40 Easy Christmas Art Projects for Kids (Fun Holiday Crafts)
Looking for easy Christmas art projects the kids can actually finish? Here are 40, sorted by theme so you can jump to trees, snowmen, Santas, or ornaments. Most use supplies you already have, like glue, paper plates, cotton balls, and pom-poms. We make these at our kitchen table every December, and our five- and eight-year-old have opinions about all of them. Grab some cocoa and let's get in the holiday spirit.
Why Kids Love These Christmas Art Projects
Kids love these because there is rarely one right answer to get wrong. The process-art crafts here cause far less frustration than precise cut-and-match work, so everyone finishes proud. The tactile ones win most: anything with pom-poms and cotton balls, like a Santa beard or a snowman belly, is a reliable hit in our house. They also flex by age, fitting a toddler and a third grader in the same afternoon, which is why they work for classrooms too.
Parent tipFor mixed ages, hand the youngest the gluing while older kids do the cutting and detail work. Same project, two happy skill levels.
Christmas Tree Art Projects for Kids
Handprint Christmas Tree
Paint your child's hand and forearm green, then stack prints into a tree shape. Add fingerprint ornaments and a star once it dries.
Egg-Carton Christmas Tree
Paint egg-carton cups green and glue them into a small standing tree. Buttons and glitter make easy ornaments.
Pasta Christmas Tree
Glue dry pasta into a triangle tree on cardstock, then paint it green. Bowtie and wagon-wheel shapes look surprisingly festive.
Pine-Cone Christmas Tree
Stand a pine cone on its base, dab the tips green, and dot on tiny pom-pom ornaments. This one smells like the season.
Toilet-Paper-Roll Tree Painting
Cut a cardboard tube into a tree stamp, dip it in green paint, and press rows of trees across a card.
Button Christmas Tree
Draw a tree outline and let kids glue on buttons in graduating sizes. A great fine-motor project for little fingers.
Snowman & Snowflake Art Projects for Kids
Cotton-Ball Snowman Card
Glue cotton balls into a stacked snowman on folded cardstock, then add a paper hat, scarf, and dot eyes.
Clothespin Snowman
Paint a wood clothespin white, add a yarn scarf, an orange pom-pom nose, and a marker face. From experience, one coat rarely covers, so plan on a second. The paint also glues the clothespin shut, so open and close it a few times while it dries.
Toilet-Paper-Roll Snowman
Wrap a cardboard tube in white, then add a paper hat and buttons. It stands on a shelf all season.
Egg-Carton Snowman
Three egg-carton cups painted white and glued in a row make a chunky snowman. Cheap, quick, and toddler-friendly.
Coffee-Filter Snowflakes
Fold a coffee filter into wedges and snip shapes with safety scissors. Unfold, then dab with watercolor.
Popsicle-Stick Snowflakes
Glue craft sticks into a six-arm snowflake, paint it blue, and dust with glitter. Add a ribbon loop for an ornament.
Santa & Reindeer Art Projects for Kids
Cotton-Ball Santa Beard Card
Draw Santa's face and hat, then fill the beard with cotton balls. The pom-pom nose and cotton trim are the parts kids beg to do.
Paper-Plate Santa
Paint the bottom of a paper plate as Santa's face, glue cotton around the edge for the beard, and add a red triangle hat.
Pine-Cone Santa
Paint a pine cone red, add a wood-bead head, a cotton beard, and a hat. A sweet tabletop Santa.
Cardboard-Cone Santa
Roll red paper into a cone, add a face and cotton beard, and stand him up. Great for a classroom shelf.
Handprint Reindeer
Trace and cut a brown handprint for the head, add googly eyes, a red pom-pom nose, and antlers where the fingers would be. With our toddler helpers we cut the pieces ahead and let them do the sticking, while older kids practice rough cuts on their own. Gluing the antlers is a natural moment to talk about triangles and shapes.
Watch outAntlers, googly eyes, and pom-poms are small parts, so keep them away from babies who still mouth things. Only adults should handle scissors and hot glue.
Yarn Reindeer Ornament
Glue 3 popsicle sticks into a triangle face, wrap it in brown yarn, and add googly eyes, pipe-cleaner antlers, and a red pom-pom nose. These look cuter with imperfections: big yarn gaps and crooked eyes still look great, which keeps younger kids confident. For a classroom, pre-glue the triangles so kids only do the fun decorating.
Paper-Bag Reindeer
Stuff and tie a paper lunch bag, then add antlers, eyes, and a nose. A huggable reindeer in ten minutes.
Gingerbread Art Projects for Kids
Paper Gingerbread House
Cut a house from brown cardstock and let kids decorate with paper candy, puffy paint, and cotton snow. All the fun, none of the frosting mess.
Torn-Paper Gingerbread Man
Tear brown paper into pieces and glue them inside a gingerbread-man outline. The tearing is great for little hands.
Gingerbread-Man Collage
Give kids buttons, rickrack, sequins, and markers to dress a gingerbread-man cutout however they like. No two ever match.
