11 Christmas Crafts for Kids

The Christmas season is a special time for many families. Singing Christmas carols, decorating the tree, hanging lights and stockings, celebratory meals, and decorating cookies are among the numerous traditions many families partake in at this time of year. Another great family holiday activity is to do Christmas crafts together with your kids.

Christmas crafts are a wonderful way to engage with your children, make memories, and create new traditions. Crafts also boost kids' creativity and fine motor skills. Plus, these projects often make festive decorations or gifts that can be enjoyed throughout the holiday. Below, we asked a variety of crafty bloggers to share inspiring Christmas crafts to try at home.

Glittery Paper Bag Star

This paper bag star project turns simple supplies into a beautiful, festive decoration, says talented painter and mother of three Katie Sevigny. In addition to making crafts and other art projects, she is also the owner of Sevigny Studio art galleries in Anchorage, Alaska, and Portland, Oregon. The project is Ideal for elementary-aged kids (or younger ones with more parent help).

This Christmas craft lets kids work with two of their favorite supplies—glue and scissors. Additionally, they get to see how a little creativity and a bit of glitter can turn basic brown paper bags into gorgeous, festive stars.

Instructions 

1. Glue bags together alternating flap up and down. The opening of the bag is always on one side and the closed side of the bags are always touching.
2. Draw a T using school glue on one side of each bag. The bottom of the T should end at the open side of the bag every time.
3. Once the bags are all glued together and dry, fan open the bags in a complete circle to make sure you used enough bags. 
4. Close the bags flat again and begin to cut! Taper the ends, but make sure not to cut so deep that you cut into where you glued. 
5. Once you’re done cutting designs on both sides of the bag, fan the bags back into a circle. Then, glue the circle together.
6. Hole punch the two ends at the tip of the newly glued bags by the open side and tie a string into a loop to hang! 
7. Spray on the craft adhesive and sprinkle glitter all over! 

Santa Claus Paper Plate Craft 

This adorable Santa Claus face craft will delight children young and old and is doable for kids age 3 and up. "Making crafts with my grandchildren is all about spending time together while making memories," says crafter Patti Smith, a preschool teacher, grandmother of four, and the craft blogger behind Preschool Patti. Kids will love decorating Santa's face and gluing on the pillowy cotton balls to make his beard.

"I love crafting with children and witnessing their excitement as they create their own original artwork and develop critical thinking skills, fine motor skills, and hand-eye coordination," says Smith.

Instructions

1. Cut 1/2 of the white paper plate’s rim off.
2. Cut a red hat for Santa from either construction paper or a red paper plate.
3. Have your child paint the center round part of the white plate.
4. Your child will glue the eyes and red pom pom nose in place.
5. Have your child glue cotton balls on the rim of the plate for Santa’s beard.
6. A mustache is made by pulling a cotton ball slightly apart and gluing it under Santa’s nose.
7. Glue the hat on Santa’s head and glue cotton balls on the rim of the hat and one as a tassel.
8. With a red crayon, a mouth can be drawn and rosy checks can be made by rubbing the side of the crayon on his cheeks.

Cardboard Christmas Cookie Ornaments

This festive craft, created by Kimberly McLeod of The Best Ideas for Kids, is recommended for ages 5 to 10. "Making your own Christmas ornaments is a fun activity you can do as a family," says McLeod, a mother of two from Ontario, Canada. These cardboard Christmas cookie ornaments make lasting memories on your tree or can become cherished holiday gifts, too! 

Instructions

1. Use cookie cutters to create shapes out of cardboard by tracing the cookie cutter over the cardboard and then cutting out the shape.
2. Use a hole puncher to create a hole in the top before painting.
3. Then paint the cardboard with acrylic paint.
4. Decorate your ornaments however you’d like. Use yarn, buttons, pom poms, paper, and felt to bring the projects to life.
5. Tie some twine on for hanging.

Pinecone Christmas Trees

Chloe Duffy of chloe_duffy3 creates fun sensory play and craft projects for kids, including these gorgeous pinecone Christmas trees. This craft is ideal for children age 2 and up with a parent's help and takes about 30 minutes including drying time. Kids will love the opportunity to decorate their very own tree in whatever way they see fit.

