25 Simple Christmas Activities for Toddlers

Nov 21

25 Simple Christmas Activities for Toddlers: Hands-On Learning for the Holidays

Are you looking for easy, low-prep ways to keep your toddler busy and learning during the holiday rush? As a homeschooling parent, you know the power of hands-on play! This list of 25 simple Christmas activities is packed with festive sensory play, fine motor practice, and gentle learning activities—perfect for making memories and keeping Christ in Christmas this year.

This collection is designed to be low-cost, quick-to-set-up, and highly engaging for your busy toddler or preschooler.

Hands-On Fine Motor & Language Arts Fun

These activities use small tools and actions to build crucial fine motor skills and introduce early literacy and math concepts.

Candy Cane Letter Tracing Tray: Fill a shallow tray with salt or flour and use Christmas flashcards to practice forming letters with a finger or a small stick. This is perfect for pre-writing skills!

2. Jingle Bell Drop: Use a clean, empty oatmeal container. Cut a small hole in the lid. Have your toddler practice pincer grasp by dropping jingle bells into the opening.

3. Pom-Pom Color Sort: Place green and red pom-poms into a muffin tin. Provide tongs or a small scoop to sort them into cups, practicing both colors and counting.

4. Tinsel Scissor Practice: Tape strips of tinsel to the edge of a table and let your toddler safely practice cutting with preschool scissors.

5. Christmas Sticker Line-Up: Draw simple lines (straight, wavy, zigzag) on paper and have your child trace them using small Christmas stickers (stars, trees). This is great for visual motor control.

Festive Sensory Play & STEM Activities

Sensory play is essential for toddler development and a wonderful way to introduce the textures, sights, and scents of Christmas.

6. Christmas Sensory Bin: Fill a clear plastic bin with instant snow, cotton balls, small pinecones, and tiny bottle brush trees. Add wooden bowls for scooping and pouring.

7. Scented Pinecone Mix: Toss pinecones with cinnamon essential oil and add them to a simple bin with scoops and cups for a wonderful scented activity.

8. DIY Peppermint Playdough: Make your own peppermint playdough from our Advent of Crafts. (download the PDF free here).

9. Ribbon Pull Box: Stuff an empty tissue box with different lengths and textures of Christmas ribbon for toddlers to practice pulling and grasping.

10. Water Bead Christmas Trees: Fill a small clear jar with water beads (green and red) and add a small branch or pine sprig. Let your toddler feel the slippery textures.

11. Cookie Cutter Prints: Use Christmas cookie cutters with paint, playdough, or kinetic sand to make festive impressions.

12. Christmas Light Rescue: Attach battery-operated Christmas lights to a piece of cardboard with masking tape, then let your toddler work to "rescue" the lights by peeling off the tape.

Christ-Centered & Nativity Crafts

These crafts and activities help keep the focus on the true meaning of Christmas in an age-appropriate way.

13. Simple Nativity Peg Dolls: Use clothespins or wooden peg dolls and wrap them in fabric scraps or colored yarn to create the Nativity scene characters. See our Nativity Advent Crafts FREE download.

14. Straw for Jesus: Read the book Room for a Little One or a simple Nativity story. Place a basket on a table and have your toddler practice fine motor skills by adding small pieces of hay or shredded paper "straw" to the manger.

15. Star Garland Threading: Cut out simple star shapes from cardstock, punch a hole in the center, and practice threading them onto a piece of yarn or pipe cleaner.

16. Baby Jesus Sensory Tub: Use a small container filled with hay or soft brown packing paper and place a small doll or cloth-wrapped item (Baby Jesus) inside for a tactile representation of the manger.

17. Three Kings Walk: Cut out three simple crown shapes and attach them to a stick. Use these as puppets to march across the room while you sing "We Three Kings."

Easy Christmas Art & Creation

18. Salt Dough Ornaments: Make a simple salt dough, use cookie cutters to create shapes, and use fingerprints to decorate them. Bake and paint later for treasured keepsakes.

19. Bubble Wrap Stamping: Tape a piece of bubble wrap to the table, paint it with green paint, and stamp paper to create textured Christmas tree artwork.

20. Cotton Ball Snowman: Glue cotton balls onto a dark blue piece of paper to create a fluffy snowman. Use markers to add eyes, buttons, and a carrot nose.

21. Cranberry, Orange, or Popcorn Garland: Practice fine motor skills by gently threading large, blunt needles with thick yarn to string cranberries, oranges, and popcorn pieces for a rustic, natural garland. See our Advent of Crafts. (download the PDF free here).

22. Shaving Cream Snow: Spray shaving cream onto a waterproof tray and mix it with a little white glue to create a foamy, textural "snow" for building and sculpting.