7 Creative Christmas Crafts for Toddlers

The festive season is around the corner, there is no joy quite like the one seen through the wide-eyed wonder of a toddler. But let’s be honest, keeping those cheeky little elves engaged throughout Christmas can sometimes feel like a mission.

Well, we have you covered on 7 Christmas crafts specifically designed for small hands, say goodbye to over-planning creative projects and hello to festive fun!

1. Christmas handprint art

There are so many possibilities with handprint art. You can turn your designs in Christmas characters such as Santa, elf, snowman, a Christmas tree, reindeer, or penguin. These are great to hang on the tree, put up on the fridge or just keep for memories sake. All you have to do is paint your toddlers hand a stamp it onto a piece of paper, or trace around the fingers, then start decorating for a character of your choice.

We’d recommend getting your stationery ready. From paints sets to crayons to pens and pencils. Have an array of colour available for your little one to use their imagination to the fullest.

2. Ornament crafts

Ornaments play a huge role in Christmas decorations, so why not have your children make use of their crafting skills and design their own to contribute to the decorations?

Here are some of our favourite ornament craft ideas for toddlers:

• Snowflake popsicles stick ornaments: First, glue three craft sticks on top of each other to form a snowflake shape. Then use your paints brush to paints the sticks and add glitter to make it sparkle. Once dried, hot glue some twine or string to the top to hang them on the tree.
• Fillable ornaments: You can hang your own fillable baubles on the tree, decorate them by placing all sorts of items within the baubles. From example, to add a spring touch you can add small stones and flowers inside or if your child has a favourite LEGO character you can place them inside and make them a small room within the bauble. Also decorate the outside with a design of your choice. You can also pour in different colour paints, swirl, and pour out the excess.
• Salt Christmas tree ornaments: You’ll need table salt, cookie cutters, hot water, bowl and spoon, construction paper cut-outs and a plate or pan. Using your Christmas inspired cookie cutters, trace out your design on the construction paper (thicker/harder paper). Mix salt with hot water, once you have your cut-outs, place in a pan or dish and pour the salt mix slowly over your design until just covered. Now place the dish or pan in sunlight and wait until the water has evaporated.

3. Recycling toilet rolls festively

Children love creating crafts with toilet paper rolls, especially with the current cost of living crisis in the UK. Using recyclable materials such as toilet rolls is a great way to make use of waste and create fun shapes and characters. From the snowman to the elf – this will be a big hit this Christmas!

Here are examples of different Christmas characters you can design with your little one:

Santa

To begin, paint the roll with any colour for the face. Make Santa’s hat by cutting out a small circle from red glitter paper. Cut one slit into the circle so you can bend to form a hat and cut off any excess paper. Glue the hat together and glue it to the top of the paper roll. Stretch out cotton balls and glue to the brim of the hat and glue a single pom pom to the top of the ‘hat’. Glue on some googly eyes and a pom pom for the nose, add glittered red paper for the body. To finish, glue stretched cotton balls all around the beard and some under the nose to make a moustache. Now glue two black buttons on top of the glittered red paper.

A Snowman

Paint the roll white, make earmuffs by gluing a pipe cleaner over the top and glue to medium sized white pom poms to either side. Cut out a carrot nose from orange cardstock and glue down. Cut out a strip for the scarf or use a ribbon and wrap around the roll and glue. Finally, glue on two black buttons. You can draw on eyes and a dotted mouth with a sharpie.

A Reindeer

Using a plain roll (or you can paint it brown), cut out the top center on the front and back on the same end. For the pieces sticking up still, make 4 slits on each side and pull them apart to make it look like antlers. Glue on googly eyes and a red pom pom for the nose.

4. Salt dough fingerprint sculptures

Salt dough is an affordable yet creative way for toddlers to enjoy a clay experience, especially if they love Play Dough.

All you need is all-purpose flour, table salt, warm water, an ink pad, ribbon and string, a sharpie and paint.

To begin making your salt dough, on a bowl mix: 4 cups of flour, 1 cup of salt and 2 cups of warm water, knead with your hand until all combined. Then, use a rolling pin and roll it out flat. Use a cookie cutter of a design of your choice (tree, snowman, or star) and press into the dough. You can also use cardboard for tracing a shape if you don’t have a cookie cutter.

After, have your toddler press their fingertips onto the design. Poke a hole on the top to be able to link some string on straw to hang. Bake at 250 degrees for 3 hours, flipping halfway. Once cooled, start painting and have your toddler dip their finger on the ink pad and press into the indents they made. Use a sharpie to finish any designs, write the year or your child’s name for the memory.

5. Paper plates for more than Christmas snacks

It is common to have paper plates lying around the house, so why not use them for fun crafting ideas? Here are two fun paper plate Christmas ideas to try:

Paper Plate Christmas Tree

An easy craft to make and you probably have all the supplies already. Have a paper plate, clear tape, green paint, glue and multicoloured pom poms to hand. Place your plate upside down and pinpoint the center, now cut out an entire quarter of the plate to be able to fold into a cone. Roll the plate into a cone and tape together. Keep the tape on the inside! If you need tape on the outside wait for the paint to dry first. Paint your cone green and once dried glue on your coloured pom poms.

Paper Plate Christmas Wreath

Lay out colourful pom poms, green paint, and paper plates with the center cut out. Colour the paper plate with paint, once dried, dip the pom poms in glue and stick down to the plate. This is great for toddlers as it is simple and develops fine motor skills.

6. Christmas Jewellery

Who doesn’t love making their own jewellery?

All you’ll need is jingle bells, green and red pony beads, and a green craft cord.

To make a necklace, cut a bit of craft cord and lay in front of you. Use a hair clip on the end of one side of the necklace so the beads don’t fall off as your toddler strings them on. Next, string a jingle bell on the cord and stop at the middle.

The craft cords frays easily, we recommend using a piece of clear tape on the ends to stop this from happening. Now have your little one string some pony beads onto one side of the bell, think of a pattern you want to use for both sides, once you’ve added some beads clip that side of the string and start on the other side, matching the design. Once done, remove the clip and tie the ends, and there you have your own necklace!

This can also be repeated for bracelets.

7. Turn socks into Snowman figures

Create an adorable rice sock snowman with these easy steps that will spark your toddler’s imagination.

Begin with white socks; men’s crew socks are perfect, but any socks will work. Cut just above the heel, flip it inside out, and seal the top with a rubber band. Now turn it the right side out and fill with rice, tie the top with another rubber band.

For the body, place a rubber band around the middle of the sock, closer to the top of the head. Craft a little hat from a coloured sock, add a stylish scarf with ribbon or fabric and decorate with buttons using hot glue.

You can then personalise the face with sewing pins for the eyes, orange fabric paint for the nose, and toothpicks for the arms, mouth, or cheeks. To be extra creative, use different patterned socks for the clothing!

Summary

In summary, the festive season can be filled with many activities for toddlers and older children alike. From making jewellery, decorating paper plates, forming salt dough sculptures to recycling toilet rolls for Christmas characters, the possibilities are endless. Encourage your little one to experiment and celebrate their creativity all year round, read more on ‘5 Tips to Inspire Creative Play’ for more inspiration.

We hope your Christmas is filled with joy, laughter and a bunch of new arts and crafts projects if you are in need of Christmas toys for your toddler why not just shop by age!

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