Fun Christmas Themed Play Ideas and Crafts for Kids Blog #2
- Danica - Our Playful Learning Journey
- 1 day ago
- 8 min read
Let's celebrate the Christmas season with some fun themed invitations to play and create!
The wait until Christmas is such an exciting time! It can also be very busy, so I use the same types of setups/play ideas each year with my kids to make things simpler. This blog post has 13 simple Christmas play ideas and crafts for kids.
I have a box of fun play things for the kids for Christmas that I put away each year and get out at the start of December. It includes Christmas stamps, stencils, playdough stamps and cookie cutters, some small world items, Christmas sensory bases + books. In the beginning I would add one or two things to our collection each year at Christmas time. It wasn't long before we had a beautiful little collection that we use each year.
Another tip is to look at what you already have and use it make Christmas themed played e.g. red and green loose parts or toys or another colour themed that look Christmassy!
We also have a Christmas tradition to make gingerbread playdough at the start of December each year. It's the little things that make the season extra special!
I realised that it has been a while since I wrote my first blog post Christmas Play Ideas for Kids, so I found some fun ideas that we have done over the last few years to include in this blog post. I have also included what I put in our art area for Christmas (you read about our art area here.)
I hope you find some inspiration!
*IMPORTANT - all these play and craft ideas were supervised by an adult. They are recommended for children ages 3 and over as they contain small parts, which are a choking hazard. Please ensure all play and craft ideas are supervised by an adult. It is your responsibility to determine the suitability of these activities for your child/children.
Our Art Area at Christmas
We add in some really simple things to our art area at Christmas time. Most of these things can be kept and reused each year. You can see all these things in the video below and in the list underneath the video.
Playdough - add in Christmas stamps and cookie cutters
Christmas stencils - perfect for making cards and gift tags. (ours are Usbourne brand from many years ago now)
Christmas craft kit - fun for making all kinds of Christmas creations (ours was from Kmart Australia and we have previously bought one from Big W).
Christmas stamps - these ones are wooden and use a stamp pad (they are from Kmart Australia). You can buy pre-inked stamps, but the wooden version will last a lot longer.
Christmas colouring/scratch art book - ours were from Kmart Australia and have lasted over a couple of years! They have a similar one this year.
Loose Parts Bauble Decoration
This is a simple Christmas loose parts art idea. Put together a tray of simple loose parts (or use what you already have) and add in some simple bauble outlines for this calming mindful play idea.
We used a flower sorting tray from Modern Teaching Aids + buttons, matchsticks, gemstones and mini cubes. Craft supplies make great inexpensive loose parts for ideas such as this.
Put some loose parts out and invite your child to decorate the outlines. We take a photo at the end and reuse our loose parts again.
Current email subscribers can find a bauble outline printable in the VIP Free Playful Library. If you are new here - join the email list here or below to access these printable resources.
You could add in collage materials and a glue stick if you wanted children to be able to keep their creations.
Buttons + Playdough
This is such a simple idea, that is lots of fun too! Not only is it fun, but using the buttons with the playdough is an excellent fine motor workout for little hands while they play.
We used:
Buttons from Officeworks - Kadink brand.
Homemade playdough - red and green (this will work with any colour)
Our Christmas playdough stamps were from a small business that has since closed down.
Making a Christmas tree with the green playdough and then using buttons as the baubles to decorate the tree!
Christmas Gingerbread Playdough
One of our all time favourite 'Christmas play traditions' is to make some fresh 'gingerbread' playdough at the start of December. We make up a batch of uncoloured playdough (I make mine in my Thermomix). Then we add in some spices to colour the dough and make it smell lovely.
We use a mixture of ground cinnamon, ground nutmeg, ground ginger and maybe some mixed spice. The girls help sprinkle a little bit of each of these into their ball of playdough and knead it through to change the colour + make it smell nice.
Some ideas:
Add in some cookie cutters and a rolling pin and you have a fun and easy play idea that I'm sure will be revisited over the Christmas period.
My girls love to pretend bake their playdough cookies in the play kitchen oven! (or you can use a box as a pretend oven)
A board or a tray helps to give somewhere to put all the biscuits to pretend cook them.
Tip: for older kids (ages 3+) add in some loose parts (+googly eyes) to decorate their pretend gingerbread.
