The Christmas frenzy is about the start…if it hasn’t already!? But, let’s remember this time of year is so much more than frantic late-night shopping, nightmare food shops and dreaded cleaning choirs to get the house ready for the big day! It’s about spending time making magical memories with the little ones too and enjoying fun Christmas Activities too, because let’s face it they don’t care if the house is a tip, right? (crying emoji)
To help get you in the festive spirit we’ve put together some of the best and our Top 8 Christmas Activities for kids! You can make some decorations, have a cuppa whilst they colour in, write a letter to Santa or bake some festive treats and put a Christmas movie on all snuggled on the sofa!
Here are our Top 8 Kids Christmas Activities for 2022
Popsicle Christmas Tree Decoration
Tissue Paper Christmas Wreaths
Natural Christmas Tree Decorations
Colouring In With Our Christmas Printables
Festive Shortbreads
You can choose any biscuit mix for this baking activity but our favourite is shortbread (yum emoji) Mix, roll and cut festive shapes out of the dough, then let them cook in the oven and cool before you get your little ones to decorate the tops with icing and Christmassy sparkle! Even if your little one is under 3 they will enjoy helping you stir the ingredients and stick and sprinkle the final touches with you. Involving your children in the cooking process can also help develop a good relationship with food and encourage independence too!
Follow this link for the perfect shortbread recipe and take inspo from our decorated biscuits below
Popsicle Christmas Tree Decoration
These cute, glittery trees are perfect to add an authentic and handmade touch to your Christmas tree Let your little ones cut, stick, collage and glitter away in the making of theirs this Christmas!
What you need:
- Popsicle sticks
- PVA Glue
- Double sided tape (optional)
- Pom poms
- Sequins
- Coloured card
- Glitter
- Pipe cleaners
How to make your Popsicle Tree:
- To get started you’ll need to make a triangle from 3 popsicles corner to corner. You can stick them using PVA glue or use double sided tape in the corners as this is strong enough to hold them together. If you have pre-schoolers you may need to pre-make this part to help them but it will depend on their ability
- Use the sequins, pompoms, glitter, stars and pipe cleaners to decorate the tree and watch it come to life!
- Cut a rectangle (pot) for the bottom of the tree in a colour card and use the PVA to stick it to the underside of the bottom popsicle.
- You can tie some twine from the top to use as a tree decoration or make into a garland for the mantlepiece! Have fun!
Tissue Paper Christmas Wreaths
This is a fun festive activity for toddlers and pre-schoolers that’s not only sensory but a great fine-motor Christmas craft that are snow much fun to make!
What you need:
- Tissue paper in a variety of colours (cut into 2-3 inch squares)
- Cereal box or other used weighted cardboard
- Green paint (you can even use a few shades)
- Ribbon
- PVA
- Hanging thread
- Stapler
How to make your Wreath:
- Start by painting the cardboard with your little ones, some may want to use fingers too which is fun! Let them dry.
- Once dry, trace a small saucer size circle and a bigger plate sized circle and cut these out. If you’re struggling to cut out the centre, use a pencil to pierce a hole to get the scissors in
- Next, get your little one to scrunch the tissue paper up and glue them all over the wreath using glue and a paintbrush. Each child will scrunch the tissue in their own way and that’s fine – some may even just glue on the coloured squares! It’s always best to demonstrate, as well as say the instructions but your little one will have the most fun if they’re then able to explore what you show them in their own way and let their creativity flow!
- Raid the craft drawer to find pompoms, glitter and other bits to collage if you want to glitz it up even more!
- Once finished, ask the little ones to choose a ribbon, then tie this in a bow.
- In a joint effort (watching little fingers) staple the bow to the wreath.
Hey Presto! You have be-yule-tiful wreath all ready for hanging
Natural Elements Christmas Tree Decorations
This is a festive craft that really takes you back to nature, the process of doing this activity is just as fun and important as the outcome! It also offers a sensory overload, think festive pine smells and earthy ground, getting back to nature in the twigs and leaves!
