Crafting during the holidays is a perfect way to create festive memories, keep kids engaged and even decorate your space with their precious creations!
These seven holiday crafts are designed with variations for toddlers, school-age kids and teens, making craft time a full family affair. Whether you're introducing little ones to glue and glitter or guiding older kids in more detailed projects, there's something here for everyone to make this holiday season.
7 festive crafts for toddlers to teens
Handprint holiday cards
This classic craft lets kids transform their handprints into festive designs, like Christmas trees, reindeer or Santa hats! It’s an adorable way to celebrate the holidays and a keepsake you’ll treasure for years. Plus, grandparents will go crazy over a card like this… so, win-win!
- Materials Needed: Construction paper, washable paint, markers, glitter, googly eyes and pom-poms.
- Time Required: 20–30 minutes per card.
For toddlers, focus more on the sensory experience of the craft rather than the final product. Dip their hands in paint and press them onto the paper to create a basic design. Parents can then add finishing touches like a star at the top of the tree or a nose for the reindeer. The goal here is to let them have fun with colors and textures — the cute card is a bonus!
Preschoolers can take a more active role in the decorating portion of the craft, and can use markers, pencils or crayons to add ornaments, garlands or facial features to their handprint designs. Encourage them to sprinkle glitter or glue on pom-poms, which adds a tactile and colorful element to the activity.
Older kids can create detailed multi-handprint scenes, like overlapping trees or a reindeer family. They might enjoy adding thoughtful holiday messages inside the cards or experimenting with layered effects using different colors of paint.
Pine cone holiday trees
Turning pine cones into tiny holiday trees is a fun way to bring nature indoors. This craft is ideal for kids who enjoy painting and decorating.
- Materials Needed: Pinecones, green paint, small pom-poms, glitter glue, a cardboard base and star stickers.
- Time Required: 30–40 minutes.
Younger kids will love the tactile nature of painting these pinecones — just make sure there are no sharp spikes or splinters on the cones beforehand. Use non-toxic paint and let them experiment with using thick brushes, sponges or even finger painting techniques! Help them glue on large pom-poms for ornaments and a sticker star for the topper to finish it all off.
School-aged children can take it up a notch by creating a snowy effect on their pine cones by dabbing white paint on the edges of the pinecones and adding a sprinkle of glitter for a frosty look. Encourage them to glue their pinecones to a cardboard base to create a mini forest scene!
Tweens and teens can turn this into a centerpiece-worthy craft. Challenge them to use hot glue (with supervision) to build elaborate pine cone arrangements. They can also experiment with metallic paints or add tiny LED lights to their creations for a magical glow. Sky’s the limit here.
Popsicle stick snowflakes
This simple craft is endlessly versatile, offering opportunities to explore patterns and geometry while creating pretty decorations.
- Materials Needed: Popsicle sticks, white paint, glue, glitter, gems and ribbon.
- Time Required: 20–30 minutes (plus drying time).
Younger kids can work with pre-painted sticks to make the process easier (mostly for you!). Help them arrange the sticks in a basic snowflake pattern and guide them in gluing the pieces together or sticking them together with double-sided tape. Once dry, let them decorate their snowflakes with glitter or large, easy-to-handle gems.
School-aged children can explore more complex patterns by arranging multiple layers of sticks to create intricate snowflakes. They’ll enjoy adding ribbons for hanging or creating unique color patterns with paint and glue-ons.
Older kids and teens can craft larger, more interconnected snowflake designs to use as window décor or wall art. For an advanced touch, encourage them to create 3D shapes or mix in non-traditional colors and spray paints!
DIY gingerbread ornaments
These cinnamon-scented ornaments smell delightful and are a wonderful way to decorate your tree or holiday gifts.
- Materials Needed: Cinnamon, applesauce, white glue, cookie cutters, acrylic paint and string.
- Time Required: 40 minutes (plus drying time).
For younger children, pre-mix the dough and roll it out for them; then they can press cookie cutters into the dough to make shapes. Punch a small hole with a straw, then bake at 200°F for 2 ½ hours (or dehydrate until dry). Once baked, provide simple paint or glitter for decoration and string ribbon through the hole to make a loop!
Older kids can help mix and knead the dough, offering a great sensory experience and practice with recipe-following skills. Let them create detailed decorations, like painting frosting effects or adding names with fine brushes for an extra touch.
Tweens and teens can elevate their ornaments by crafting themed sets, like a winter wonderland, some cookie decorations or a candy shop display. They can also personalize each ornament with messages or initials to give as gifts!
Festive paper chain garland
Paper chains are a staple for holiday decorating, teaching kids about patterns while also creating something colorful and festive.
- Materials Needed: Colored construction paper, scissors, glue stick or tape, stapler, stickers and markers.
- Time Required: 15–30 minutes, depending on the length of the chain.
Toddlers can participate in this activity by helping to glue pre-cut strips of paper into loops or, if their motor skills aren’t quite up for it, can choose the strips of paper an adult will glue for them. They’ll enjoy seeing the chain grow and may even string some links themselves (with guidance).
Preschoolers can practice their cutting skills by preparing the strips themselves. Encourage them to alternate colors or even draw patterns on the paper before cutting. Explain how different kinds of paper — like paper, cardstock or wrapping paper — will cut differently.
Older kids can get creative by adding embellishments like stickers or writing holiday messages on each link. They can also make themed garlands, such as candy canes or holly-inspired designs. Challenge them to make the longest chain possible for some friendly competition!
Mason jar snow globes
These magical, glitter-filled creations make wonderful decorations or gifts.
- Materials Needed: Mason jars, water, glycerin, glitter, small waterproof figurines and hot glue.
- Time Required: 30 minutes (plus drying time).
Younger kids can pick out figurines and choose glitter colors while parents handle the assembly.
Older children can help by gluing figurines to the lid, carefully adding the glitter to the water and screwing the jar shut. Teach them about proportions by experimenting with the amount of glitter and glycerin in the mix, and show them how the ratios affect the swirliness of the glitter.
Tweens and teens can turn this craft into a personalized gift by adding mini photographs or custom-painted figurines to create specific scenes. They can also design themed globes like winter forests, famous places, other countries or festive villages.
Holiday felt ornaments
Soft, colorful and endlessly customizable, felt ornaments offer endless possibilities for creativity and skill-building.
- Materials Needed: Felt sheets, fabric glue or needle and thread, stuffing, ribbons and buttons.
- Time Required: 30–60 minutes per ornament.
Toddlers can glue pre-cut felt shapes together and decorate them with large, easy-to-handle embellishments like buttons or pompoms.
School-aged children can begin learning simple stitching techniques with this craft. Show them how to sew two felt shapes together and stuff them with cotton to create a 3D effect.
Older kids and teens can create more intricate designs, like layered felt ornaments or stitched patterns. Encourage them to experiment with embroidery techniques for adding names or intricate holiday designs.
Whether you're crafting a pinecone forest or stitching personalized ornaments, these activities are a great way to celebrate the holidays with creativity and joy (while keeping the kids entertained, of course!).
Have fun!
Pin it!
Colleen Ford is a South African who now lives on Oahu in Hawai'i. She loves to travel, camp, spearfish and hike. She's also part of a super cool canoe club and is pretty decent at it. Colleen enjoys Star Wars and also not being cold ever.
View All Posts by Colleen Ford