December has begun, and finally, you can decorate your home and embrace the Christmas spirit. It’s the perfect time to suggest Christmas activities and crafts for your little one. You’ll share unique, joyful moments around festive, fun, and easy-to-make creations. And no—you don’t need a craft store at home to offer your child some great activities. Here are 10 Christmas activity and craft ideas you can do with your family.

1. The list to Santa Claus

To create a Christmas list, nothing could be easier. You’ll need a sheet of paper, markers, and, if you have them, stickers, glitter, and decorations for your child’s list. Gather toy catalogs or photos found online. For little ones, you can cut out these pictures and help them stick them onto the list. For older children, a suitable pair of scissors and a glue stick will allow them to do it themselves. autonomy . You can also suggest that your child write a kind note to Santa Claus—and why not help them sign their name at the end of the list? Don’t forget to decorate the envelope in which the precious letter will be sent. This activity helps you start celebrating the festive season and create a gentle anticipation around Christmas .

A little bonus tip: in France, you can send your little adventurer's letter by mail. Just write "Santa Claus" as the recipient, and, if your child wishes, add an imaginary address. You don’t need to affix a stamp to this letter. Don’t forget to write your address on the back of the envelope, because Santa Claus responds! ;)

2. Customized and original greeting cards

You can create your own greeting cards. For this, you’ll need slightly thick sheets of paper; simply fold them in half to make a card. The paper can be white or colored, depending on what you want to create. Here are several ideas you can make with your little one:

• Give your little one (from 1 year old) Christmas-colored paint, and let them paint with their fingers—or with a brush for older children. You can then take a sheet of thick paper in another color and cut out a shape like a Christmas tree, a star, etc. Then, glue this sheet over the first one. You’ll get a beautiful cut-out effect, with your child’s artwork in the background.

• For slightly older children, you can use buttons. For example, you can line up three white buttons, add a hat cut out of black paper (or drawn), add two stick arms, and voilà—you have a snowman. Or ask your child to glue buttons of different colors in various places and connect them with a line to make a garland. You can create all kinds of drawings: a Christmas tree, a reindeer, holly berries, etc.

• With a little more material, you can encourage your children to stick on small Christmas-colored pom-poms, stickers, and glitter, and let their ideas run free.

This craft allows you to create beautiful cards together that you can give to family. Your child will love sending their creations to your loved ones, and you’ll have a perfect activity for a rainy day or snowy afternoon.

3. A tree with your fingers

Beforehand, draw the outline of a Christmas tree on a sheet of paper: a long vertical line with horizontal lines crossing it. The horizontal lines should get progressively shorter as you go up the tree. Then, get some paint (there is special finger paint available) and ask your little adventurer to dip their fingers in and make fingerprints to create Christmas decorations on the tree. For this DIY, we recommend having wipes close by, as they will be very helpful.

4. A cardboard Santa Claus

This little Santa Claus is a craft that requires little equipment : a roll of toilet paper, a sheet of paper cut into a circle, red paint, cotton, and moving eyes or a marker, plus glue.

Your child can paint the roll red or, alternatively, paint the lower half red and the upper half beige, for example, and paint the paper circle red as well. Let everything dry, then glue the cotton onto the lower half of the roll to form Santa's beard. In the meantime, transform the red circle into a cone and glue it on top of the roll. To finish, you can glue on eyes or simply draw them.

This craft activity is suitable for children aged 2 and above and helps develop your little one's .

5. Salt dough Christmas decorations

For the salt dough recipe, nothing could be simpler:

• 1 glass of salt

• 1 glass of lukewarm water

• 2 glasses of flour

Mix everything together, and you’ll get salt dough. Optionally, you can add food coloring. Then, roll out the dough and use cookie cutters with Christmas shapes, such as Christmas trees, reindeer, boots, snowmen, etc. You can make small holes in your creations to turn them into beautiful Christmas tree decorations. Once you’re done, let them dry for about 12 hours, then put your creations in the oven at a temperature between 75 and 120 °C and bake for 30 minutes to 2 hours, depending on the size of your objects.

Once baking is finished, you can paint your Christmas decorations, then thread a pretty ribbon through them to hang them on the Christmas tree. Custom decoration and absolute pride guaranteed for your little one . Modeling activities are highly valued in Montessori pedagogy because they help develop your child's fine motor skills.

6. Homemade Christmas baubles

In a craft store, you can find plastic balls that you can fill with whatever you like. It’s a great opportunity to go out into nature and gather little treasures to fill them with: holly, branches, small pinecones, and other wonders. This allows your little adventurer to to spend oneself a little and get some fresh air. You can also fill these baubles with artificial snow or Christmas-colored glitter pom-poms. These decorations will be unique and will beautifully decorate your Christmas tree.

7. Fir trees and pom-poms

This activity is ideal for toddlers from 1 year old . Have your baby paint a sheet green. Then, once it’s dry, cut the sheet into a Christmas tree shape. Apply a little glue to a pom-pom and let your baby stick the pom-pom onto the tree. There are also adhesive pom-poms available. A simple craft, but extremely fun and perfect for little ones.

8. Handprints to create Santa's beard or an Advent wreath

For this craft, you’ll need a sheet of paper and some paint. You can do it with children of all ages, even the youngest. Simply make handprints in color and create a picture. With white paint, you can make Santa's beard—then all that’s left is to draw his face. With green paint, you can create a circle with your children’s handprints, and there you have a beautiful Advent wreath. Draw a small red ribbon on top, and your project is finished. This activity allows all the children in the family to participate and requires very little equipment.

9. Santa's boots: red stickers and cotton

Before starting this craft with your little one, cut out boots from paper. Then, apply a strip of glue to the top of the boot and let your baby stick cotton onto this strip. All that’s left is to cover the rest of the boot with red stickers or pieces of red paper, which you can glue on for children who know how to use a glue stick. You’ll have lovely little Santa boots that will make a beautiful decorations on your Christmas table , for example.

10. Recipe ideas for the whole family

Cooking is a wonderful activity during the holiday season. We suggest you create some Christmas recipes for the whole family to share precious moments together. Nothing beats that for developing your children's curiosity and involving them in cooking.

Christmas activities help you look forward to Santa Claus's visit, but they’re also an opportunity to share special moments with your children while developing their motor skills and creativity. You don’t need much material; you can find more ideas on our , including our Christmas coloring page. We wish you a wonderful Advent season and a Merry Christmas!