11 Christmas Crafts for Toddlers that Will Blow Their Minds

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These Christmas crafts for toddlers are designed to keep holiday festivities alive, and young minds preoccupied with imagination. These choices of Christmas crafts for toddlers (and babies) are your best bet at keeping the holiday season fun, festive, and educational.

What is Crafting?

Good for all ages, crafting is the art of making something with your hands. It is a way of challenging one’s skills and sharpening them to the best they can be. In a world where everything can be bought in an instant, crafting is a vestige of human culture that will never go away. It is a method of self-expression that does not require thousands of dollars. 

You can craft by repurposing old things or by buying new items. Do-It-Yourself crafts are popular because they maximize everyday items you can find at home. They also turn something basic into something offbeat and unique — this ranges from your museum finds to refrigerator artworks. 

For kids, crafting is only the beginning. Here they can find their interests, explore their emotions, and bond with their families. Still, these are the mere surface-level benefits of crafting. 

Benefits of Crafting

Self-Expression

In the last two years, kids have been forced to coop up at home more than anyone else. This, whether people admit it or not, has an effect on how kids process their feelings. As visual humans with brains ready for molding, kids learn a lot by doing. Even the quiet kids, which might have socializing issues, can grow a lot by doing crafts. Crafting helps kids express themselves with little to no use of words. Through crafting, kids can find a safe space for their thoughts and emotions. 

If Rudolph is looking particularly sad in your Christmas crafts for toddlers, then this gives parents the opportunity to discuss emotions with their children. In the same light, this helps kids socialize better because it gives them something to talk about from the get-go. 

Opportunity To Socialize 

One of the true beauties of being a kid is making friends wherever you go. Your interests with other kids are more or less the same. Arts and crafts are for everyone. Simply gathering kids and letting them use their hands to make something can create a lot of fun. This also gives them an equal playing field to socialize in because there are no barriers to crafting. Everyone is doing the same thing, with the same goal. 

Crafting appeals to every child’s natural curiosity. They want to know how to make things; what you’re making; and the similarities between each piece of art. 

Boosts Creativity 

As mentioned above, children are naturally curious individuals. They move around with a different set of rules, inside a world where everything is their oyster. Crafting boosts these skills, teaching children that their imagination is truly limitless. 

How does it do that? Crafting uses a lot of shapes, textures, colors, and brainpower. The materials children use are not as important as how they use them. For example, when you show a child that a sock can become a snowman, then they will start to see things from a different point of view. The other side of this coin is that children can discover their interests through crafting. Not all crafts will be a ball—but a select few will be. A child may discover they like working with wood, opening the doors to carpentry.

Enhances Other Skills 

Beyond creativity, crafting is also a chance for kids to sharpen their other skills. In crafting, other day-to-day practices such as writing and counting come into play. How long should the popsicle sticks be? What should I write on this piece of paper? How do I spell “Christmas”? These are a few examples of questions Christmas crafts for toddlers can create. 

As children learn the answers to their questions, they slowly but surely hone their basic reading, writing, and counting skills. It’s like learning without formal classes—a child’s dream come true!

Sharpens Their Decision-Making 

Similar to the previous point, crafting also sharpens a child’s decision-making skills. A lot of decisions are made when crafting, from what to draw, to how to draw it. Characters, shapes, and artistic direction are common avenues for decision when making a craft. 

When making these decisions together, a child enhances their critical thinking and independence. This is a win-win situation for both them and their guardians. Should a decision prove disappointing, kids will learn the value of learning from their mistakes. They will use this to get better at their next crafting session or use it to drop a specific type of crafting for good. 

Improves Their Motor Skills

While crafting is an avenue for creativity, it is a precise process. Depending on the craft, there are select steps you have to follow to get to the final product. Kids use both their hands to make these crafts, all while keeping their ears open to instruction. Watch as your child creates better dexterity over time. This will seep into their everyday practices such as tying shoes, organizing their rooms, and more.

11 Christmas Crafts for Toddlers To Enjoy

Read more: How To Store Christmas Village

1. Graham Cracker Gingerbread House

Photo from Happiness is Homemade.com

Many Christmas crafts for toddlers intersect with the crafting activities of older kids. While any child-friendly craft is a fun time, sometimes an activity made for 7-year-olds just isn’t going to be as fun for toddlers. 

In such cases, toddlers tend to make things messier than they should be. Thankfully, this GingerBread house project is one of the most common Christmas crafts for toddlers you can find. GingerBread houses take time and a lot of energy to make—if you are making them from scratch. If you want your toddler to enjoy a Christmas craft without the added mess of baking, using graham crackers is the way to go. 

