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 | Hand Print Wreath Trace each child's hands several times onto a piece of green paper. Have the children cut out these hand shapes. Supply each child with a paper plate and show them how to cut out the center of the plate. Have the children glue their green hands shapes onto the plate to make a wreath. You could also have them use a paper hole punch on red paper and glue the holes on for holly. |
 | Cookie Cutter Painting Put a small amount of tempera paint in a large shallow container. (A pie tin works well) Show your child how to dip the cookie cutter in the paint and press onto a piece of paper to create a print. You can make holiday pictures or greeting cards by using holiday cookie cutters and colored paper. |
 | Candy Canes Draw or trace a candy cane shape onto a white piece of paper. Then have the children cut or tear red strips or paper to place on the candy cane. Have the children glue the red pieces of paper onto their candy cane as the stripes. After the glue has dried, the child (or an adult) can cut out the candy cane shape. |
 | Fingerprint Tree Either have the children cut out their own tree or make one for them. Then let them use a non-toxic stamp pad to put fingerprints (Christmas Ornaments and lights) on the tree. |
 | Cookie Cutter Matching Put a small amount of tempera paint in a large shallow container. (A pie tin works well) Dip the cookie cutter in the paint and press onto a piece of paper to create a print. Place a few different Christmas cookie cutter shapes onto one piece of paper. After the paint has dried, you can use this as a matching activity. The child should match the actual cookie cutter to the print on the paper. |
 | Santa's Reindeer Trace each child's hands and one foot onto a piece of brown paper. Then have the child cut out these hands and their foot. The foot will be the reindeer's head, the heel being the nose, and the hands will be the antlers. Have the child glue the antlers onto the head, along with a red circle for the nose and blue circles for the eyes. |
| Santa's Reindeer 2 Paint the child's foot brown, but not the toes. Press the foot firmly onto a piece of white paper. Clean the child's foot with soap and water. Paint the child's hands brown, then have them press their hands firmly onto the paper near the top of where there foot was. Clean the child's hands with soap and water. Dry completely. Paint two of the child's fingers blue and one thumb red. Have the child press their fingers and thumb firmly onto a separate piece of white paper. The two blue fingers will be the eyes, and the red thumb will be the nose. After the paint dries, have the child cut out their finger and thumb prints and glue them onto their reindeer. |
 | Christmas Stars Cut out many different star shapes. Have the child glue the stars onto a piece of dark blue paper to represent the night sky. |
Popcorn Garland
Make popcorn. Let it cool. Supply the children with a piece of yarn and a child safe needle (plastic and big) Have the children thread the popcorn onto the yarn to make garland.
Fingerprint Tree
Either have the children cut out their own tree or make one for them. Then let them use a non-toxic stamp pad to put fingerprints (Christmas Ornaments and lights) on the tree.
Christmas Ornaments
Decorate canning lids with string, ribbon, sequins, lace, and odds and ends. Glue a pipe cleaner to the back and hang on your tree.
Christmas Ornaments II
Have the children decorate really Christmas ornaments with string, ribbons, lace, sequins and odds and end. Allow to dry and send home for a great gift.
Bingo Dabber Art
For younger children, draw a Christmas Tree, and have the children decorate the tree with bingo dabbers.
Creative Cards
Fold a piece of construction paper in half. Provide children with a variety of materials, wrapping paper, paper, glitter, ribbons, bows, and let them make a holiday card for someone special.
Pine Cones
Collect pines cones or ask your parents to bring in some. Tie a ribbon around the top of the pine cone. Have the children apply glitter glue to them. Use them on a tree for decoration.
Christmas Place mats
Supply each child with a piece of paper. Allow the children to draw a Christmas object, such as a tree or Santa. You may provide stencils for this, or have the children draw on their own. Laminate the place mat for longer use.
Christmas Place mats II
Supply each child with 1/2 a piece of red paper. Have them tear the paper. Supply the children with green paper, and ask the children to glue their red torn pieces of paper onto their green piece of paper. Laminate the place mat for longer use.
Christmas Place mats III
Trace a Christmas shape onto a piece of paper. Have the child cut out the shape. Then glue the shape onto another piece of paper. Then have the children outline the shape with glue and add gold glitter. Laminate the place mat for longer use.
Christmas Color Finger Paints
Supply the children with red and green non toxic finger paint and white paper and have them make a picture.
