Advent Calendar Ideas for Crafty Kids
The Holidays are a great excuse for me to get crafty with my kids–as if I need an excuse! I treasure projects from past years and love to get my kids in that industrious elf mood.
These ideas for holiday crafts can be used in an Activity Advent calendar or on their own just as a fun family activity.
Rest assured, these are easy and very doable!! Each of these ideas does not need a big tutorial
Easy Activity Advent Calendar Ideas
Create masterpieces with painted cardboard scraps
Need an idea to use up all of those Amazon boxes? Cut the cardbaord into simple shapes, paint them and then arange them into winter scenes. Sprinkle with a bit of glitter for a nice, snowy effect.
We used a combination of cereal boxes and heavier, corrugated boxes. An adult can help cutting the heavier boxes with a craft knife or heavy duty scissors.
This can be a two or three day activity:
- Cut out squares, rectangles and triangles from a variety of boxes. Use thicker boxes for the background.
- Paint the cardbaord pieces to your liking – we did all of the triangles in a shade of green, knowing they’d be trees.
- Arrange the painted shapes into simple wintery scenes and glue them into place.
- Finally, spray them with frosty, glitter for an amazing snow effect.
Make teacher gifts(Ideas for Grandparents & Neighbors,too!)
Being a teacher myself, I know the power of even the smallest of gifts for teachers. Making crafty holiday gifts is a great advent calendar idea because it gets two things done at once!
When gifts are handmade, they are even more special, as I know the kids have put some time and effort into creating me a little treasure. Even as my boys enter middle school and high school, we still give gifts to ALL their teachers. We always include a handmade item along with a gift card, for my kids’ teachers. include as many other school staff members as we can..the office staff, school nurse, etc.
Ideas for handmade teacher gifts:
- Banana or Zuchinni bread
- Felted Soap
- Holiday Chex Mix
- Homemade granola
- Cookie Mix in a jar(this is what we are doing this year!!)
- Decorated cookies
- Chocolate dipped pretzel rods
- Ornaments or holiday decor
- Candles made from microwavable wax
- Homemade Bath bombs
Snowy village houses(pictured above)
We used empty milk cartons (ask at your child’s school fro a few empty ones – or purchase a few, smaller cartons in anticipation of this activity) and washed them out thoroughly. Once dry, we painted them first with a white primer and then once, dry, painted with another final coat of color. We used a sharpie marker on the dry houses to do some details.
The roof was made with large popsicle sticks cut in half and painted brown. We glued these on before spraying the entire house with some glitter for a bit of sparkle.
Make your own wrapping paper.
We do this almost every year. I get a few roles of brown or white craft paper (find them by the packing supplies at any big box retail store) and the kids have at it.
We usually stamp the paper with ink or paints, using bubble wrap or toilet tubes. One year, we used hot wheels as the paint brushes and made tire tracks all over the wrapping paper.
We used a paper towel roll and a small plastic container for this one. Tape a large piece of paper (we had a big roll of butcher paper like this one.) and let your kids have at it! Use paper plates or styrofoam trays to hold a bit of paint.
We used bubble wrap to make this wrapping paper. Again, we used our big roll of butcher paper and taped it to the table so it wouldn’t move. We cut strips of large sized bubble packing material and painted it generously with washable paint.
Depending on their age, your kids may need help to flip the bubble wrap over and place it on the butcher paper, paint side down. Gently press the bubble wrap onto the paper and then pull it off carefully and repeat! Make sure you let the paper dry. Experiment with different colors and even overlap your printing for a fun effect.
Make a wool garland
Felt old wool sweaters and make a wool garland. We have been working on this for years. Finally, I think we have enough garland for the whole tree. Find the simple directions here.
Garlands are fun to make for your tree or to hang on the fireplace or around a doorway.
If you don’t have any old sweaters to felt, don’t forget the traditional paper chain garland. It can be so fun to sit and make a garland as a family. See how long you can make it! Give big stretches as gifts to grandparents or hang them all over the house.
Create with wool felted Blankets
Felted wool blankets make great fabric to create small wall hangings with.
Simply wash and dry old 100% wool blankets a few times to get the fibers nice and tight. The Cottage Mama has a nice tutorial for felting wool sweaters.
Then cut into shapes and sew together using wool yarn. This is a great activity for a beginner sewer. We used a big needle like this one, so kids can easily maneuver it. Your kids will still have to be supervised, the needle is sharp.
Troll thrift stores for old wool sweaters and blankets to use for this activity. Or create with some of your old wool seaters you haven’t worn in years.
Decorate your room for the holidays.
This one is new for us this year. We plan to visit a few thrift stores to buy garland and lights for the boys to string around their rooms. The Dollar Store is a great place to go, too.
You can also make paper snowflakes with scrap paper! This is an amazing activity that keeps kids busy for awhile and they love it!! Wondercrafts has some great videos.
Make sure you have sharp kids scissors, like these. This is a great way to use up paper from your recycling bin!
Decorate windows with tissue paper.
This really has a beautiful result and can occupy even the littlest in your family. Just brush on pieces of tissue paper (I buy it at the dollar store) with watered down glue. To remove, just spray with window cleaner and wipe!
Of course, you can cut the paper yourself into strips about 1 inch by 8 inches and use a glue stick to assemble them. Or you can simple order the paper strips precut and ready to go.
Make Christmas cards
The sky is the limit with this. You can use whatever supplies you have at home. Those toilet paper tubes come in real handy for making snowman. We have used veggie stamps and regular ink pads for a super fun effect, too.
Homemade cards are so special, they can even serve as a gift in themselves. Ane don’t forget to decorate the envelopes!
Clothes Pin Christmas Trees
We made these for preschool teachers, years ago. These tiny trees stand up, thanks to the clothes pin base. I cut small triangles out of thicker cardboard and my kids helped paint them green.
Once the green trees have dried, kids can use a Q-tip to dot paint on (both sides) like ornaments or lights. Stand up on a wooden clothespin to dry. Package with treats for a cute and easy gift.
Make beeswax candles
If your kids are a little older, a beeswax candle kit is a great idea! These can become great gifts for family, teachers and friends. Kids 8 and up can do this activity on their own, smaller children may need some assistance.