A perfect example of easy Christmas crafts for toddlers, this cookie house is made of graham crackers and royal frosting. This project enables kids to boost their creativity by not wasting too much time on preparation. Start this craft by filling piping bags with royal icing. Then, cut the crackers to form the shape of your “GingerBread” house. Proceed by doing what people do with these houses: pipe along the four edges of the cracker, stick crackers on each side, and let them harden before adding a roof. 

Once your house is finished, you can decorate your house with candy of your choosing. Use the icing to stick them to the “GingerBread” house. You can even opt for marshmallows, round candies, candy canes, and more.

2. Candy Cane Reindeer

Photo from Elizabeth Labau from Spruce Eats

Joining this list of Christmas crafts for toddlers are candy cane reindeers. Using candy cane bodies, toddlers can enjoy making their own reindeers by sticking eyes and antlers onto each piece. 

To complete this Christmas craft for toddlers, simply dab hot glue onto the end of the candy cane hook and stick a pom-pom on to it. This will be the reindeer’s nose. Then, smear glue above the reindeer’s nose to press on googly eyes. The same process goes for the pipe-cleaner ears, which go at the top of the candy cane (the area where it begins to curve). 

To those who want edible Christmas crafts for toddlers, you can substitute glue for royal icing. The inedible parts of this craft—pom-poms, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes—can be replaced with candy and pretzels respectively. Hang this Christmas craft on the tree or keep it aside until the kids are ready to eat. These are Christmas crafts for toddlers that can last a long time with proper refrigeration. 

3. Grinch Slime Craft

Photo from Mama Teaches.com

Bringing the two together is this Grinch Slime Christmas craft, which is lovely to look at and a lot of fun to play with. A fair warning though: slime Christmas crafts for toddlers can be a messy endeavor. This is the price to pay when you want to have an extremely fun time. 

Start by mixing water and glue together inside a bowl. When they are fully together, add in drops of your green food coloring followed by your glitter. At this point, you can be as creative as you want to be—use green and gold glitter if you want to! 

Once your colorful mixture is complete, add liquid starch. This thickens the mixture and prevents liquid slime that will slip right through your fingers! Obviously, compared to other crafting ideas, slime Christmas crafts for toddlers are messy, but they reap high rewards. You can even take this mixture over to your craft storage drawers and create your own unique, crunchy slime with random beads and accessories.

4. Handprint Ornament

Photo from the Imagination Tree

Salt dough is made up of three simple ingredients: flour, salt, and water. You make these by stirring the flour and salt together and gradually adding in water. When this reaches a dough-like consistency, you can begin your crafting. 

Some people opt to use the colored salt dough for these types of Christmas crafts for toddlers. To do this, buy the food coloring of your choice and add it while you mix your water and flour mixture together. Others even add a dash of glitter to create a sparkly Christmas ornament. 

The dough will come together through constant kneading (which an adult could do faster, but if time is not an issue, toddlers will enjoy this step too). After this step, simply get balls of dough in your hand and partially flatten it to make a rough circle. 

This is the fun part—have your toddlers place their hands in the middle of this circle. As you will see, their hands will leave a dent in the dough. Add two holes to this flattened dough and bake it at 100 C or 200 F for 2-3 hours. When the piece is fully dry, tie in threads of your choosing inside the holes you poked. 

Don’t let this be the end of your journey of salt dough Christmas crafts for toddlers. You can also paint, draw, and bejewel your Christmas ornaments. If you want an easier process, you can skip the DIY salt dough and buy air-dry dough instead.

Read also: 11 Best Toddler Trampoline For 2024

5. Santa Advent Calendar

Photo from Natural Baby Shower.com

Possibly one of the easiest Christmas crafts for toddlers on this list is the Santa Advent calendar. It is simple, effective, and teaches kids about counting, patience, and humor.

To create your very own DIY Santa Advent calendar, you will first have to cut out Santa’s face using craft paper. You can color in whatever you’d like to create your very own Santa Claus. 

Next, cut cheeks, eyes, and a nose from construction paper. Cut out his red and white hat too. Glue these onto the face you just made. Once these are done, use a cotton ball to add some fluff onto the end of his hat.

The beard arrives next: cut a long beard shape from the same face color craft paper. Write the dates of the month leading up to Christmas. You can now hang this up on your toddler’s wall and glue a cotton ball to each date written as it passes by. When Christmas arrives, you’re sure to have a full-bearded Santa!

When it comes to cost-effective Christmas crafts for toddlers age 2-3, this is your best bet. These Santa Advent calendars are a lot of fun to make for minimal cost. It’s also an interactive craft, which allows toddlers to count down the days until Christmas!