Santa's Reindeer
Trace each child's hands onto a piece of brown paper. Then have the child cut out these hands. Supply each child with a paper plate and ask the children to draw a reindeer face on the paper and use their hands for antlers.
Hand Wreath
Trace each child's hands several times onto a piece of green paper. Have the children cut out these hand shapes. Supply each child with a paper plate and show them how to cut out the center of the plate. Have the children glue their green hands shapes onto the plate to make a wreath. You could also have them use a paper hole punch on red paper and glue the holes on for holly.
Cookie Cutter Painting
Put a small amount of tempera paint in a large shallow container. (A pie tin works well) Show your child how to dip the cookie cutter in the paint and press onto a piece of paper to create a print. You can make holiday pictures or greeting cards by using holiday cookie cutters, and colored paper.
Pine Branch Painting
Supply the children with a pine branch, with pine needles on it, instead of a paint brush. You could use red and green for a holiday picture, or whatever colors they wish.
Paper Plate Santa
Have your child draw a face on a paper plate, and glue on red triangle for Santa's Hat. Use a cotton balls on his hat and for his beard. Or cut out holes for eyes, and mouth, and punch two holes to make a mask.
Stockings
Help your child make a homemade stocking for the fireplace. Take a clean, hole free sock (red, green, white) and let your child decorate it with ribbons, bows, lace and whatever else you can think of.
Stocking II
Most advanced:
They may draw their own stocking shape onto a piece of paper and cut it out on their own. Then have them decorate it with markers, crayons, paint, sequins, glitter, ribbons, bows, lace... whatever you can come up with.
Moderate:
You draw the stocking shape onto a piece of paper and the children cut it out on their own. Then have them decorate it.
Simple:
You draw the stocking shape onto a piece of paper and the cut it out for them. Then have them decorate it.
Very Simple:
You draw the stocking shape onto a piece of paper and the cut it out for them. Then have them decorate it with Christmas stickers.
Stencil Art
Provide the children with stencils to trace. They may use markers, glitter, paint, crayons.. etc to decorate the shapes.
Sticker Art
For a very simple art project, supply the children with a piece of paper and stickers. For younger children this provides an excellent fine motor activity.
Candy Canes
This activity can be set up for all ages.
Most advanced:
They may draw their own candy can shape onto a white piece of paper and cut it out on their own. Then have them paint on the red stripes, or they may use red crayons or markers.
Little advanced:
You draw the candy can shape onto a white piece of paper and the children cut it out on their own. Then have them paint on the red stripes, or they may use red crayons or markers.
Moderate:
You draw the candy can shape onto a white piece of paper and the children cut it out on their own. Draw lines where the stripes should be. Then have them paint on the red stripes, or they may use red crayons or markers.
Simple:
You draw the candy can shape onto a white piece of paper and the cut it out for them. Draw lines where the stripes should be. Then have them paint on the red stripes, or they may use red crayons or markers.
Very Simple:
You draw the candy can shape onto a white piece of finger paint paper and the cut it out for them. Place masking tape where the stripes will be. Then have them paint on the red stripes, or they may use red crayons or markers. When the project is dry remove the tape. This way young toddlers can paint the whole thing without "making a mistake".
Another Candy Cane
They may draw their own candy can shape onto a white piece of paper and cut it out on their own. Then have the children cut red stripes to place on their paper. You can make this easier for young children by tracing, cutting, or using torn paper for the stripes.
Santa Hats
Cut out hat shapes for the children from red paper. For older children trace the shape and let them cut it out. Supply the children with cotton balls to glue around the bottom and one for the top.
What I want for Christmas Collage
Supply the children with plenty of toy magazines and ads. Invite the children to cut out what they would like for Christmas and have them glue the pictures onto a piece of paper for a collage.
Wrap it up
Let your child wrap a small box in tissue paper or gift wrap. Let them pretend to give it to someone.
Paint on Wet Paper
You can also use this as a science experiment. Explain diffusion, the spreading of the paint on the paper, through the water. Wet the paper and have the children paint on the paper with red and green paints.
