Holiday Crafts for Young Toddlers

Today, we made Christmas trees out of ripped up green construction paper ( I drew a big triangle so they could see where to put the paper) and then we put "ornaments" on them and a star. For the ornaments, I had bought some colored jewels in the $1 bin at Target, but you could use his thumbprint in red ink or paint.
Also, here's a link to some cute cards:
http://www.education.com/activity/article/Thumbprint_Chri....

Handprint salt dough ornaments.

2 cups flour, 1 cup salt, 1 cup water

Press their palm down onto the dough and baked on 300 for 2 hrs. Once cooled, put a ribbon through the hole you made at the top (before baking). Then have him paint it.

Hand print wreaths are cool too. Cut out child's handprint on red green and blue construction paper, cut out center of paper plate and glue handprints around the plate.

String beads on pipecleaners, and twist into a candy cane

Craft stores (Michael's or Jo Ann's) sell little lite weight wood Christmas ornaments that can be painted and you can place a small photo in them. They are a dollar a piece. For the last 3 years, I have bought two for each of my kids to paint. They LOVE doing it and it has been fun to look back at how "bad" their painting was when they were just over a year old. Plus they have fun looking at the pictures and how they have changed Christmas to Christmas. This is a cheap painting project and fairly low mess :)

Make a reindeer face and let his handprints be the horns?? Christmas tree cut outs and let his fingersprints dipped in paint be the ornaments?? Wrap gifts in craft paper and let him "paint" pictures on them?? That's the best I've got... :)

alternative for the reindeer project: use his footprint for the face of the reindeer & then his hands for the antlers!

Yesterday, the kids made a craft foam picture out of precut Christmas diecuts. Cuter than cute....they all chose a Christmas tree + added ornaments to it, with presents around the base.

Still up in our rotation: a green foam plate & we're going to glue on pompoms for holly berries & ornaments...."a wreath to hang". Perfect to put a photograph in the middle!

We're also going to decoupage some wooden ornament shapes with leftovers from my scrapbk papers.....

check out Better Homes & Gardens website....they have excellent ideas!

Some ideas:

You can dip a pinecone into a container of glue and have your little guy roll it in a tray of glitter. Voila! instant ornament.

Buy some cheap frames at the dollar store, and some tempera paint in two or three colors. Little tubes of color will likely be fine for this. Put him in some old pajamas (cut the feet and cuffs off) or something else to protect his clothes, or just crank the heat up and strip him down to a disposable diaper. Take the or plastic 'window' out of each frame and put a piece of junk mail in there instead, so the paint doesn't ruin the inside of the frame. Pour paint into small containers and mix with some dishwashing liquid--this will help the paint to wash out much more easily. Cut up a sponge into thirds, lengthwise, then give him one for each color of paint. Show him how to dip it into the paint and then smear it onto the frame. When they're dry, slip a pic of your little cutie inside. I recommend using sponges at this age because they're easier for kids to use than brushes. Also, be sure to work in a space that can get very messy and with a sink nearby. Plan a bathtime immediately afterward!

How about plastic ornament balls. Stuff them with colored paper and use stickers, markers or paint to decorate?

Hi there!

Hand and foot prints are the way to go!

Handprints can be used to make a tree ( either handprints or cut out hand shapes) can even make the star at the top with them.

wreath- cut middle out of paper plate. the hand prints go around the circle, the red thunbprints make the berries in the wreath

feet

as said below- reindeer with hand antlers

snowmen - foot print in upside down and the heel is the head ( i went to a carpet store for a free carpet sqaure sample. i made 2 of these "snowmen" on it. added white dots all over to look like snowfall. then wrote "let it snow" across the top in paint. super cute!

angel - like the reindeer the foot os the body (heel is the head) and hands are the wings

also- i gave my little one a tp roll to paint and it became a beautiful "candle" i made a small handprint wreath from green cut out hands, stood the tp roll (all painted and rolled in glitter) in the middle and used a yellow cut out hand for the flame.....the grandmas LOVED it

also, give him/her plain brown paper and he/she can make your wrapping paper either with sponges cut into shapes or finges! yay for messy!!!

good luck and have fun!

When my kids were small we made Green Bay Packer ornaments by buying clear plastic ornament balls at the craft store that you could fill. My kids took green and yellow ribbon that I had curled and cut ahead of time but you could also use the fluffy little balls that look like cotton balls because that would be easy to pick up. The kids filled them up then put stickers or glued window clings on the outside (whatever we could find). Another one my daughter did around 1yr was I had her finger paint on a large piece of paper and helped her put a few hand prints in places. Then once it dried I cut out the best ones and we glued her picture on it and strung it for the christmas tree. My son's daycare did something similar by puting a hand print and a foot print on a tile then sealing it with something and I loved that one because it holds up over time but I don't know what they sealed it with so you would have to ask at a craft or hardware store. Something like that would be cute in a frame. The one I found the grandparents have kept the longest were when I had the kids decorate popsicle sticks and with paint and glitter and stuff. I took their pictures and put them on sheets of magnet material. Then I helped the kids glue the sticks around the picture like a frame or a star - whatever they wanted. I have also seen this done with old puzzle pieces so it looks like a snowflake. The magnets end up staying on the refrigerator all year long not just for Christmas. Of course my mother loved all the crafts from the kids even when they took pine cones and glued stuff to them and strung them up. Anything you make will be a hit! (Including pictures of the making of the ornaments) Good Luck and Have Fun!