"These mini Christmas tree pine cones make the perfect addition to small world play, tabletop decor, or Christmas tree ornament," says Duffy, who lives in Aiken, South Carolina with her family.

Instructions

1. Collect pine cones.
2. Be sure to thoroughly wash off (or even bake) your pine cones to prevent little critters from coming home with you.
3. Paint the entire pine cone green with a brush. Another option is to dip or roll the pinecone in paint, which may be easier for younger ones.
4. Let green paint dry.
5. Decorate using white paint to look like snow and colorful paints for ornaments.
6. Some other ideas to try would be using pom poms or sequins for ornaments, cutting out felt or foam stars to put on top of the tree, using glitter, or gluing a ribbon on top to turn them into ornaments for your own tree!
7. Tip: If you want to use these for play, use a bit of white playdough as a base to stick the tree in, so they do not tip over.

Paper Bag Gingerbread Houses 

This fanciful gingerbread house project, which was shared by crafting master Cera Ruby, requires only a few, simple steps. Kids of all ages can participate in this project and preschoolers on up can do so mostly independently. "This easy brown paper lunch bag craft can be made two ways: Either with a white paint pen or with colorful construction paper," explains Ruby.

Ruby, who is a mother of four, creates kids' crafts, sensory bins, and fun snack ideas on her Instagram rubybyrds. "We love doing crafts together, especially around the holidays," says Ruby.

Instructions

1. Fold the bottom of the paper lunch bag down.
2. Cut out a wavy roof with scissors.
3. Decorate the bag with a white paint pen or cut and glue construction paper to make doors, windows, and candy decorations. 
4. Open the bag to stand up and display. 

Holiday Nature Wands

Gina Gendron of aplayfilledlife shared this festive cardboard Christmas craft. These holiday nature wands are intended to be a simple, fun, and child-led project. "They are a way to connect to nature, use your imagination, and craft with simple materials," says Gendron, a mother of three with a baby on the way who lives in Dallas, Texas.

This craft is for ages 2 to 10 and should take about an hour to complete, including going on a nature walk to collect the materials. "It is about the process to me, not the product," says Gendron. "I love observing how they take the materials and make it their own." 

Instructions

1. Start by going on a nature walk to collect all of your favorite leaves. 
2. Then, came back home and crumble them into pieces.
3. Cut out cardboard shapes to decorate using the leaves and other supplies.
   
4. Set out the materials for the kids to start creating.
5. Using a stick wand to attach to the cardboard base,
   
6. Use glue to attach desired leaves, yarn, and glitter.
7. Let wands dry, 

Christmas Light Jars

Kelly Sell, the crafter behind _lion_and_bear_, created this craft with help from her two boys, ages 2 and 4. This craft can be completed by little ones from 2 years on up, with supervision and support with the cutting, and independently from age 4 on up.

Kids will enjoy creating these safe holiday "candles," which will look beautiful placed anywhere around the house. "Creating DIY decorations is always a fun way to create a bit of festive cheer while keeping the little ones entertained," says Sell.

Instructions

1. Clean your recycled jars and dry.
2. Cut out a Christmas shape from your sticky back plastic, such as a Christmas tree or star.
3. Peel the backing off and place it on your jar.
4. Using ready mix paint and a sponge, cover your jar (including the sticky back plastic shape) and leave to dry.
5. Once dry peel off the sticky back plastic.
6. Fill your jar 1/3 full with white pom-poms or cotton and rest the battery-powered tea light on top. 

Paper Plate Christmas Tree

This fun and easy project by Christina Wiffen of the Early Education Zone is intended for children aged 3 to 5. "Children can create their own miniature Christmas tree with this simple craft idea for early learners," says Wiffen, who lives in Sussex, England, and is the mom of a 7-year-old girl. "Christmas is a great time to get creative with early learners, there are so many symbols of Christmas that are easy to recreate in colorful, unique crafts," says Wiffen.

As an added bonus the required cutting, painting, and gluing are great ways to encourage concentration, creativity, and fine motor skills. "My daughter always loves helping to decorate the Christmas tree. This activity enabled her to create her own tree and decorate it exactly as she wanted," says Wiffen.

