Long time followers of this blog (wave!) know that I am not a huge holiday crafter. It takes most of my holiday energy just to get up our gingerbread house (from a kit, thank you very much) each year (which we usually do after Christmas!). Most of the time I'd rather pick up a holiday book to read. So, as you would expect I prefer EASY crafts to get the family into the spirit of the holiday season.
The best part about many of these easy holiday crafts is that they do not need to be done in accordance with a holiday deadline. Can't get everything done before Christmas? No problem! Most of these can be saved for an ordinary winter day. Those January and February days can go on forever! (This post contains affiliate links.)
Or, take your pick from these simple ideas:
Carve out a few apples to make candleholders.
Kids can exercise their fine motor skills and poke cloves into oranges to make yummy smelling pomanders.
"Woven" Swedish heart ornaments.
Printable Christmas tree ornament coloring page that you can turn into a cut and paste craft.
Use up all those paper snowflakes and make a winter-y wreath. Find out what to do with all your leftover paper snowflakes.
Recycle old holiday and Christmas cards into paper spiral ornaments.
Print and color these interfaith holiday ornaments.
Tomten garland to hang on the tree or in the window.
My absolute favorite holiday craft is to make ice wreaths. I get quite into this activity and last year during the polar vortex I was completely obsessed!
Decorate tzedakah boxes to teach kids about giving.
Make a bird feeder out of oranges to care for the birds during the cold, winter days.
Of course you will want to read a few books to wind down. After all, crafting can be exhausting! Try selections from these lists:
- Winter picture books
- Winter chapter books
- Books about snow
- Multicultural Christmas books
- Holiday chapter books to read aloud
- Christmas chapter books the whole family will love
- Swedish holiday books
- Tomten books
- Picture books about celebrating Hanukkah and Christmas
Amy @ Sunlit Pages says
I'm with you--the simpler, the better! Every year I like my kids to make some ornaments for teachers, grandparents, etc., and I'm still looking for the perfect one for this year that will be cute but not too time consuming or involved.
Erica MomandKiddo says
... especially when you need to make a bunch of them, you don't want it to be complicated.
Alana - eSpectacularKids says
In the age of Pinterest there are so many holiday crafts to add to the list! It's so great to see so many parents and educators posting simple holiday crafts that can be done with the kids, whilst also being super effective. Looking forward to using some of the random cereal boxes, milk bottles etc that have been saved during the year!
Erica MomandKiddo says
I can't even do those complicated crafts! ha ha ha