Tag: Christmas Activities

Christmas, Winter

Christmas Wreath Craft

Jennifer
preschool Christmas wreath craft
Christmas Wreath Craft

My kiddo who was anti-coloring for so long, now wants to color! And all of the time, too. So we made this fun little Christmas wreath craft together that is perfect for kids of all ages. Toddlers can scribble to their hearts’ content; preschoolers can carefully choose their colors for each pictures; and older kiddos can add glitter and sequins.

Craft Supplies Needed:

  • white paper plate
  • Christmas pictures template (free PDF)
  • green paint — we used water colors
  • glue stick
  • scissors
  • ribbon
  • hole punch (optional)

How To:

1. Cut out the center of your paper plate to make your wreath.

2. Paint your wreath green. We used water color paints, but any green paint will work. I like to use Crayola Washable Paints, but we couldn’t find them in our messy craft cabinet (grrr), so we opted for water colors.

3. While your wreath is drying, print out the Christmas pictures template (free PDF) and color them.

4. Cut out your Christmas pictures. They were a little too complicated for my kiddo to cut out, so I did it. As you can see, I left a little bit of a white border around them.

5. Once your wreath is dry, arrange the pictures how you like them on your wreath and then glue them on.

6. Finish your preschool Christmas wreath craft by tying a ribbon on so that your kiddo can hang their project! I used a hole punch, but you can also just loop your ribbon through the wreath and hang it that way.

More Crafts

I love making crafts with my kiddo, and since Christmas crafts are just so cute, we’ve made quite a few together. Check out my Winter Crafts Page for more fun crafts that you and your little one can make together. We’ve traced cookie cutters and made paper cookies, decoupage Santa hats, fluffy candy canes, and more!

Christmas, Winter

Christmas Cookie Cutter Coloring–

Jennifer
Christmas cookie cutter coloring

Baking and decorating Christmas cookies are one of my favorite holiday traditions! My son loves our cookie cutters and according to him, we just don’t use them enough. Since my waist line can’t handle too many Christmas cookies, I found another way for my kiddo to use cookie cutters: a Christmas cookie cutter coloring craft! He loved this idea 🙂 He is really into coloring at the moment and of course, Christmas, so this was the perfect idea for him.

Supplies Needed:

-drawing paper

-Christmas cookie cutters

-pencil

-crayons/color pencils

How To:

Pick out your cookie cutters that you want to use as stencils.

Firmly hold the cookie cutter on the paper (you might have to help your kiddo) and trace around the shape with your pencil.

Once you have all of your Christmas cookie cutters traced, color in your shapes. My son got creative and added ornaments and a star to his Christmas tree and a face and buttons to his gingerbread man 🙂

My son’s Christmas cookie cutter coloring craft turned out super cute and he had a lot of fun doing it! Plus, it helped satisfy his desire to use the cookie cutters. After he colored all of his cookie cutter shapes, he told us a story about them and even pretended to bake them! We love his imagination and proudly have his artwork displayed in our home.

More Crafts:

Check out my Winter Crafts page for more fun craft ideas! There’s a Santa hat, craft stick sparkly snowflake, finger-paint winter tree, and more. Pick some that you and your preschooler can make together 🙂

Christmas, Winter

Decoupage Santa Hat Craft

Jennifer
Decoupage Santa hat craft
Decoupage Santa Hat Craft

December is here and I am so excited to make Christmas crafts! My son and I each made a cute decoupage Santa hat craft together 🙂 We had previously made a decoupage Star of David for Hanukah, and had a lot of fun so we decided to decoupage again!

Supplies Needed:

-white glue

-red tissue paper

-3 craft sticks

-small cup

-paint brush

-water

-cotton balls or other decorations

-paper plate (to protect your surface)

How To:

First glue the craft sticks into a triangle shape. Let them dry.

In the small cup, mix a little bit of water with some white glue. Stir until it looks milky.

If your tissue paper is not already in small pieces, cut your tissue into 1-inch squares.

To protect your surface, make this craft on a paper plate. The red color will run once you start to paint the glue/water mixture onto the tissue!!!

Paint the glue/water mixture along the craft sticks. Lay your tissue onto the craft sticks. Begin to layer your tissue paper across the triangle, filling in the entire triangle. As you add a piece of tissue, paint your tissue with the glue/water mixture. It’s okay for the whole piece to be wet. It will dry. Don’t worry if your tissue paper hangs over the sides of the triangle because we will fold it over later. Once your entire triangle is covered in red tissue paper, brush some of the glue/water mixture along the tissue paper’s edges and corners.

