5 Christmas crafts to try with your Early Years class

Celebrate Christmas with your class with some engaging  activities. They are all simple to make and very fun for little ones.

1. Wrapping paper garland

This is a good way to use all the leftover wrapping paper you have sitting at home in a very easy Christmas craft.

For this craft you will need:

• Wrapping paper
• Scissors
• Stapler

How to make it:

First you will need to cut the wrapping paper in strips of two sizes (3 x 6 inch and 3 x 4.5 inch). Then you will loop the paper creating a circle and staple the ends together. Thread the next piece of paper into the loop you created and staple the ends again. Repeat this process until you’ve reached the desired length of your garland.

Source: 50 Easy Christmas Crafts for Kids to Make at Home in 2024

2. Santa Advent Calendar

Let children get excited for Christmas with this cute Advent Calendar.

For this craft you will need:

• Cotton balls
• Red and white cardstock
• Glue
• Scissors
• Pink and black sharpie

How to make it:

Let’s start by mapping the shape you would like for Santa’s face, hat and beard. Once you are satisfied with the shape you can go ahead and cut it. Glue the pieces into place and use a cotton ball to decorate Santa’s hat. Use the sharpies to draw Santa’s eyes, nose and rosy cheeks. Now write down numbers 1 to 25 on Santa’s beard. Your Advent Calendar is ready to go! Starting on the 1^st of December, kids in your class can start to glue one cotton ball per day until Santa’s beard is complete!

Source: 50 Easy Christmas Crafts for Kids to Make at Home in 2024

3. Christmas Slime

This is such a fun craft to do with kids because not only they can play with the slime, but they will have a good time decorating the jars too.

For this craft you will need:

• Glass Jar
• Food colouring
• Water
• Elmer’s glue (white and glitter green)
• Brown food colouring for the Rudolph slime jar.
• Baking soda
• Contact lens solution. **Important: your brand of contact lens solution must have boric acid in the ingredient list. This is what interacts with the glue to form the slime.
• Googly eyes
• Orange and red felt
• Red pom pom
• Brown pipe cleaner
• Small black buttons
• Hot glue (adult assistance)

How to make it:

We will start by making the slimes by mixing one bottle of glue, ½ teaspoon of baking soda and a ¼ cup of water. For Rudolph’s slime, you should mix the food colouring with the blue before adding other ingredients. Next add 1.5 tablespoons of your contact lens solution and mix it well. Add more solution little by little until the mix starts to pull away from the bowl. Take the slime out of the bowl and knead with your hands until it’s not as sticky.

Now let’s decorate our jars! For the Rudolph Jar, glue on your googly eyes and the red pom pom for the nose. Make the antlers by tying one pipe cleaner around the jar lid. Cut two smaller pieces of pipe cleaner and then tie these around your two ends.

For the Snowman jar, glue on your googly eyes, orange felt for the nose and small black buttons for the mouth! Lastly, for the Grinch Jar, glue on your googly eyes and then make the face using a black sharpie. Cut a strip of red felt to cover the jar lid and glue it in place (adults only).

Source: Christmas Slime - The Best Ideas for Kids

4. Paper snowman

This craft is easy, really cute, and parents will love to keep it!

For this craft you will need:

• White, brown, red, black and orange cardstock
• Green and red glitter paper
• Glue
• Photo of each child in your class
• Small black buttons
• Green pom poms
• Green pipe cleaner

How to make it:

Start by tracing out all the cardstock elements you will need (a circle for the body, long strips for arms and legs, carrot nose, gloves, scarf, boots and hat. After you are happy with the template you can cut the shapes. Now is time to glue everything in place, Start by adding the scarf and buttons to the body. Fold into an accordion the long strips of paper for legs and arms. On the brown strips glue the gloves on one end, on the white strips glue the boots. Put the body together by securing everything on the back of the body. Now for the head, start but cutting out the photo and glueing the carrot nose. For the earmuffs, attach the pom poms and the pipe cleaner to the head with glue and for the snowman hat, add a red glitter strip. Glue this to the top of the head. Finish it off by glueing the head to the body.

Source: Paper Snowman Craft - The Best Ideas for Kids

5. Toy Drum Ornaments

Use toilet paper rolls to create this beautiful tree ornaments.

For this craft you will need:

• Toilet paper rolls
• Scissors
• Acrylic paint
• Cardstock
• Ribbon
• Washi tape
• Glue

How to make it:

To make your drum ornaments, start by cutting the toilet roll about 2 inches tall. Place the roll on the cardstock and trace out a circle that will cover the opening. Once you have your circle drawn, cut it and save it for later. Now it’s time to paint and decorate your ornament, like making a crisscross pattern. Once it’s dry, you can glue the circles we cut out before on the top and bottom of the toilet roll. Use a strip of washi tape or ribbon and attached onto the top and bottom of the "drum" to create a straight line. Attach a loop of ribbon to the side of the drum using a bit of glue and it’s ready to be added to your Christmas tree!

Source: 50 Easy Christmas Crafts for Kids to Make at Home in 2024