December 12th, 2025
What better way to spend the holidays with young children than to let them explore the wonderful world of arts and crafts? Not only are you able to engage your children in the Christmas season, but you’re able to bond with them, let them have fun, express their innate creativity, and grow their skills, such as fine motor capabilities and hand-eye coordination.
These five crafts are simple and most can be completed by toddlers and up. Additionally, I’ll be focusing on crafts that don’t have a tremendous amount of cleanup and are budget-friendly and family-friendly. You’ll have a young artist on your hands in no time!
Craft 1: Construction Paper Snowglobe
Making a snowglobe out of construction paper can be made as simple or as complex as you want it to be, or, of course, depending upon how old your child is. First, get at least two colors of construction paper. One should be light (such as white or light blue), and the other should be dark, like dark blue or black. Then get a green drawing medium, such as markers, colored pencils, water colors, or paint. Finally, get liquid glue and small cotton balls. For extra complexity, you can add glitter, stick glue, stickers, and string.
First, trace out a shape onto the dark paper like in the image below. Cut that out. Then, trace a circle into the light paper and cut that out. Glue the circle so that the bottom is slightly hidden behind the edge of the darker bottom piece. The main shape of your snowglobe is complete!
Second, have your child draw at least one tree inside the globe. Finally, glue the small cotton balls in the air around the tree to create the appearance of snow. Your snowglobe is complete!
For added complexity, you can add glitter to the background by first applying a layer of stick glue, sprinkling glitter, allowing the glue to dry, and shaking the glitter off into a trash can (although beware, glitter, as you already know, is beautiful but can get absolutely everywhere, so feel free to omit this). Your child can also paint or draw extra objects other than trees, like gifts, or ornaments on the tree. Your child can also glue on any charms or add stickers. The beauty of the snowglobe is that the options for what the inside can look like are limitless. The bigger the circle, the more you can put in it!
For a final touch, you can glue a loop of string on the back and use it as an ornament.
Materials:
- Construction paper (at least 2 colors)
- Scissors
- Drawing medium
- Liquid glue
- Small cotton balls
- Glitter and stick glue (optional)
- Any stickers, charms, beads, etc. (optional)
- String (optional)
Image Credit: Caira Bethel
Craft 2: Construction Paper Christmas Tree
Like the snowglobe, Christmas trees made out of construction paper (at least 2 colors) are very easy, fun, and can be turned into ornaments. For this project, you’ll need green construction paper, at least one other color of construction paper, and stick or liquid glue (stick would be better, but liquid will still work).
To begin, take one piece of construction paper as your canvas (or glue two side-by-side for a bigger canvas). Trace out at least three triangles, with each triangle being a different size. Glue all these triangles together, with the point of one tucked under the one above it, and make sure the triangles are smallest to largest from top to bottom.
Then, have your child trace out simple shapes in the other colors of construction paper. Cut them all out and glue them on the tree. Finally, you can top off the tree with a star (made out of construction paper or any star-shaped charm).
This project serves the double-duty of allowing your child to have fun while also teaching them basic shapes. Like with the snowglobe, you can add a string to the back to turn it into an ornament.
Materials:
- Construction paper (2 colors)
- Scissors
- Glue (stick is best)
- Star charm (optional)
- String (optional)
Image Credit: Elizabeth McCarty
Craft 3: Toilet Paper Roll Tree
This one is a personal favorite because it has all the fun of paint without being too messy. To begin, get an empty toilet paper or paper towel roll. You’ll also need construction paper, paint, a small dish to keep paint in, and possibly a brush.
As with the last tree, use one piece or two glued pieces of construction paper as your backdrop. After putting paint into a dish that’s at least a little wider than your empty roll, gently dip the tip of the roll into the paint. Then press the roll into the paper to create a circle. Guide your child into dipping and pressing until you have a tree shape.
Finally, your child can either paint a trunk and star or cut them out of construction paper. For additional flare you can add beads or charms for ornaments.
Materials:
- Construction paper
- Paint
- Dish
- Empty toilet paper roll
- Paint brush (optional)
- Glue (optional)
- Scissors (optional if you make the star and/or trunk out of paper)
- Beads or charms (optional)
Image Credit: B Legler
Craft 4: Popsicle Stick Snowflakes
Popsicle stick snowflakes are another low-mess, easy project that even an adult would enjoy doing. You’ll at least need a pack of popsicle sticks, glue, and string. Beyond that, the snowflakes can be decorated however you wish.
Begin by setting aside three to four popsicle sticks. Take your first stick and glue a second stick underneath it at an angle. Glue the third and optional fourth stick underneath the one before it, each at an angle to create a snowflake shape. Allow this to dry before moving onto the next step.
Next, you can take any materials you wish, such as sequins, buttons, or cotton balls for a lower mess, or paint or glitter if you’re willing to risk a longer cleanup time. The only real “rule” here is that whatever items chosen should be white, light blue, or medium blue to stick with the snowflake theme. Your child can glue on a pattern or paint on a pattern in whatever way they choose.
Finally, once this project dries fully, you can glue a loop of string to create an ornament, or you can glue a long piece of unlooped string and fasten the end in whatever way you desire, such as taping it on a window to give the effect of snowfall.
Materials:
- Popsicle sticks
- Glue (liquid is preferred for this project)
- String
- Any crafting items your child wishes to use or that you have on hand, such as buttons, sequins, paint, glitter, or cotton balls
Image Credit: Faty
Craft 5: Christmas Acrostic
This activity isn’t art, but it is writing, which is a form of self-expression in its own right, just one that doesn’t involve paint. The beauty of this activity is that it’s the least expensive and requires the least cleanup. All you’ll need is paper and any writing utensil.
If you’ve forgotten what an acrostic is, don’t worry. We were all likely made to do them in school, but it’s been years for most of us. An acrostic is a simplistic vertical poem that requires you to create a word for every letter.
Acrostics challenge you to focus on the subject of the word and other words you may use to describe that object (like how “shining” describes “star”). So they require your child to think about a concept, but don’t require very complex thinking. You can use any number of Christmas-themed words for this project, such as REINDEER or GIFT (you can, of course, choose simpler words for younger kids and longer words for older kids).
If you want to turn this into a bigger project, you could instruct your child to write an acrostic off to the left of the page and draw the object of the acrostic off to the right to create a frameable piece of art.
Materials:
- Paper
- Writing Utensil
- Drawing mediums (optional)
Image credit: Christmas
Go Make Some Art!
As you can see, this is only a snippet of what you and your child are capable of making together. Once you start helping your child craft, you may find yourself creating new ideas of your own to do this year or save for next year’s Christmas crafts!
Author Bio Krista Ruffo, born and raised in Orlando, Florida, began blogging with South Project in February of 2025. She’s a University of Central Florida graduate with a BA in English and a Certificate in Editing and Publishing. A passionate writer and reader, Krista aspires to work in book publishing in the future. She currently works as a Content Coordinator for a family magazine and as a Marketing Representative for a water company. In her free time, she enjoys creative writing, taking photos, hiking, and gardening.