10 Christmas Activity Round-Up for Toddlers and Preschoolers!
Are you looking for super easy and fun holiday activities and craft ideas for your kiddos? I’ve created a Christmas activity round-up to give you 10 fun-themed craft ideas to try with your kids this holiday season!
My kiddos and I have been doing these holiday-themed activities for years now and they are always a hit. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while and especially if you follow me on Instagram, you know that I like to keep things fairly simple, fairly practical, and on budget.
All of these holiday activities are focused on letter recognition, number recognition, matching capital and lowercase letters, sensory, math, and literacy! Plus I love when I can combine multiple skills in one activity and these are exactly that!
If you want to have over 300 play-based activities on hand and ready in two minutes, plus get kids excited for the holidays, and other special occasions throughout the year with writing, drawing, and decorating activities you are going to want to get the Preschool Playbook! Some of these activities in this round up are from the Christmas Unit snag yours today!
Here are 10 Christmas and Holiday activities for your kiddos!
(This craft is from the Christmas unit in the Preschool Playbook, get yours here!)
Supplies needed: Brown, red, black, and white construction paper, glue, and Scissors.
Instructions:
- Cut a brown triangle on the brown construction paper.
- Using the white construction paper, cut & glue two white circles on the brown triangle to make eyes.
- Using the red construction paper, cut & glue a red circle to make the nose.
- Using the black construction paper, cut small strips.
- Glue the black paper strips into antlers and glue them to the top of the reindeer.
- Draw black circles inside the eyes.
Supplies needed: Tray, baking soda, dawn dish soap, candy canes, vinegar, dropper.
Instructions:
- Pour baking soda into a tray.
- Add a few drops of dish soap and then add crushed candy canes. Pro tip: Dish soap makes the bubbles even bigger!
- Use droppers to drip vinegar on top for a fizzy peppermint reaction. Pro tip: Watered-down vinegar lasts longer.
Supplies needed: Paper plate, paint, red construction paper, cotton balls, glue, paint brushes.
Instructions:
- Mix paint to make skin color and paint the whole paper plate. Pro tip: Blend white, orange, yellow, and brown to make the skin tone of your choice.
- Grab your red construction paper and draw a hat then cut out the shape.
- Add eyes and a smile to your plate with black and red paint or a marker.
- Glue the hat to the paper plate.
- Pull the cotton balls apart to make the beard and hat fuzz.
- Glue the cotton balls to the paper plate to make the beard and glue the cotton balls to make the hat fuzzy.
Supplies needed: Paper, markers, and jingle bells.
Instructions:
- Draw any shape you like on a piece of paper.
- Have your kiddo pick up the jingle bells and outline each of the shapes with them.
Ugly Christmas Sweater Recipe:
Supplies needed: Butcher paper, markers, and small festive parts like gems, pom poms, and erasers.
Instructions:
- Start by drawing a sweater on butcher paper.
- Then find some small manipulatives that look a little festive. We used pom poms, pipe cleaners, and mini erasers.
- On note cards write “recipe” then draw the (ingredients, or your small items) and add the number (0-10) of how many they need to create the recipe.
- Have your kiddo decorate the sweater using the numbers and items from the recipe card.
- Another option to take this activity to another level is to use number sentences, statements, and tally marks.
Supplies needed: Sensory bin, different types of ribbon, letter magnets, paper, and markers.
Instructions:
- Draw presents on a piece of paper and label them with lowercase and capital letters.
- Add the letter magnets to a sensory bin full of ribbon or wrapping paper.
- Have your kiddo match the letters to the gifts.
Supplies needed: Paper, markers, house cookie cutter, and Christmas-themed small parts.
Instructions:
- Draw a few small gingerbread houses. Pro tip: you can trace a cookie cutter.
- Write a number on each of the houses.
- Invite your kiddo to place the corresponding number of mini-erasers on each house.
Supplies needed: Paper, markers, Christmas stickers.
Instructions:
- Start a pattern on a piece of paper using stickers. Ex: Candy cane, present, Santa…
- Leave blanks at the end.
- Invite your preschooler to complete the patterns.
Supplies needed: Pipe cleaner, red & white beads.
Instructions:
- Create a pattern on the pipe cleaners using the red and white beads.
- Fold the ends of the pipe cleaners in at the top and bottom to keep the beads on.
- Bend the pipe cleaner towards the top to create a candy cane shape. Optional: Add to your tree for a cute ornament idea!
Supplies needed: Sensory bin, dried coconut, and small Christmas figurines.
Instructions:
- Fill a bin with dried coconut.
- Add small Christmas figurines like gingerbread men and bottle brush trees into the sensory bin.
- Invite your kids to play. PS: it is okay if the gingerbread men are replaced with Tonka trucks, dinos, and excavators.
Now that you’re in the holiday mood, here is a blog post on how to do a North Pole breakfast that pairs perfectly with these holiday themed activities! This is my family’s favorite Christmas tradition and I know you and your family will love it too!
And here is another blog post all about our Christmas gift giving tradition, we adopted a new gift giving tradition called the four gifts giving tradition and his been so magical, you can read all about it here!
Looking for more holiday activities and craft ideas? Start teaching right away with activities ready in two minutes! I created the Preschool Playbook, featuring a 30-week low-prep curriculum and over 300 play-based activities that develop children’s fine motor control, creative muscles, and academic skills in early literacy, math, and science. Get yourself and your kids excited for Thanksgiving, Christmas, holidays, and other special occasions throughout the year with writing, drawing, and decorating activities all in one place.
