Christmas crafts for kids: easy ideas for all ages
Thirty Christmas crafts sorted by age, from handprint cards for toddlers to a dried orange garland for teenagers and adults, with timings, the steps a grown-up should do and a plan for December 2026.
The 30 Christmas crafts below are sorted by age, from a handprint card a two-year-old can finish in ten minutes to a dried orange garland for teenagers and adults. Each list says which step a grown-up should take on. Most of them run on the recycling bin and a basic craft box; kits and props for the rest of December are in our Kids & Elf collection.
Christmas crafts for kids at a glance
Choose by the youngest child at the table, then go to the matching list.
| Age | Good first crafts | Time | Grown-up job |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 to 4 | Handprint cards, tissue paper trees, cotton wool snowmen | 10 to 20 minutes | Cutting, holding the paint pot |
| 5 to 8 | Egg-box reindeer, paper chains, button trees | 20 to 40 minutes | Cutting tubes and egg boxes |
| 9 to 12 | Salt dough decorations, window stickers, sock snowmen | 30 to 60 minutes, plus drying | The oven and the iron |
| Teenagers and adults | Dried orange garland, fresh wreath, carved stamps | 1 to 3 hours | Watching over blades and heat |
Easy Christmas crafts for toddlers and preschoolers (2 to 4)
One step and big pieces work best at this age: the adult cuts, the child sticks, prints or presses. Plan on 10 to 30 minutes per craft. Babies and toddlers put things in their mouths, and the Child Accident Prevention Trust warns that anything smaller than a 2p coin can choke them, so save beads, buttons, googly eyes and small pom-poms for older children or stay at the table.
- Handprint tree card: paint the palm green, press it fingers down on folded card, then add fingerprint baubles in red and yellow.
- Tissue paper tree: draw a triangle on card; the child scrunches squares of tissue paper into balls and sticks them on with a glue stick.
- Potato masher baubles: dip a potato masher in paint, print circles on paper, then draw a hanging loop above each one.
- Cotton wool snowman: draw three circles on card and fill them with cotton wool balls stuck down with PVA glue.
- Paper plate Santa: paint the top of a plate red for the hat and glue cotton wool on the bottom half for the beard.
- Pom-pom printed wrapping paper: pick up a pom-pom with tweezers or a clothes peg, dip it in paint and dab spots over brown paper. Gripping the tweezers is good practice for small fingers.
- Peg snowmen: paint wooden pegs white, draw faces with a felt tip and use them to clip Christmas cards to a string.
- Bauble filling: drop pom-poms into a clear plastic bauble that opens in two halves, with an adult watching.
Christmas crafts for 5 to 8 year olds
Give this age group child scissors, straight lines to cut and no more than four steps. Anything that needs a craft knife or hot glue stays with the adult.
- Egg-box reindeer: cut single cups from an egg box, paint them brown, then glue on a red pom-pom nose, card antlers and googly eyes. Stack two or three for a wobbly herd.
- Toilet roll Santas and elves: cover a cardboard tube in red card, add a white card beard, a face and a paper hat with a pom-pom. Use green card for an elf.
- Lolly stick snowmen: paint wide lolly sticks white, add a black card hat and an orange card nose, then glue a ribbon loop on the back.
- Paper chain countdown: cut 24 strips from old wrapping paper and loop them into a chain. One link comes off each morning from 1 December, and the last one on Christmas Eve.
- Button trees: glue buttons in a triangle on card, largest at the bottom, with a brown button for the trunk.
- Candy cane beads: thread red and white beads onto a pipe cleaner and bend the top into a hook.
- Twig trees: collect twigs on a walk, lay them longest at the bottom and shortest at the top across a flat stick, glue them down and add a twine loop.
- Reindeer food bags: oats, bird seed and dried cranberries in a paper bag with a label. Our wildlife-safe reindeer food recipe lists what to leave out.
Christmas crafts for 9 to 12 year olds
Older children can manage crafts that run over two sessions, with drying or baking in between. The adult jobs are the oven, the iron and anything with a needle.
- Salt dough decorations: mix 250g plain flour with 125g table salt, then stir in 125ml water until the dough comes together into a ball. Cut shapes with biscuit cutters, make a hanging hole with a cocktail stick, then bake at 50°C, or the lowest oven setting, for about 3 hours until fully solid. Our guide to salt dough decorations covers baking and painting.
- Hama bead baubles: build a bauble pattern on a square pegboard, cover it with ironing paper and iron it, then turn it over and iron the back. The ironing is an adult job. Once cool, thread string through the top.
- Window stickers: slide a template into a plastic wallet, trace the outline with a glass paint pen, fill in the colours and leave it overnight. The next day it peels off and sticks to the window.
- Sock snowman: fill a white sock with rice, twist and tie it with string to make a body and a head, fold the top over as a hat, then add buttons, a ribbon scarf and an orange card nose.
- Paper snowflakes: fold a square of paper into a triangle, fold it twice more and cut notches along the edges before opening it out.
- Wool-wrapped trees: cut card triangles, wind scraps of wool round them and glue on buttons or paper stars.
- Jam jar lanterns: stick torn tissue paper to a clean jar with watered-down PVA, tie a ribbon round the neck and put a battery tealight inside, never a real candle.
Christmas crafting ideas for teenagers and adults
These take longer, need heat or a blade, and look good enough to give as presents. They suit a teenager with an adult nearby, or a grown-up evening at the kitchen table.
- Dried orange garland: lay orange slices in a single layer on trays lined with baking parchment and dry them at 110°C (90°C fan, gas ¼) for about 2 hours, until firm and dry, turning the trays round halfway through. Check after 1 hour 15 minutes and take out any slices that are drying faster. Thread them on twine with bay leaves or cinnamon sticks in between.
