by Susan Hibberd

Created on: December 12, 2009

Christmas is a time for all the family to come together and share in the joy. Making the decorations is part of that, and there is no reason why toddler shouldn’t join in.

 A toddler might be small, but he or she usually has bags of enthusiasm and energy. Channel this into making some great Christmas craft items that could become treasured family heirlooms in the future.

 Although a toddler has limited manual dexterity, all the following crafts can be carried out and enjoyed by child with adult supervision.

 A toddler has a limited attention span, so choose a time to do these craft projects when he or she is in a quiet mood and when you can leave the materials out for several hours to dip in and out of.

 Christmas Cards

 Christmas cards are a great toddler craft, as they give so much joy to the people who receive them.  Fold pieces of card in half so that only the front of the card is showing and let your toddler go wild with glitter glue, Christmas stamps, metallic pens and self-adhesive shapes.

 Wrapping Paper

 Apply the same principal to making wrapping paper. Use sheets of lining paper from the home improvement store and let your toddler print or paint what he/she likes.

 Place Mats

 Use A4 or A3 sized thin card to make Christmas place mats.  Limit the colors you offer your child to red, green and gold, and allow the creativity to flow!  Offer Christmas sponge shapes for printing.

 You can print or paint the name of each of your guests on the mats after your child has finished. Once dried, laminate the place mats.

 Toilet Roll Nativity

 A toddler can produce a great nativity (crèche) using the inside rolls from toilet tissue.  Cut out shapes from gummed colored paper for cloaks, faces, eyes and hair.  Allow your toddler to stick the shapes onto the tubes.

 Dough Craft Shapes

 Make some craft dough and offer it to your child. He or she can use cookie cutters to make dough shapes to go onto the tree.

 Before the dough dried, add a hole to thread ribbon through, or press a paper clip into the top of the dough as a hanger.

 Once dried, allow your child to paint the shapes.  If you like, you can make the shapes yourself and just let your child do the painting.

 Shapes can be varnished for extra durability.

 Biscuits

 Gingerbread shapes are easily cut from rolled out dough using Christmas-shaped cutters.  It doesn’t matter if they come out a funny shape – they’ll taste just as good!

 Peppermint Creams

 Peppermint creams can be made from icing (confectioners) sugar, peppermint essence and a tiny bit of glucose. Add water if the paste is too stiff.  Roll it out and allow your toddler to cut out shapes using tiny cutters.  As above, it doesn’t matter if the shapes are a little odd – just eat those bits!

 Crowns

 Crowns are a great Christmas craft as they fit in with the theme of Three Kings, and add extra sparkle to the festivities.  Cut a crown shape from gold or silver card and let your toddler glue on plastic gems. Once dried, staple it to the size of your child’s head.

 All these crafts are great ideas to keep your toddler busy and happy over the Christmas period. Don’t be tempted to leave your toddler to do these on his/her own, though. Sit together and you can both create Christmas masterpieces!

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