Raise your hand if the month of December was busy…(hand raised).

Last year, I vowed to simplify the holiday season but for some reason it seemed a little more chaotic than usual. I did, however, manage to squeeze in several holiday crafts for my kiddos but I never got around to sharing them so here ya go…and be sure to pin them for next year!

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10 Easy and Fun Holiday Activities to Do With Your Children

1. Snowflake Printing with Lace Doilies. 

We used doilies from our of beautiful collection we acquired this year to make snowflake prints. We carefully rolled the doilies with tempera using a brayer, laid them onto our paper, then put a scrap piece of paper on top to gently rub over it.

2. Washi Tape Trees.

We LOVE washi tape! This was a perfect activity to keep my kiddos busy one afternoon while I prepared for our Christmas festivities. Little ones love sticking down tape! I pre-cut some triangles out of cardstock and they stuck down the washi tape of their choice. We trimmed off the excess on the edges then attached a cardboard trunk.

Want some more tape ideas? See our other washi tape activities here and keep scrolling below to see our next winter activity using tape.

3. Marble Painting Holiday Cards.

Marble painting is a fun process for little ones that produce some pretty cool results. Just throw some paint covered marbles (I actually didn’t have marbles on hand so we used a variety of different sized beads!) into a box or tray lined with a piece of paper. Shake the box back and forth in different directions to make the marbles/beads roll around and create lines of mixed colors.

We made a variety of papers in different holiday color schemes and used them to create cards. We used cookie cutters to trace an ornament and snowflake and glued them to folded construction paper. We added washi tape to frame our border.

4. Recycled Bottle Cap and Pom Pom Christmas Tree. 

This simple invitation was set out for my girls to make a tree using a bin of saved drink and food caps, Pom poms, and a wine cork trunk!

5. Cardboard Candy Canes.

This project was the girls favorite this season. I cut out large candy cane shapes from cereal boxes and painted them with a quick layer of white paint. We decorated them with a variety of materials in shades of pinks and reds including scrapbook paper, yarn, pipe cleaners, plastic straws, glitter glue, sequins, and beads.

6. Paint Swatch Wreath.

Have any paint swatches saved from your past home DIY projects? Don’t throw them away! They make fun art like this wreath. They also make cute little Christmas shaped trees, petals for flowers, etc…so many possibilities!

7. Snowmen at Night Drawings.

This paper bag was set out for my girls to draw on while I got some dinner prepared. It’s funny how something different from a regular piece of paper can be so intriguing. They saw the bag and immediately started drawing.

When my oldest was finished, her snowman drawing resembled one of our favorite winter books, Snowmen at Night. The beautiful illustrations use blues and purples for the snowy night scenes.

8. Craft Stick Christmas Tree Ornaments.

An oldie, but goodie. I’m sure you’ve all seen these craft stick trees for years but it is so simple and fun for little ones. We painted our large and small craft sticks with tempera, glued them together, then added jewels, sequins, Pom poms, cut up straws, buttons, and Willa even threw in a seashell on hers! We glued some string to the top for hanging and a craft stick or straw for the trunk.

9. Winter Tree Shadow Box. We did this project for the Craftmas collaboration I was a part of last month and the tutorial can be found over at Teach.Investigate.Play!

10. Pinecone Trees.

These easy trees were created by painting pinecones we collected on a nature hike, sprinkling them with a little glitter, and gluing on jewels. We placed our trees into a mound of air dry clay. These look so pretty displayed and I hope to have them make new ones each year.

Happy New Year, everyone! Thanks for following along and stay tuned for many more project ideas in 2018!

~ Lisa

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