- Fresh wreath: tie florist wire to a wreath frame and wrap it round four or five times, then bind on fan-shaped bundles of greenery, each one overlapping the last to hide the wire. Fill the gaps with pine cones and dried orange slices.
- Carved stamps: draw a star or a holly leaf on a rubber carving block, cut away the background with a lino tool and print your own gift tags and wrapping paper. Teenagers need someone in the room while they carve.
- Felt decorations: cut two matching shapes from felt, blanket-stitch round the edge and stuff them before closing the last gap.
- Marbled wrapping paper: float ink on a tray of water and lift the pattern off with a sheet of paper, the Japanese technique called suminagashi.
- Macramé star: repeat one knot in cotton cord round a wire star or a small wreath ring.
- Pom-pom wreath: make wool pom-poms in two or three colours and tie them tightly onto a wire ring until no wire shows.
When to make what: a December 2026 craft plan
Some crafts need drying time and some have a deadline, so the order matters. This plan follows the weekends of Advent 2026.
| When | Make | Why then |
|---|---|---|
| Sat 28 and Sun 29 November (Advent Sunday) | Paper chain countdown | The first link comes off on Tuesday 1 December |
| Sat 5 and Sun 6 December | Handprint cards, salt dough decorations | Cards need time in the post; salt dough needs about 3 hours in a low oven, then painting, before it goes on the tree |
| Sat 12 and Sun 13 December | Window stickers, paper snowflakes | Stickers dry overnight and stay up for the last two weeks |
| Sat 19 and Sun 20 December | A gingerbread house kit, dried orange garland | Both take an afternoon and decorate the house for Christmas week |
| Wed 23 and Thu 24 December | Reindeer food, a Christmas Eve box | Both are for Christmas Eve, Thursday 24 December |
Gingerbread kits, Christmas Eve boxes and elf props for the rest of the month are grouped in our Kids and Elf range.
Elves Behavin' Badly
Girl elf with hat, red plush body and long legs, vinyl face, 30 cm
The Elf on the Shelf
Elf on the Shelf box set, girl Scout Elf with blue eyes and storybook
GLOW Wholesale
Set of 2 boy and girl Christmas elves, soft body, vinyl face, 30 cm
What to keep in a Christmas craft box
One box covers almost every craft on this page. Start saving the free items from the recycling in November.
- Card: A4 sheets in red, green, white and brown.
- Glue: washable PVA in a squeezy bottle, plus two or three glue sticks.
- Scissors: child scissors for each child and one sharp pair for the adult.
- Small bits, kept away from babies and toddlers: pipe cleaners, pom-poms, lolly sticks, googly eyes, cotton wool balls.
- Paint: washable poster paint in red, green, white and brown, with sponge brushes.
- Paper: tissue paper, a roll of brown kraft paper and plain white paper for snowflakes.
- Hanging: twine or thin ribbon for loops.
- From the recycling: egg boxes, toilet roll tubes, jam jars, odd socks, buttons and last year’s wrapping paper.
- Clean-up: an old shirt as an apron and a wipe-clean tablecloth or newspaper.
Christmas craft safety: small parts, glitter and salt dough
Five risks need a house rule before the table gets messy.
| Risk | Crafts | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| Small parts | Beads, buttons, googly eyes, pom-poms | Keep them away from babies and toddlers; count them out and back in |
| Heat and blades | Hama beads, hot glue, dried oranges, stamp carving | An adult irons, bakes and holds the glue gun; teenagers carve with someone in the room |
| Salt dough and dogs | Salt dough decorations | The salt is toxic to dogs: Pet Poison Helpline lists homemade salt dough ornaments as a common cause of salt poisoning in pets, which can be fatal. Dry them out of reach and hang them high on the tree |
| Glitter | Cards, baubles, reindeer food | The RSPCA warns that even ‘edible’ glitter is very bad for wildlife, so keep it out of reindeer food. Use hole-punched paper confetti, gold pens or dried leaves instead |
| Sore hands | Kneading salt dough | The salt can leave hands sore, so hand kitchen gloves to children with dry skin |
Write the child’s name, age and the year on the back of every handprint card and salt dough decoration before it dries. They come out again every December, and the dates are what make them worth keeping.
Frequently asked questions
What are some easy Christmas crafts for kids?
For under-5s: handprint cards, tissue paper trees and cotton wool snowmen, each done in 10 to 20 minutes. From five: egg-box reindeer, paper chains and button trees. From nine: salt dough decorations, Hama bead baubles and window stickers made with glass paint pens.
What are fun, easy crafts to do at home?
The easiest ones use what is already in the house: a paper chain from old wrapping paper, toilet roll elves, a sock snowman filled with rice or potato masher prints on brown paper. Cover the table, pre-cut the pieces and the children can start straight away.
What are some creative Christmas crafts for adults?
A dried orange garland (about two hours at 110°C, or 90°C fan), a fresh wreath bound with florist wire, carved rubber stamps for your own wrapping paper, felt decorations or a macramé star. Each takes an evening and can be given as a present.
What are some quirky craft ideas?
Sock snowmen filled with rice, button trees, reindeer made from egg-box cups, potato masher baubles and a garland of paint colour sample cards. They cost very little and use things that would otherwise go in the bin.
What are some new Christmas craft ideas to try this year?
If your family has already done handprints and paper chains, try marbling wrapping paper with the Japanese suminagashi technique, carving a stamp for gift tags, or making window stickers with glass paint pens. Each is new to most children and still finishes in one or two sessions.
How do you make crafts fun for children?
Keep sessions short, 10 to 30 minutes for under-5s, and do the cutting before they sit down. Give every craft a purpose, such as a card for a grandparent or a decoration for the tree, and put the finished work on display the same day.