Salt-Dough Gingerbread Ornament
Cut gingerbread-man shapes from salt dough, bake low and slow, then paint. See our salt-dough tips below for the no-crack method.
DIY Christmas Ornament Crafts Kids Can Make
Salt-Dough Ornaments
Our December staple. Classic salt dough is a 3-ingredient recipe: flour, salt, and water, using all-purpose flour. Roll it about a quarter inch (1/4 inch) thick, since too thin cracks and too thick bubbles. Cut shapes, poke a ribbon hole, and bake low and slow around 250°F.
Parent tipSalt-dough ornaments puff and crack when the oven runs too hot. The fix is baking low and slow, or air-drying a full day first, then a gentle bake. Once painted, seal them with Mod Podge or clear acrylic so they last year to year.
Pasta Ornaments
Glue pasta into snowflake or wreath shapes, let it set, then paint. Add a ribbon and hang.
Mason-Jar-Lid Ornament
Use a canning-jar lid ring as a frame. Glue a photo or drawing inside, add a bow, and you have a keepsake.
Elf Ornament
Turn a wood bead and felt into a tiny elf with a pointed hat and pipe-cleaner arms. Fiddly but adorable for older kids.
Pipe-Cleaner Candy Cane Ornament
Twist a red and white pipe cleaner together, thread on a few beads, and bend the top into a hook. Toddlers can do this one solo.
Handprint & Footprint Christmas Art
Footprint Santa
Paint the sole red for Santa's suit, then add a painted-heel face and cotton beard. Tiny footprints make sweet keepsakes.
Handprint Wreath
Trace a ring of green handprints into a wreath, then add red fingerprint berries and a paper bow.
Handprint Poinsettia
Arrange red handprints into a flower with a green-handprint leaf, then dot the center with yellow fingerprints.
Footprint Reindeer
A footprint becomes the reindeer face, with heel-end antlers from little handprints and a red pom-pom nose.
Christmas Card & Gift Crafts for Kids
Button Christmas Tree Card
Draw a tree on a folded card and glue buttons for ornaments. Simple, quick, and it mails flat.
Fingerprint String-Light Card
Draw a swooping black cord, then let kids press colorful fingerprint bulbs along it. A charming card in minutes.
Salt-Dough Gift Tags
Stamp names or shapes into small salt-dough rectangles, bake, and tie onto gifts. Handmade tags people actually keep.
Pop-Up Christmas Card
Cut two slits in a folded card to make a pop-up tab, then glue a paper tree on it. It springs up when opened.
Famous Artist-Inspired Christmas Art Projects
Mondrian Christmas Trees
Draw a tree, divide it with black lines into blocks, and fill with Mondrian's red, yellow, and blue. A mini art lesson in disguise.
Kandinsky Ornament Circles
Paint concentric rings of color inside ornament shapes, Kandinsky-style. No wrong colors, which little kids love.
Matisse Cut-Out Christmas Shapes
Cut free-form trees, stars, and snowflakes from colored paper and arrange them into a collage, the way Matisse worked with scissors.
Warhol Repeat Christmas Prints
Stamp the same shape in a grid and color each one differently for a pop-art repeat print.
Tips for Christmas Crafting With Kids (by age)
Toddlers do best with sticking, dabbing, and gluing while you handle the cutting. Preschoolers manage rough scissor cuts and folding. Elementary kids are ready for salt dough, yarn wrapping, and the artist-inspired projects.
A word on glue: hot glue skips the wait, but for younger kids liquid glue is safer, so build in full drying time before the next step.
NoteLow-prep, budget crafts from everyday materials, like egg cartons, paper plates, and tubes, work best for mixed-age groups because the difficulty flexes within one project.
More Seasonal Art Projects & Free Printables
If these have you hooked, we have guides for every season: winter art projects for kids, fall art projects for kids, and Thanksgiving art projects for kids. Come spring, our Easter art projects for kids and spring art projects for kids pick back up, and our easy art projects for kids roundup is a year-round favorite.
A few of these projects were inspired by tutorials we love: the clothespin snowman craft from Easy Peasy and Fun, the handprint reindeer craft from Red Ted Art, and the yarn reindeer ornament from Buggy and Buddy.
Christmas Craft FAQs
What Christmas crafts can toddlers make?
Toddlers do great with cotton-ball snowmen and Santa beards, torn-paper gingerbread men, handprint trees, and pipe-cleaner candy canes. Do the cutting for them and let them glue and stick.
What are easy last-minute Christmas crafts?
Fingerprint string-light cards, paper-plate Santas, button tree cards, and coffee-filter snowflakes all come together in about ten minutes.
What supplies do I need?
A basic kit covers most projects: construction paper, glue, paint, cotton balls, pom-poms, googly eyes, popsicle sticks, buttons, and pipe cleaners. Add flour and salt for salt dough.
What Christmas art works for a classroom?
Low-prep crafts from egg cartons, paper plates, and tubes flex across skill levels. Pre-glue tricky steps ahead so a group only does the fun decorating.