Christmas Sensory Play Tray for Kids
This tray was quick to make using a Christmas red and green themed sensory base that we reuse each year in December. It's made from red and green rice (dyed with food colouring) and Christmas sequins.
For this tray we also added in some mini Christmas themed erasers, red and green sparkly pom poms and some scoops and bowls.
You can keep a sensory tray base like this one for many years - just keep it in an airtight container or bag. We have had this one for around 5 years now! It makes it so easy to set up a fun tray for Christmas as you simply pour it in and add in some bowls/scoops.
A photo below of real life - the rice will often end up out of the tray despite reminders. A mat or sheet underneath helps catch it all so you can tip it back into the tray at the end.
This was a sensory/small world play tray from a previous year. The rice underneath added a nice touch to this little Christmas world. This tray is from Grapat and is a nice big size.
We have also used the Christmas rice with our magnetic tile ball run tubes. The rice is fun to scoop and put down the ball run. We used Grapat mandala pieces too.
Red and Green Loose Parts Tinker Tray
This type of play idea is great for using what you already have. I gathered up some red, green and white toys that we already had. In our tray is some Grapat mandala pieces, pom poms, Ambrosius fairies and the Santa, gems, Papoose bitcoins, Grapat bugs + diy cork toadstools. Our tray is made by Grapat too.
This tray ended up being used to make a Christmas small world for the fairies. My kids added in extra props like a Christmas tree, lucite cubes for presents, silks and some mini fairy toadstool houses.
Red and Green Sensory Play Tray
This was an easy to create sensory play tray. It's lots of fun to scoop and pour the chickpeas + fill the bowls and collect the pom poms.
We used:
Chickpeas - uncoloured
Red, green and white sparkly pom poms
Red and green Grapat mandala pieces
Grapat coloured bowls
Christmas coloured mini beads
Inspire My Play - PlayTRAY
Scoops
This Christmas themed sensory tray is similiar, except we used chickpeas that had been coloured red and green with paint. To colour them just add in some paint and shake them around until they are all coloured. Then leave to dry.
We also used the red and green Grapat nest bowls here and two Grapat Nins.
Decorate the Christmas Trees
This is fun and so simple too! We used pretend little trees from Kmart Australia. Ours were bought many years ago, but they usually release something similar each year as a decoration.
Here we used mini felt balls, but this works with pom poms too. They stick easily to the trees by just pressing them on gently to decorate the tree. They easily come off the trees by gently pulling them off. This fun idea can be repeated again and again.
Air Dry Clay Christmas Decorations
These are so simple to make and look super cute on the Christmas tree! We used store bought air dry clay. There are recipes you can find to make your own at home.
Simply roll out the clay and use Christmas cookie cutters to make cute decorations.
You can paint these with water colour paint or add some glue and eco glitter for extra sparkle! Add some ribbon once they are dry and they are ready to go on the tree.
Christmas - Find the Numbers Play Tray
This is a fun way to work on counting numbers 1-12 and numeral recognition (when using the printable number circles).
We used:
Printable gingerbread number cards 1-12 - free in the VIP Free Printable Library
(you can sign up to it here.)
Pom poms
Plain rice
Candy canes made with pipe cleaners
Mini Christmas erasers
Scoops
Bowls (these ones are Grimms natural stacking bowls)
Inspire My Play - PlayTRAY
Gingerbread House Christmas Themed Small World
Let's create a magical gingerbread Christmas themed small world! Easily create a beautiful small world for your child to enjoy.
To make a gingerbread village print the houses + some trees. We laminated ours and then temporarily stuck them to our building blocks with some masking tape to help them stand up.
Add in some figurines, animals (my kids added these in) or fairies to create a little Christmas themed small world. Then it’s time to play!
These can easily be stored away to bring out each Christmas season.
Fun Christmas Themed Play Ideas and Crafts for Kids Blog #2
Thank you for reading this blog post!
I hope you found some inspiration to set up some fun Christmas themed play ideas.
A few ideas to try from this blog post:
Start a box of Christmas themed play items.
Make (or buy) some Christmas playdough.
Make a Christmas themed sensory base that you can re-use each year.
Use what you already have.
Remember - simple works well!
If you know someone who would enjoy these play/craft ideas - please share this blog post with them!
Until next time, let's make it fun and playful!
Danica
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