Fun Christmas Crafts for Kids

Holiday Activities and Art for Children of All Ages

Nov 22, 2008 ChristaCarol Jones

Give your child some creative liberty, start new traditions, and help embrace the true spirit of Christmas by encouraging giving this holiday season.

Christmas crafts are not just a way to give your kids something to do to pass the time with during the holidays while exploring their creativity. They can be a seasonal staple, a great way to spend special time with your children or to start new traditions, and they give you the opportunity as a parent, teacher or caregiver to teach all about giving in a personal, homemade way. Gifts that come from the heart and hand can be more meaningful than gifts bought at a store.

Winter Scene

This fun, engaging activity can occupy a child's time for quite a while if given lots of materials and creativity. This craft requires a white poster board and the rest is up to you on what you wish to provide your child. Some ideas are: markers, crayons, paint, glitter, cotton balls, pipe cleaners, foil, construction paper, scissors, holiday sparkly confetti, q-tips, painted rice or noodles, black beans – the list could go on.

With the supplies out for easy use, lay out the poster board and tell your child to think up of a fun wintry scene to create. A snowman in the snow with Christmas trees is one that lots of kids have loved before. They get to choose what materials they want to use and design their very own canvas art on poster.

Q-tips are great with white paint to dab snow flakes. Cotton is great for a 3 dimensional snowman, foil is great for stars are ornaments on Christmas trees (and can be colored with marker), black beans and painted rice or noodles are great to texturize the snowman (coal, scarf, arms). Construction paper is good for the moon or Christmas trees. The great thing is, this activity gives your child boundless room for creativity. Display his artwork proudly when he's finished so family and friends can see.

Kids Christmas Ornaments

Using this Craft Clay Recipe, let your child mold her ornament as desired. Some ideas that have worked before are listed below.

Traditional Hand Print

Let your child decide a shape for her ornament. An oval works good, but Christmas shapes can work too. Make sure it is molded to be big enough for a hand impression. Once it's molded, have her imprint her hand and stick a pencil all the way through the top to make a hole for the ribbon to hang it when it's dried. After it dries, your child can paint it and run a ribbon through to hang on the tree.

Christmas Shapes Ornament

Using cookie cutters, rubber stamps or creative hands, press the clay into a Christmas shape. Have a pencil on hand to poke a hole through the top to string the ribbon through. After it dries, your child can paint, add glitter, sequins, or other small decorations, string the ribbon through, and her masterpiece is created! Remember to date the back for a treasured Christmas memorabilia.

Realistic Gingerbread Man

This craft is a great sensory exploration activity for younger kids, but still entertaining for older kids. Have some shaving cream, ginger, cinnamon and brown paint on hand along with a gingerbread man pattern (you can create by hand or visit North Pole Christmas for several shapes to choose from).

Make sure to use sturdy paper for the pattern, poster board or paper plates are recommended. After cutting out the patter, mix equal parts of shaving cream with the brown paint (something the child can do) and let him finger paint the gingerbread man. Encourage him to use as much as he wanta for a 3-dimensional affect.

Once it is complete, let your child sprinkle the spices and, if desired, add small touches like buttons for the eyes and curled ribbon for the mouth. Once it's dry, you can add string to hang on the tree or display it somewhere else in the house. Not only does it look pretty, it smells great too! You can visit this Gingerbread Man article for more gingerbread man activities.

Another festive craft idea for your child is to make his very own Snow Globe!

Crafts and art are great for kids of all ages to participate in. They encourage fine motor skills, sensory exploration, thinking skills, and best of all, embrace the creativity and idealistic perception that children have during youthful years.

The copyright of the article Fun Christmas Crafts for Kids in Kids Crafts is owned by ChristaCarol Jones. Permission to republish Fun Christmas Crafts for Kids in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.

Crayons for Crafts