Let your triangle dry.

Once your tissue is dry, flip your triangle over. Paint the glue/water mixture along the craft sticks. If any of your tissue paper from the front is sticking out, now is the time to fold it along the craft sticks before layering on more tissue paper. Now repeat the process of layering on tissue and brushing the glue along the edges and corners as you did previously.

Let your project dry completely before adding any decorations.

Once your Santa is dry, you get to add fun decorations. My son used 4 cotton balls to decorate his hat. He glued one to the top of the triangle and 3 cotton balls along the bottom of the triangle. His looked like a traditional Santa hat 🙂 I used a sparkly pompom and some silver sequins to decorate mine.

ORNAMENT: I think you could turn this into an ornament by taping a loop of red and white baker’s string along the back of your decoupage Santa hat craft.

Read Santa Stories to go along with your craft: check you library for my book recommendations.

More Crafts!

Christmas Cookie Cutter Coloring–use your cookie cutters as stencils and made paper cookies!

Paper Plate Peppermint Craft–make a peppermint out of a paper plate and use your little one’s handprints to be the wrapper.

Christmas, Winter

Mosaic Gingerbread Man Craft

Jennifer
Mosaic Gingerbread Man Craft

Make this adorable mosaic gingerbread man craft out of pieces of construction paper! Great for fine motor skills, shape recognition, and spatial awareness too.

Supplies Needed:

  • brown, orange, black, and red construction paper
  • scissors
  • glue stick
  • gingerbread man template (Free printable PDF)

How To:

Print out your gingerbread man template (Free printable PDF) or draw your own gingerbread man.

Cut the brown and orange construction paper into a variety of shapes. Make some of them rounded for the arms, legs, and head. I have a sandwich bag full of extra scraps of paper that I keep for mosaic crafts, so my son just pulled out the pieces he wanted. Having lots of different shapes and sizes to choose from helped him get the look he wanted without having to use pieces that didn’t fit well. So if you are cutting them specifically for this project, cut some extras so that there are lots of choices for your kiddo.

Glue your orange and brown construction paper all over your gingerbread man. My son wanted to use mostly brown with a little bit of orange paper. Gingerbread is usually an orange-brown color so he tried to replicate that for his craft.

We cut out 2 small circles from black construction paper for the eyes and 3 small red circles for the mouth. Glue them onto the gingerbread man’s face. I think buttons would be adorable for the eyes and mouth, but I could only find green buttons at my house so we used construction paper instead. My son says googly eyes are also a good choice 🙂

Let your project dry before showing off your cute mosaic gingerbread man craft!

More Crafts:

Paper Plate Peppermint: a cute, winter handprint craft to make with your preschooler.

Christmas Cookie Cutter Coloring: a fun way to use cookie cutters without the calories!

Christmas

Christmas Fireplace Craft

Jennifer
Christmas fireplace craft
Christmas Fireplace Craft

Preschoolers can make this cute little Christmas Fireplace Craft for their toys to gather around!

Supplies Needed:

  • black construction paper
  • 4 craft sticks
  • orange tissue paper
  • twigs (can substitute with brown paper or cardboard)
  • scissors
  • glue
  • paper stockings (free PDF printable)
  • crayons

How To:

Begin by arranging the craft sticks on the black construction paper, with a stick along each side of the fireplace. Measure around the craft sticks and cut the black paper to fit behind the sticks. Glue the craft sticks onto the paper.

To create the “fire,” glue on small pieces of twigs and add crumpled orange tissue to make the flames. Our local park has wood chips, so we grabbed a couple little pieces for our craft. You can cut “logs” out of cardboard or brown paper if you can’t find any twigs or woodchips.

Print off the stocking pictures (free PDF printable). Color the stockings with crayons. Be creative — use your favorite colors; add designs. Once you have decorated the stockings, an adult can cut them out. Glue the stockings onto the top of the fireplace. Let your project dry.

Once dry, your toys can warm up around your cozy Christmas fireplace! What do your toys want for Christmas?

Christmas Stockings Poem

Read this Five Little Stockings poem with your kiddo to add to the stocking-themed fun! This poem can be done as a finger rhyme, with each finger being a different stocking 🙂 Wag a finger as you read this poem together.

Five Little Stockings poem
“Five Little Stockings”

Poetry is not only fun to recite (preschoolers love rhymes), but the rhythm and sounds are important early literacy tools. Read this post from Scholastic Parents to learn more about the importance of poetry for children.