6. Paper Plate Santa

Photo from I Heart Crafty Things.com

If you want more of a challenging Santa craft for your toddler, these Paper plate Santa Christmas crafts for toddlers are a smart option for you. Use materials you can find at home for a cost-effective and fun activity. 

To start, you have to cut a third of your paper plate off and color in the middle portion of the remaining area—this will be Santa Claus’s face. Once painted, set your plate aside to dry. 

Do Santa’s hat next: draw a triangle on your cardstock paper and cut it out. Remember to add some space for Santa’s fluff at the end of his hat. This triangle must be large enough to be at the back of the entire paper plate. It will serve as Santa’s clothes and hat rolled in one! 

After this, take your white cardstock paper and cut 2-inch circles and one thin rectangular line. Cut one of the circles in half. When all of your materials are prepped and dry, assemble your paper plate Santa! Glue the plate onto the red triangle and also stick on the necessary details: 

• The first 2-inch circle will be at the very top of your paper hat.
• Additionally, the rectangular line will serve as the start of the Santa hat.
• Finally, the other 2-inch circle that you have cut will be Santa’s mustache.

Let your imagination roam free! Stick on Santa’s googly eyes and design him however else you want to. Don’t forget to use the red pompom as his nose!

7. Paper Plate Elf

Photo from I Heart Crafty Things.com

If your toddlers have seen Christmas movies, they might also be interested in making elves of their own. Christmas elves are Santa’s workers—cute, full of energy, and almost exactly like toddlers. 

Compared to paper plate Santa, these paper plate elves have a bit more detail on them. However, the difficulty level is more or less the same. Start by painting the paper plate with whatever skin tone you want it to have. Make sure you do this before you plan on crafting because you will have to let this dry for at least one hour. 

Next, cut 4 triangles out—the first two are small and the next two are large and green. The small triangles will serve as the elf’s pointy ears while the other two are his hat and shirt. Cut decorations for these pieces of clothing, whichever ones you want.  Then, glue on the hat to your elf’s head. This may require at least 20 seconds of pressing.  

Do the same with your elf’s clothes. Make sure the plate is on top of the triangles though. Design the shirt by cutting off a strip of white paper and gluing it on the elf’s Christmas shirt. Lastly, add on the decorative pom-poms, googly eyes, and pipe cleaner (as your elf’s smile). An optional tiny jingle bell can top this craft off. 

8. Christmas Icicle Craft

Photo from Kids Craft Room

Christmas crafts for toddlers have many uses: entertainment, learning, and decoration. This Christmas icicle falls under the last purpose. Glimmering in blueish glitter tones, this Christmas icicle craft is easy to make and beautiful to look at. No matter who makes it and how good that person is, you will always end up with an elegant ornament for your home. 

Start by tearing a piece of aluminum foil. Make sure that it is longer than your planned icicle height. Next, tear off this foil’s lower corners to make a triangle. Now, fold over the top of this foil and make sure the aluminum’s shine is facing outward. Get your glue or sticky tape and attach the silver cord onto the end of the aluminum foil. Then, tie it into a loop at the top so that you can hang it. 

After this, roll the aluminum foil sideways so that you can start to shape your icicle. Start where the hanging thread was attached. Squeeze the length of the foil and start shaping your Christmas icicle craft. Gentle squeezes work for a larger crumple while tighter squeezes make for smaller, thinner shapes. 

When you’re happy with your aluminum foil’s shape, decorate your icicle! Make it dazzle with glue and your glitter of choice. Blues, greys, and golds suit this Christmas ornament best. Finally, shake off any loose glitter and wait for these Christmas crafts for toddlers to dry. 

Read more: How To Store Christmas Village Houses

9. Sock Snowman

Darkroom and Dearly

These sock snowmen can give lonely socks with a missing pair a new home of their own. Many toddlers can relate to this, especially after a day’s worth of play. This is why the best Christmas craft for toddlers to make is a sock snowman. 

Gather up old socks of bold colors (make sure you have one white one too) and get to decorating! Start by cutting your white sock above the heel and turning it inside out. Once this has been done, the top of the sock can now be covered and tightened by a rubber band. But before anything else—fill in the sock with rice to give it weight and shape. 

Form the body and head of your snowman and tie its ‘waist area’ with rubber bands to create a distinction. At this point, the ‘snowman’ portion of these Christmas crafts for toddlers is over and it’s time to decorate! 

Cut off the toe of one of the colored socks you chose for this crafting project. Use this as the snowman’s hat—you can glue it on or sew it in for your toddler. If you use glue, remember to hold the hat in place for at least a few seconds. 

