The holiday season is magical, and there’s nothing like spending time creating festive memories with your family. Arts and crafts are an effective way to make the season extra special and keep their tiny hands busy while sparking their creativity and promoting early childhood education Best of all, you’re left with a home full of cheerful preschooldecorations afterward.
Benefits of Arts & Crafts in Preschool
Arts and crafts are a playground for a preschooler’s imagination! When little hands paint, glue, and color, they’re not just having fun, but they’re exploring the world, experimenting with colors and textures, and learning to express themselves in a new way. Every creation in preschool is a step toward building confidence, curiosity, and a sense of accomplishment.
Some benefits of arts & crafts projects in preschool include:
- Boosts Creativity: Preschool crafting encourages your child to explore colors, shapes, textures, and imaginative play. Every project is an open invitation to express oneself freely.
- Strengthens Fine Motor Skills: Activities like cutting, gluing, and drawing help hand development, which is crucial for writing, tying shoes, and other everyday skills.
- Supports Emotional Growth: Making something with their own hands gives children confidence, while helping them express feelings they cannot yet communicate.
- Encourages Parent-Child Bonding: When you do these preschool arts & crafts projects at home, you share creative moments, which foster communication, cooperation, and lasting memories.
- Teaches Patience and Focus: Following steps in a craft helps your preschooler practice patience, sequencing, and attention to detail, which are all valuable life skills.
Fun And Easy Preschool Holiday Crafts
Here are ten of our favorite and most-loved preschool holiday crafts.
Santa Faces on Paper Plates
Material needed: Paper plates, red and white construction paper, cotton balls, glue, markers
- Cut a red triangle for Santa’s hat.
- Glue cotton balls along the hat’s edge and for Santa’s beard.
- Draw eyes and a smile with markers.
Tip: Allow your child to add their own twist with a glittery hat.
Popsicle Stick Snowflakes
Materials needed: Popsicle sticks, white paint, glue, silver, and white glitter
- Arrange sticks in a crisscross pattern to create a snowflake shape.
- Glue together and paint the sticks white.
- Sprinkle glitter while the paint is still wet to create a sparkling craft.
Tip: Try making snowflakes of different sizes and colors to hang in the windows of the preschool.
Reindeer Finger Puppets
Materials needed: Brown and red felt, googly eyes, glue, scissors, and different-colored markers
- Cut small rectangles of felt and roll them into finger-sized tubes.
- Glue on googly eyes and a red pom-pom to make Rudolph’s nose.
- Draw antlers and a mouth with markers.
Tip: These puppets encourage imaginative play and storytelling around the Christmas tree.
Snowman Paper Bag Puppets
Materials needed: Brown paper bags, white paint, construction paper, glue, markers
- Paint the bag white to form the snowman’s body.
- Add a paper hat, scarf, eyes, nose, and buttons to complete the look.
- Use as a puppet for holiday storytelling.
Tip: Encourage your preschooler to invent stories for their snowman, which helps them develop language skills.
Salt Dough Ornaments
Materials needed: 1 cup flour, ½ cup salt, ½ cup water to make the dough, cookie cutters, paint, and different color ribbons
- Mix flour, salt, and water to create dough.
- Roll out the dough and use cookie cutters to shape ornaments.
- Bake at 250°F for 2 hours, then paint them and attach a ribbon to hang on the tree
Tip: Let your preschooler press their fingerprints or handprints into the dough before baking, which creates a personalized, meaningful gift.
Festive Pinecone Trees
Materials needed: Pine cones, green paint, small beads or pom-poms, glue, and cardboard
- Paint the pine cone green.
- Glue on beads or pom-poms as ornaments.
- Stand upright on the cardboard base.
Tip: Pine cones are a natural material that preschoolers love to explore, making this craft both sensory and creative.
Holiday Cards Potato Stamps
Materials needed: Potatoes, knife (for adult use only), paint, paper
How to Make It:
- Cut a potato in half and carve shapes like candy canes, stars, or trees.
- Dip in paint and stamp onto the paper.
Tip: Encourage them to use all different colors, not just traditional green and red.
Handprint Christmas Trees
Materials needed: Green construction paper, brown paper, markers, stickers, small pom-poms, glue
- Trace your child’s hand and cut out multiple of their handprints.
- Stack them in descending size to form a tree.
- Glue on a brown rectangle for the trunk.
- Decorate to create ornaments.
Tip: These crafts capture a moment in time, which are great keepsakes that remind you of just how tiny your little preschooler’s hands used to be.
Candy Cane Reindeer
Materials needed: Candy canes, brown pipe cleaners, googly eyes, small red pom-poms, glue
- Wrap brown pipe cleaners around the candy cane top for antlers.
- Glue on eyes and a red pom-pom nose.
Tip: These reindeer make adorable edible decorations for gifts or for a holiday table setting.
Glittery Paper Snow Globes
Materials needed: Cardstock, cotton balls, glue, different color glitter, markers
- Cut a circle from cardstock for the globe’s shape.
- Glue a cotton ball at the bottom for snow.
- Draw holiday scenes and sprinkle glitter over the “snow.”
Tip: Your little one can create their own winter wonderland and display it on windowsills for a more dramatic, sparkling effect.
Four Tips for Holiday Crafting Success in a Preschool
The holiday season is the perfect time to spark creativity in preschool. Arts and crafts not only keep little hands busy but also help develop fine motor skills, imagination, and confidence. With a few simple strategies, you can make holiday crafting a joyful and stress-free experience.
- Keep it simple and choose arts & crafts projects that suit their attention span.
- Prep ahead and have materials ready.
- Show off their work, which boosts their confidence.
- Celebrate being creative and focus on having fun instead of just doing the craft as you envisioned it to be done.
Our Preschool Can Help Your Child Flourish
When you’re looking for a preschool that incorporates creativity into its daily curriculum, visit Parkland Children’s Academy. We believe in helping your preschooler grow emotionally, physically, cognitively, and socially. This allows them to be most successful in their formative years.
To learn more about our preschool, request a tour by calling our staff at 954-688-5877.