Instructions

1. Paint the paper plate green and cut it into quarters. 
2. Cut out a brown rectangle shape from the paper and stick it on the bottom of the popsicle stick.
3. Glue one of the quarters of the paper plate onto the top of the popsicle stick, covering the top of the brown rectangle.
4. Glue two more quarters on top of this, each one slightly further down the popsicle stick. Use the last quarter if you want an extra-long tree. 
5. Decorate your tree with any craft materials you have on hand, such as sequins, paint, and felt tip pens.
6. Don’t forget the star on top of the tree. 

Christmas Tree Garland

This festive holiday garland is designed by crafter extraordinaire Audrey Burk of Our Days Outside. Intended for kids ages 4 to 12, this project is sure to get your family into the Christmas spirit. "I love making crafts using natural elements, and evergreen is one of my favorite materials to utilize around the holidays," says Burk.

"One thing my son and I love doing together is making crafts that we can decorate with later," says Burk, who lives in Flint, Michigan. In addition to the joyful beauty of this craft, it also smells great due to the cedar twigs.

Instructions

1. Flatten your cardboard boxes and draw the outline of a Christmas tree. We used a variety of sizes and shapes! Make as many or as few trees as you'd like depending on how long you want the garland to be. 
2. Cut out your Christmas trees. (If you have young kids, do steps 1-2 before involving them.)
3. Head outside with your kids and have them help trim some cedar, gather small twigs, and collect colorful leaves.
4. Make your leaf confetti by cutting out several small circles with a hole punch. (If you don't have access to any colorful leaves, sequins can be substituted!)
5. Bring everything inside and lay out all the decorating supplies on your workspace.
6. Cover the cardboard trees with a squiggle of glue and layer with cedar. 
7. Next, trim your twigs to fit the tree stump and glue them on.
8. Put random dots of glue on top of the cedar and decorate with the pom pom balls, stars, and confetti, then let dry completely.
9. Once the trees are dry, glue them to a strand of twine with a dab of hot glue on the back. 
10. Hang up your Christmas tree garland and enjoy!

Recycled Yarn Christmas Trees

This fun yarn-based Christmas tree craft, developed by Sally Hare of Raising Little Jess, can be adapted for all ages. Younger children may need help wrapping the trees in yarn, but can then decorate the tree independently. "Craft activities were always a big thing in our household growing up, so it was important to me to keep that tradition going when my daughter was born," says Hare, who lives in Norfolk, England, and is the mother of 29-month-old Jessica.

One bonus of this craft is that it uses materials that you'll likely already have on hand, while also creating a beautiful finished product. "I wanted to create an activity where at least part of it utilized recycled materials, to minimize the cost to families and also be conscious of our planet," says Hare.

Instructions

1. Stick the yarn to the back of the tree, using tape.
2. Carefully wrap the yarn around the tree, once done, stick it again to the back with tape. If you have a younger toddler, you could always assist them with this step.
3. Glue the embellishments onto the tree.
4. Let it dry.
5. Pro Tip:  Save embellishments off of old greeting cards, and put them in a box for future use.
   

Paper Plate Christmas Tree Lacing

"Lacing yarn through holes is an excellent way to strengthen fine motor skills," says Eliza Spingos of Learn Craft Grow, the creator of this fun activity. The project also teaches early sewing skills.

Kids will enjoy watching their tree take shape as they lace the yarn through the holes. "This paper plate Christmas tree can be used to decorate the house for the holidays or can be given as a gift to a loved one," says Spingos, who lives in Canada with her three children.

Instructions

1. Using a ruler, draw a triangle in the center of the paper plate and then cut it out.⁣⁣⁣
2. Using the hole puncher, create an equal amount of holes along the left and right sides of the triangle.⁣⁣⁣ Starting at the top of the triangle,
3. Place the green yarn in and out of the holes. Wrap masking tape around one end of the yarn to make it easier to lace through the holes.⁣⁣⁣
4. Cut the yarn when the threading is complete and tie knots at the starting and ending points to secure it.⁣⁣⁣
5. Stick the adhesive gold bow at the top of the tree.⁣⁣
6. Cut out a rectangle from the brown craft paper and glue it to the bottom of the tree⁣⁣⁣ as a trunk.
7. Stick the adhesive rhinestones throughout the tree, on the sides, and around the paper plate for extra bling!⁣⁣⁣