What you need:
- Cardboard
- Tree stencils ( download here) insert link for the tree outlines
- Hole puncher
- Pompoms
- Glitter
- Hand collected colourful leaves and evergreens
- Hand collected (skinny) twigs (preferably dry)
- String or twine
- PVA glue
- Hot glue or strong sticky tape
How to make your Tree Garland:
- Using old cereal boxes or other flat cardboard, cut-out Christmas trees with scissors (this bit can be a bit tricky for little ones), the size and shape is your preference depending how long you want the garland to be. Remember- you can draw the trees freehand or download our stencils for the basic outline shape
- Head outside for a little walk with the kids and help them collect some small twigs, evergreen, and nice bright leaves. Ask them to describe the smell and touch of them!
- Lay your found treasures out on the table and ask your little ones to use a paintbrush to apply a layer of glue to their trees!
- Ideally your little ones should do a layer of evergreen first which you can demo to them beforehand
- Once the evergreen is on, add blobs of glue and top with some extra festive sparkly bits and poms!....if you do have a hole puncher you can guide your child to punch holes in the leaves and then stick the leaf confetti onto the tree! Or if easier, cut little bits off with scissors and glue.
- Aid your child to cut the twigs and put onto the tree stump. Leave to dry.
- Add your trees to the twine with very strong tape on the back or very hot glue.
Voila! Your garland is ready! Hang it on the mantlepiece or in your child’s room for a festive glow up!
Colouring In…a classic!
Have some downtime whilst colouring in, or make it a family activity…the best colouring in gets a mince pie! Use the link below to find a collection of festive outlines, from gingerbread men, candy canes, Christmas wreaths and more! You can also see our blog post for ‘how else to use’ our free printable christmas colouring in pages below
Click here to access your free printable Christmas colouring in pages and many other ideas of how else you can use your child's work of art!
Orange & Clove Pomander
Another traditional festive craft that all the family can get involved in, to use as a fragrant centre piece, a gift for family and friends or to hang on the tree! Whatever you use them for, make sure you have fun following our super easy instructions below
What you need:
- Whole oranges
- Scissors
- Biro pen
- Ribbon
- Coves
How to make your Fragrant Pomander:
- Criss cross the ribbon around your orange and tie in a bow (will need help depending on age) If you want to use the pomander as a tree decoration, remember to make a loop with the ribbon too!
- Pierce your orange with a biro or toothpick to make a small hole for your cloves.
- Tradition is to cover the whole orange with cloves but you could make a pattern, lines or a star if you wanted to do something smaller and less time consuming! (see photos for ideas below)
- Once you have made your holes in the pattern you want you then push the clove pieces into the holes. Not only do the cloves decorate your orange but they make the orange stay fresher for longer too!
If you have little ones between weaning age and 2 in the family, they can get involved in the fun by playing with sliced oranges! They can smell, touch, mush and even taste segments of the orange to feel involved in the festive fun!
Insert photo of baby with orange
Playdough Christmas Tree
I haven’t met a toddler yet that doesn’t love to play, make and build with playdough! So, what better way to get them learning about Christmas by making a playdough Christmas tree they can use as an ornament on the fireplace! ( tree emoji)
What you need:
- Playdough
- Scissors
- Cutters & shapes for playdough
- Pictures of 3D Christmas trees
How to make your playdough Christmas tree:
Kids often learn from copying and replicating what they see, so using some visual aids for this activity could be super helpful.
- To begin with encourage your toddler to make a cone shape and look at the pictures of trees to help.
- Make 3 cones with playdough (preferably green colour of the tree) and place them directly ontop of one another to form the tree base.
- Once the tree is constructed you can start to decorate with tinsel, baubles, a star on top etc. Toddlers can use their little fingers to roll the playdough into shape or use cutters, stamps and playdough tools to make the decorations they like.
- Depending on the toddler, some like to build, deconstruct, bulldoze and rebuild again (crying out loud emoji)… but it’s all part of the fun so just let them explore Christmas through play and maybe grab yourself a cuppa!
Letter to Santa
You just can’t beat a family tradition, so helping your little one write their first letter to Santa is something very special...whether you post it through the letterbox or send it up the chimney your child will sense that special Christmas magic 😊
Follow the link here to see how to write your toddler's letter to santa, the items you need to do so, what you need to do and how to actually send your letter to santa.
