick the paper to the window. Enjoy a few engaging holiday read-alouds HERE to go along with these candy cane crafts.

Salt Dough Santa's

Create a keepsake to preserve your child's tiny handprint this Christmas season, while also creating a cute Santa ornament or ring dish. First, make homemade salt dough (one cup of flour, half a cup of salt, and one cup of water). Let your child play with it like playdough before rolling it out and pressing their hand down to create a mold. After the print is completely dry (this may take 24 hours) turn it upside down and paint it to look like Santa!

Cover the Cookie

Purchase and print these cute playdough mats and then let your child decorate the Christmas cookies with playdough as the frosting and beads as the sprinkles. To add to the sensory experience you can create scented playdough by adding a nice-smelling spice (allspice is great for gingerbread playdough), cooking extract, or essential oil to a batch of homemade playdough! If your child loves the cookie crafts, they may also enjoy the Gingerbread Activities found HERE.

Arctic Activities

Find the animals who got caught in a blizzard while in your cozy home. Hold the snow paper with the hole cut out over the animal and let your child guess what animal is being shown by only looking at the part showing through the hole. This game can be a fun introduction to learning about animals in the Arctic region. For more fun games and activities check out the full resource here.

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