Anyone else dreading, I mean looking forward to the upcoming holidays and keeping the kids busy and off the iPad and screens? Me! So I wanted to share some activities that we’ll be doing this holiday. I’ve also linked all the supplies I used right HERE
Felt Christmas Tree
This one is a must have! We purchased ours a few years ago and still use it for both my toddler and now baby. If you’ve ever watched a toddler try and decorate an actual Christmas tree it can be a bit taunting and they usually want to mess with it everyday anyway. This solves both of those problems! You can have them take the decorations off the tree since its connected by an adhesive.
Supplies List HERE
Felt Christmas Tree
Melting Snow or Snowman
This is an easy STEM activity and you probably have all the supplies at home. Have your toddler make snow or a snowman and then add some vinegar and watch it melt.
*You can also do this for other holidays too. Example, instead of snowman you can do pumpkins or easter eggs.
Supplies List HERE
Water, food color, baking soda, vinegar, and work bin
- Step 1: Add food coloring to water and mix
- Step 2: Pour baking soda on tray and slowly add water. Mix until you create ‘play-doh’ type texture of your liking
- Step 3: Mold into snowballs and snowman shapes
- Step 4: Have your toddler pour vinegar over the snowballs and snowman and watch them melt away slowly…
Christmas Tree Tracing with Yarn, Pipe Cleaners, or Beads
This is an easy activity and great for toddler to work on their fine motor skills. Again, you probably have the supplies around the house. You can use yarn or pipe cleaners or whatever supplies you have on hand to outline the tree. On this particular day we used pipe cleaners but we’ve had great success using yarn too.
**Note if you do use pipe cleaners you will need to use wet glue since glue stick isn’t strong enough to keep it sticking. You can also do this during other times of the year and outline eggs, pumpkins, spider webs, flowers, etc.
Supplies List Here
Construction paper, pencil, glue, pipe cleaners, yarn, beads, pom poms
- Step 1: Trace Christmas tree on construction paper
- Step 2: Apply glue along Christmas tree lining and apply pipe cleaners, yarn, or beads to outline the tree
- Step 3: Glue pom poms on as ornaments
DIY Snow Globe
This is one craft that I’m hoping to make an annual tradition in our household. It was our first year trying it this year and my toddler had so much fun and he decorated his snow globes all around the house.
Supplies List HERE
Plastic ornaments, ornament fillers, fake snow, glitter, etc.
Step 1: Fill empty plastic ornaments with Christmas globe fillers and fake snow
Polar Bear Cotton Balls
Similar to the Christmas tree tracing craft above this one is great to develop fine motor skills especially if you want to have your toddler work on using tweezers or something similar.
Supplies List HERE
Construction paper, pencil, glue, cotton balls, tweezers (optional).
- Step 1: Trace polar bear on construction paper
- Step 2: Apply glue to construction paper and use tweezer to grab cotton balls and fill in empty space on construction paper.