All I want for Christmas- Bulletin Board Idea
Fold a piece of paper in half, to create a card. Have the card fold up. On the inside have the children cut out and paste things they would like for Christmas. Then have the children use wrapping paper for the outside. Use Christmas labels to identify each child's artwork.
 | Christmas Star Sort Supply the children with different size stars. Have the children sort the stars according to size. |
 | Christmas Star Seriation Supply the children with many stars with numbers on them. Have the children line up the numbers 1, 2, 3, etc. Picture Matching Find holiday stickers. Place 2 identical stickers on the left and right sides of an index card. Cut the index in half, cut in a jig-jag form. Use a highlighter to highlight the edges. Do this with many different stickers. Have the child match the stickers, and line up the two halves of the index card. |
Lacing Cards
Cut colored poster board into a Christmas shape (tree, wreath, star) and punch holes around the edges. Them let your child lace yarn or a shoestring into the cards.
Stamping Patterns
Use Christmas Theme rubber stamps to create a simple pattern on the top half of a piece of paper. Ask your child to help you recreate the pattern on the bottom half of the paper. Tip: Start with one stamp, and have your child pick which stamp you used. Start slowly and work your way up to more complicated patterns.
Bean bag toss
Have your child toss bean bags into a box with wrapping paper on it. You can use masking tape to mark where the child should stand.
What scent is this?
Gather four or different objects with different scents, like Christmas Cookies, a Candy Cane, yams etc. Blindfold the child, then place the object close the the child's nose, and ask the child to smell it and try to identify what it is.
Count the Stripes
Make many different candy cane shapes with different different numbers of stripes. Have the children count the stripes on the candy canes. If you made candy cane art (above) then have each child count the stripes on their candy cane. You could ask the children who had the most, the least and make a chart of how many lines were on the candy canes. Which number of stripes did most people make?
Candy Cane Balance
Supply each child with a candy cane. Ask them to balance it on their head. then have the children walk from point A to point B. (Preset marks..) Whoever makes it across without dropping their cane wins.
Candy Cane Weighing
Supply the children with a balance and candy canes to experiment with.
Christmas Shape Match Up
There are many ways to set this up depending on the skill level or the particular skill you wish to work on. Try these different set ups: (Use your own Christmas Shapes... wreath, tree, star, bell, ornament... etc)
---Cut out Christmas Shapes from different colors of paper. Give each child one Christmas Shape. Ask the children to find one person with the same color Christmas Shape.
---Cut out Christmas Shapes from different colors of paper. Cut the Christmas Shapes in half using a puzzle type cut, like zig zag or interlocking pieces. Give each child one half of a Christmas Shape, and ask them to find the person with the other half.
Or Give the children two pieces and have the children make a circle, with one child that has one match on one side and the other match on the other side. You may end up with 2 or more circles depending on how the Christmas Shape pieces are distributed.
---Cut out Christmas Shapes from one color of paper. Cut the Christmas Shapes in half using a puzzle type cut, like zig zag or interlocking pieces. Give each child one half of a Christmas Shape, and ask them to find the person with the other half.
Or Give the children two pieces and have the children make a circle, with one child that has one match on one side and the other match on the other side. You may end up with 2 or more circles depending on how the Christmas Shape pieces are distributed.
---Cut the Christmas Shapes from one color of paper. Label one set of Christmas Shapes with numbers, i.e. if you have 20 children, label the Christmas Shapes with the numbers one to ten. The other half, draw one dot on one, two on another, and so on until ten. Give each child one Christmas Shape and have them find the child with their match.
---Cut the Christmas Shapes from one color of paper. Place matching stickers on two Christmas Shapes. Give each child one Christmas Shape and have them find the child with their match.
---Cut the Christmas Shapes from one color of paper. Cut the Christmas Shapes in half using a puzzle type cut, like zig zag or interlocking pieces. Place matching stickers on each half of a Christmas Shape. Give each child one Christmas Shape half and have them find the child with their match.
---Place matching Christmas stickers on separate index cards. Give each child a card and ask them to find the child with their match.
---Try all the above, but in a file folder format. Glue one part of the Christmas Shape to the file folder and laminate it's match.
Christmas Tree Hop
Cut out large Christmas Tree shapes from colored paper. Laminate them and cut them out. Place them on the floor and ask the children to hop from one tree to another. These may also be used at seat markers for group time.
Where is your Gift?
Played like "Doggie Doggie where's your bone?"
Have one child sit in the middle of the circle, and hide their eyes. Give another child a Small Gift to hide behind their back. Have all the other children put their hands behind their back. Chant the following song:
Santa, Santa
Where's your gift
You better wake up
and find it swift.
The child in the middle gets three guesses. Then the child who had the gift goes into the middle.
What time is it Santa?
This is a fun game to play outside. You can change the name to suit any theme.
The children all line up against a wall or fence.
