Christmas Crafts for toddlers?

[AutumnAir]

Help! I'm incredibly non-crafty but would like to do a few small (not too messy!) crafty things for Christmas with DD who's almost 2.

Any ideas?

[jenfl]

Almost 2 is a tough age for crafts. Mine is 2.5 and much more coordinated than she was 6 months ago, but maybe you can use some of these ideas we've done:

- Applesauce ornaments: Mix equal parts applesauce and cinnamon, adding more of one or the other as needed, to get a dough. Cut into shapes, let dry for a week, hang on the tree.
- Beaded candy canes: My DD can thread the tiny beads onto pipe cleaners, but barely. You may want to let your DD choose which bead comes next, but thread them yourself.
- Wrapping paper: Wrap presents in brown bags, turn loose with stickers and stamps.
- Christmas cards: Let DD sticker the back of the envelopes till her heart's content.
- Painting plaster ornaments from Jo-Ann's.

[Shannie77]

I cut a snowman shape out of some cardboard, and DD (2.5) glued cotton balls all over. Then we glued on some googley eyes, a hat and added a mouth & buttons with sparkly glue. We ended up doing about 4 of these because DD enjoyed them so much.

We are going to do something similar but with Santa and put the cotton balls on his beard.

I also cut out some Christmas tree shapes and got some sparkly christmas tree ornament stickers that are actually on foam. With those she decorated her tree, and also used the sparkly glue (which was a huge hit).

[tbone_kneegrabber]

beeswax rolled candles

candle holders (out of glass jars, glue tissue paper to the outside of the jar)

[SFam]

we haven't done this yet, but plan to. make sugar cookies. toddlers will require lots of help, obviously. my daughter likes to roll the dough and cut out the shapes. after baking, we ice them and let her shake sprinkles on to them. admittedly, this is a messy one, but still fun. so i guess it didn't meet your non-messy criterion.

another one we did was coloring wooden pre-made ornaments. i got a few at joann's fabrics for like 40 cents each. we already had markers, so she just scribbled on them. i got ones that can hold a photo, so one of these days i'm going to print a photo of her and give it to grama, aunts, etc.

[_betsy_]

Last year, when DD1 was 2 years and 3 months, she "helped" me make fudge (pouring pre-measured ingredients into a bowl, stirring, etc.) and she really had a blast crushing candy canes for peppermint bark.

She had fun making handprint ornaments, too.

[shanniesue2]

we did home made Christmas cards this year. DS painted some of the paper that I used on the cards. To make clean up easier, I stripped him down to nothing but a disposable and put him in the bathtub with his paint and materials. It was a little chilly in the house yesterday so I turned on the bathroom heater to keep him warm. You could also add in some interesting Christmas stamps that would be easy for an almost 2 year old.

[lach]

I'm trying to do a craft a day in December with my 2.5mo.

Some of the things we've done (I'm sure I can't remember everything):

• I made cinnamon playdough and she used cookie cutters to make ornaments. We let them dry and now they smell like cinnamon. I found the recipe in a book I have, but I'm sure if you google you can find cinnamon play dough
• Using air-drying clay, I cut out some shapes with cookie cutters and made a hole on the top and let them dry. I then let DD paint them, and I strung ribbon through the holes. These are her Christmas presents
• I cut out two construction paper trees. I cut a slit halfway down the center of one, and one halfway up the center of the other, and slotted them together, and it's a 3-D tree. She painted them with those dot painters you can buy. (I did scotch tape all four sides of where the cuts meet)
• I cut out triangles of felt, and got little pompoms and sequins and stuff and she glued them on, then using a needle I threaded a circle of thread through the top to make an ornament.
• I cut out lots of green felt holly leaves, and then the center of a paper plate, and let her glue the leaves to the outer ring of the plate. Then she glued on red pompoms.

Hmm, I know there's more stuff we've done, but it's late and I'm blanking now.

[Dea]

I was going to suggest the cinnamon dough too! The recipe that I have is
1 cup cinnamon
1/2 cup applesauce
1/4 white glue
mix and use!
air dry.

DD loved it, but did touch her face with it which left red splotches on her chin, but she has really sensitive skin.