My kids are 11 and 8 and over the years, we’ve tried to find a simple project or two that we can make at Christmas. What I’ve learned is if it’s too complicated, we all get frustrated and it’s not exactly the “family fun day” I envisioned. But, I’ve got a few for you today that won’t make you curse the day Pinterest came into existence! Check out these easy Christmas crafts for kids you can make this year!
First things first. If you’re a perfectionist and everything has to be “just right”, this might not be for you. You’ve got to take a step back and realize that kids are kids. Most of the time, they’re happy to be doing a project with you. They don’t care if it matches everything or looks Pinterest worthy. It can’t take hours or you’ll lose them. Make it fun and enjoy it!
Easy Christmas Crafts for Kids
Christmas Crafts for Kids
This fun and free build a gingerbread house printable craft is the perfect holiday activity for kids of all ages. Head on down the post for directions and a free printable gingerbread house template.
This simple felt gingerbread man ornament is so much fun to make and is such a sweet addition to your Christmas ornaments!
These Easy Baked Cinnamon Ornaments are an easy fun crafty for kids that smell amazing hanging on your Christmas tree!
These DIY Sprinkles Ornaments are fun and easy to make, and they are a perfect use for all those extra sprinkles! They are a perfect craft for kids to make for Christmas!
You only need a single sheet of light cardboard to make all three of these star decorations, and while little ones might need some help with the cutting out, they are easy enough for everyone to be part of the creating.
Make gift wrapping fun, and give your gifts a unique personal touch with these free printable Christmas gift tags to color.
This post teaches you how to make a Gingerbread House Felt Christmas Ornament, a Gingerbread House Felt Board, and a Gingerbread House Christmas Kids' Craft.
With this Gingerbread Man Felt Board, you'll be all set for a fun and imaginative activity that will bring joy and holiday cheer to your home.
Use these Christmas handprint kindness Crafts as a way to celebrate Christmas and spread some kindness in your community.
Spread Christmas cheer with these easy and fun DIY kindness Christmas ornaments for kids.
Use this Christmas Elf Craft for Kindness to connect Christmas with social emotional learning and fine motor skills.
Learn how to make easy Nutter Butter reindeer, snowman, and Santa cookies using simple supplies.
Complete a fun and easy Reindeer Mason jar Christmas Craft to create decorative pieces that you can keep or hand out to loved ones as gifts.
Your little ones can step into the shoes of the Grinch himself with their own Grinch photo craft! Kids can bring the Grinch to life with their own photo, complete with movable arms and legs that they can strike into various poses.
This adorable handprint reindeer craft is perfect for children of all ages, from toddlers to preschoolers to elementary-aged children.
Make these free printable Christmas masks, including Santa Claus, Mrs. Claus, an Elf, and of course, our red-nose friend, Rudolph.
Here's a fun craft for kids to do as they learn about different Christmas traditions around the world.
These cute 3D Christmas cards are easy enough for kids to help make but don't look handmade.
These easy DIY felt ornaments are perfect for Christmas tree decor and handmade Christmas gifts,
Make an accordion folded Christmas tree to brighten your holiday season. This craft is fun to make and doesn’t require making a mess for the kids to be creative.
This easy and fun ornament-making project involves a little bit of science and gives magical results.
Here's an easy salt dough ornament recipe for simple and fun Christmas tree decor.
These fun ornaments are easy to make and a great craft for kids. You can get most of the supplies from Dollar Tree and some items you may already have in your craft bin.
Christmas-themed lacing cards are a wonderful winter fine motor activity for toddlers and preschoolers. These free printable Christmas lacing cards are perfect for road trips and make a great on-the-go activity for little hands this holiday season!
Mason Jar Snowglobes
Some of our favorites are the DIY snow globes we made a few years ago. This one took a little more time, but they love them. We found all our supplies at Michael’s. (except for fishing line – we stole that from the hubs) Here’s what you need:
- mason jars
- fake snow of some sort
- tiny Christmas decorations – think wreaths, stars, snowmen, toy soldiers, whatever they like
- fishing line or other clear wire
- needle (this part is for the parents only)
- tape or glue
- small white pompoms for “snowballs”
We used fishing line to string up our “snowballs” and make it look like a real snowfall. Thread fishing line through a needle and carefully poke through the center of a few tiny white snowballs. Use tape to attach your lines to the inside lid of the jar. Or if you don’t want to do snowballs, you can use fake gumdrops or candy or anything else you like. I used glittery stars in one of mine.