And one child, (Santa) or the teacher faces away from the children, a good distance away from the children.
The children yell, what time is it "Santa",
Santa answers 1 o'clock, and the children all take one step toward Santa.
The children yell again, what time is it "Santa",
Santa answers (fill in the blank) o'clock, and the children all take same number of step toward Santa.
This continues until all the children are very close to Santa, then Santa will answer it's midnight, and chases the children back to the fence or wall that they started at. The first person Santa touches will be the new Santa.
Gift Hide and Seek
Have all the children hide their eyes while you "hide" a gift in the room. (It should be placed in plain view) Tell the children to find the gift, but not touch it. Once they spot it they should sit back down in their spot. The first one to sit down again will get to hide the gift.
Gift Hide and Seek
Play the game the same as above, except hide the gift. Then tell the chidlren individually whether they are "hot" or "cold" to the relation of the gift. Allow the other children to have a change to hide the gift, and tell children whether they are "hot or cold". It may be a good idea to discuss the meaning of hot and cold before you play this game.
Christmas Shape Fishing Game
Tie 3 feet of string to a wooden spoon. Attach a magnet to the end of the string. Cut and laminate many different colored, and Christmas Shapes from construction paper (not too big though). Attach a paper clip to each Christmas Shape. Spread the Christmas Shapes on the floor and let your child try to catch the Christmas Shape. Have them try to catch the star or the biggest tree. For a twist, label the Christmas Shapes with letters or numbers.
Christmas Shaped Games
The following games require you to cut out many different Christmas Shapes from construction paper. You may choose to laminate these Christmas Shapes so they last longer.
Tree Sizing
Cut out many different sized trees. Ask the children to line up the trees from largest to smallest.
Ornament Sizing:
Cut out many different sized Ornaments. Ask the children to line up the Ornaments from largest to smallest.
Star Sizing:
Cut out many different sized stars. Ask the children to line up the stars from largest to smallest.
Tree, Ornament or Star Numbers
Cut out ten shapes. Number them one to ten. Ask the children to line up the shapes from one to ten.
Ornament Colors
Ask the children to sort the ornaments by color.
Tree, Ornament or Star Sort:
Supply the children with plenty of trees, ornaments and stars of many sizes and colors. Ask the children to sort the shapes by size, color or type.
Play "Who stole the Cookie?"
Class: Who stole the cookie from the cookie jar?
Teacher: (Ann) stole the cookie from the cookie jar?
Ann: Who me?
Class: Yes you!
Ann: Couldn't be!
Class: Then who?
Ann: (Tommy) stole the cookie from the cookie jar?
Tommy: Who me?
Class: Yes you!
Tommy: Couldn't be!
Class: Then who?
Christmas Cookbook
This activity is more than worth it's time in laughs. I have done it two years in a row and everyone laughs. Take the children aside one by one and ask them, "What is your favorite Christmas food?" Then ask them "How do you make that?" Write down word for word their responses. You may find it helpful to video tape the responses so you can get it all down. Then compile all of the responses in your classroom recipe book. You may make copies for the parents to take home or make one copy so that the parents may enjoy it. If you do the video, you may want to just show the video at a Christmas party for the parents.
He'll be coming down the Chimney
Sung to "She'll be coming around the mountain"
He'll be coming down the chimney when he comes,
He'll be coming down the chimney when he comes,
He'll be coming down the chimney,
He'll be coming down the chimney,
He'll be coming down the chimney when he comes.
He'll be bringing lots of presents when he comes,
He'll be bringing lots of presents when he comes,
He'll be bringing lots of presents,
He'll be bringing lots of presents,
He'll be bringing lots of presents when he comes.
He'll be driving nine reindeer when he comes,
He'll be driving nine reindeer when he comes,
He'll be driving nine reindeer,
He'll be driving nine reindeer,
He'll be driving nine reindeer when he comes.
I Know a Man Named Santa
written by chicky
Sung to "The More We Get Together"
I know a man named Santa
Named Santa, Named Santa
He has nine reindeer
He travels round the world
Round the world, round the world
He travels round the world
To delivers his gifts.
He comes down the chimney
The chimney, the chimney
He comes down the chimney
To deliver the gifts.
Santa Song
written by chicky
Sung to "Frere Jacques"
When I'm sleeping
When I'm sleeping
He will come
He will come
He will eat the cookies
He will eat the cookies
And drink the milk
And drink the milk
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