Use the yarns and fabric to dress up your snowman. Its eyes could be buttons you glue or sew on. Other ideas are to paint them with acrylic or draw them with permanent markers. The same principles go for the nose, though you can use orange toothpicks for these.

10. Christmas Character Candy Pots

Photo from Crazy Little Projects.com

Christmas is not Halloween, but that does not mean that you should skimp out on candy! These character candy pots show that Christmas is all about the sweet tooth too. 

Gather some of the smallest flower pots you can find and turn them from garden ornaments to table decorations. Fill them with snacks and vióla, you have got your own pot of Christmas candy. This entry is also one of the few affordable Christmas table decorations you can have.

Making Christmas character candy pots is another example of easy Christmas crafts for toddlers. The first step is to choose which character you want to make and collect the necessary colors for them. You can make Santa Claus, a Christmas Elf, a Reindeer, and even a Snowman! Some toddlers even opt for cartoon characters with Christmas hats instead. 

After choosing a character, paint your pot with the necessary colors. Once dried, you can add your designs: buttons, glitter, antlers, cotton (for Santa’s beard)—or anything else you prefer. You can also take inspiration from other Christmas crafts for toddlers on this list to learn how to decorate your favorite holiday character. Fill in the pot with candy when you’re done decorating. 

11. Pinecones with Pompoms

Photo from One Little Project.com

This would not be a list of the best Christmas crafts for toddlers if pinecones did not make an appearance. As one of the most famous Christmas tree ornaments, pinecones have become symbolic of the holiday. Other than its aesthetic value, what makes pinecones such a perfect fit for toddlers is that they are near unbreakable.

Moreover, this example of Christmas crafts for toddlers is easy, cost-effective, and usable for the years to come. To start, add hot glue under the pinecone’s “branches”. Stick the mini pom-poms on there. Continue until you fill the pinecone’s branches evenly, looking more and more like a Christmas tree as you go along. 

Secure this craft together with a string or ribbon glued at the top of your pine cone. Choose whatever color and style you want so that it will fit your holiday aesthetic. For those who want to challenge their toddlers, you can let them add the glue using a glue gun themselves. This will help their motor skills, dexterity, and focus. However, always make sure the glue gun is safe to use and supervise constantly.

Are There Christmas Crafts For Babies AND Toddlers?

Crafting can encompass people of all ages. Even amongst kids, crafting has different levels of difficulty—what works for a 10-year-old may not be the best choice for a 5-year-old. The same goes for toddlers (ages 2-4) vs babies (ages 1 below). 

Many think that babies cannot join in on the fun of Christmas crafts for toddlers. This is not the case, as there are many easy Christmas crafts for toddlers and babies. These don’t use as much hot glue and messy glitter as most crafts do. 

Footprint Ornament

Photo from Danie Franco on Unsplash

The first is a footprint ornament craft. Admittedly, this craft falls in the hands of parents and guardians more than it does the babies. However, this is one of the most interactive Christmas crafts for toddlers and babies you can find. Simply imprint your baby (or toddler’s) footprint in clay and bake it in your oven. 

This makes for a beautiful DIY Christmas craft that will warm even the baby’s heart for the years to come. Make sure you keep this and the ornaments down below safe though. Should you need help, you can look into purchasing Christmas ornament storage boxes. 

Baby Food Jar Christmas Craft 

Photo from Pinterest

A baby, at the very least, only has to eat their food to participate in making this craft. You can opt to reuse baby food jars and make them into ornaments, too. Simply take off its tape and paint around it. 

If you want your baby to have more input, you can also have them play around with colors on the jar. Add a string or a ribbon by punching a hole in its lid and you have got some of the easiest Christmas crafts for toddlers and babies. 

Baby Block Ornament

Photo from KidSpace Stuff

Last but not the least, you can keep your baby’s block arrangement frozen in time by gluing them onto each other. To keep it festive, you can also paint around it or add some Christmas stickers to it. 

Christmas crafts for toddlers and babies such as these will never be devoid of value. There is a level of sentiment to it, especially after you glue on strings to make it hang from your Christmas tree from now until forever.

Christmas Crafts For Toddlers Are Well-Rounded Activities for the Holidays

Easy Christmas crafts for toddlers can boost the holiday cheer of every household. The holidays are a time to sit back, relax, and bond with your loved ones—and toddlers (as well as babies) deserve to have that too. 

Not only do Christmas crafts for toddlers keep these tots busy, but also keep your relationships with them alive. Such crafts show that simple activities can strengthen their minds, souls, and relationships.

The holidays can turn something small into more than it is, which one can argue is the beauty of them in the first place. If you have fallen in love with crafting and want to explore it beyond Christmas, there are much more arts and crafts to do at home.