Use hot glue on the bottom of your Christmas decorations and set them in the bottom of the jar. Or you can use tape, but it may not hold as well.
Fill the jars with fake snow, glitter (if you’re braver than me and actually craft with glitter!), or whatever else you can find that resembles snow.
Screw the top on with your snowballs attached and you’re done! They don’t have to be perfect!
This was one of the most fun projects we did because the kids got to choose what they wanted. I really liked seeing what they would pick and we look forward to getting them out every year. They’ve already asked me if we’re making new ones this year!
DIY Cardboard Christmas Tree
- cardboard tree
- acrylic craft paint and brush
- pompoms
- stickers
- hot glue
This is an easy craft for kids! My daughter picked out a cardboard (or some cardboard like material) tree from Hobby Lobby for about $3. She painted the entire tree green except for the base which she left brown like a tree trunk. Since she’s 8, I figured it was time to let her learn how to use the hot glue gun.
I stayed with her of course, but I let her do it all. She picked out a rainbow pattern that she liked for her pompoms and she carefully used hot glue to attach every single one of those suckers! Then she added a few snowflake stickers and a shiny pompom at the top for a star. And that’s all. This is certainly one for older kids. I wouldn’t hand a glue gun to a 5-year-old. Or you can always handle the gluing and let them tell you where everything goes.
Popsicle Stick Ornaments
These are super simple, super cheap, and really cute! We made these DIY Popsicle Stick ornaments in about 30 minutes.
- popsicle sticks
- glue
- stickers, ribbon, glitter, confetti or any other fun decor you like
- embroidery thread for hanging
Arrange your popsicle sticks in whatever tree or snowflake shape you like. We did a typical tree shape and a plain triangle shape and then two different snowflake variations.
Glue them in place. Then add whatever stickers you want. Tie them with embroidery thread and use them as ornaments, stocking tags, or gift tags. You can see all the details of how we made ours here!
DIY Unicorn Ornaments
This one is a little more detailed with the prep, but it comes together easily. Let me start this one by saying this was not our idea. We were searching Pinterest one day and my daughter is obsessed with unicorns – like most 8-year-old girls. Luckily, we found this awesome idea from The Best Ideas For Kids. We actually just watched the video tutorial and headed to Hobby Lobby for supplies.
- clay
- glitter ornaments
- embroidery thread
- small flowers (you can find these at any craft store – we found ours in the scrapbooking section or somewhere near there)
- marker
- felt/ribbon
- hot glue and glue gun
My daughter made all the horns first out of gold clay. I baked them at 275 for about 20 minutes. They weren’t hard yet (I know zero about clay) so I left them in there. Bad choice. They looked like charred unicorn horns at this point. So round two of horn making. This time it was 20 minutes tops in the oven and we called it good.
While the horns are baking, make your ears. We had white felt but forgot to buy pink. So we found an old pink ribbon and cut ear shapes from it. We hot glued them together, then onto the ornaments. Again – it doesn’t have to be perfect.
She drew eyes – the video uses a template, but we just free-handed. And we used a plain black marker/sharpie. If you can get a better marker that will write on the ornaments better, I’d opt for that.
Then I removed the tiny hanger from the ornament and we hot glued the top silver part of the ornament back down. Next, hot glue the horn on top. Add however many flowers you want.
Then I cut a small loop of embroidery thread (because that’s what we had on hand) and hot glued it to the back of the ornament to hang on the tree.
They turned out adorable! They aren’t perfect by any means, but my sweet girl loves them. She made 8 of them to give as gifts to her friends. I made one myself, but she did everything else.
More Popsicle Stick Trees
Are you seeing a pattern here? Popsicle sticks are cheap, easy to find, and you can make so many crafts with them! Here’s another blast from Christmas pasts that we made with a huge group of kids! We hosted a few kids Christmas parties and this was one of our crafts. If you’re curious about what on earth we were thinking – check out this post for hosting your own party. It’s actually very fun and manageable if you know what you’re getting into!
We crafted the trees before the party and then let all the kids decorate them how they liked. You can see all the details here!
Hopefully, you’ve found some ideas for creating some easy Christmas crafts with the kids this year.
Just remember:
- It doesn’t have to be perfect
- Most of the time, the kids are just happy to be spending time with you
- Don’t let Pinterest make you feel like it’s not good enough. Just enjoy creating something with your peeps. They’ll remember it as a happy memory. But if you get all caught up in perfection and get upset or frustrated, it takes away from those happy memories.
- Have fun! That’s the most important. Let them do what they want and enjoy watching them create.
Save these ideas for later!!
