Top Christmas crafts for kids

1. Salt dough Christmas decorations

Is there anything more festive than seeing a Christmas tree adorned with homemade decorations? You only need three simple ingredients – plain flour, table salt and water – to make our easy salt dough recipe, then use biscuit cutters to make your own shapes. Kids can then get as creative (or messy!) as they like with the decoration. Learn how to make salt dough Christmas decorations with our handy guide.

2. Reindeer hot chocolate cones

These fun characters make the perfect quick and easy Christmas gift! Follow our steps for how to make hot chocolate cones, customising them with whatever sweet treats you might have lurking in the cupboard – we went for mini marshmallows and chocolate drops, but glacé cherries or sprinkles would also work well. Kids will love adding the googly eyes and pom-pom nose!

3. Easy potato stamp Christmas cards

Get your little ones to make their own Christmas cards for friends and family this year when you make your own potato stamps. Adults will definitely need to help make the stamps, as you need a knife to cut out the shapes, but once that’s done there’s really no end to the fun you can have with a set of potato stamps and some brightly coloured poster paint. Try other ideas, too – make your own wrapping paper, decorate gift bags or make a picture.

4. Homemade snow globe

It’s easier than you think to make a homemade snow globe – our version uses a few teaspoons of glycerine and some biodegradable glitter to make a snowy scene, but you can also use baby oil. Place any waterproof figurine inside; an old decoration from the Christmas tree works particularly well. Kids will be so proud of their final masterpiece, be sure to display it in pride of place!

5. Fake snow activity

Younger children especially will love this tactile craft project. Learn how to make fake snow using just cornflour and bicarbonate of soda, then let the kids sculpt their own miniature snowmen or make little snow scenes in the kitchen. Best of all, it only takes 5 minutes to make a batch.

6. Pasta wreath Christmas card

After an easy homemade Christmas card idea? Make super simple wreaths with painted pasta shapes and ribbons. Use green acrylic to colour the pasta, leave them to dry, then stick to card in a circle shape (weighing them down with a plate or book will help the pasta bond with the paper). Then stick on a ribbon bow, or pom-poms to create baubles. Festive, foody and fun!

7. Cork penguins & snowmen

These cute little critters are a great use for old wine bottle corks (or a good excuse to crack into a few more bottles!). Paint the corks with two layers of white acrylic, then draw the penguins and snowmen's faces and bodies on the dried corks with black and orange permanent markers. Glue strips of green felt around the corks for scarves, then screw an eyelet screw (the kind you use to hang pictures) into the top of each figure. Thread a stretch of ribbon through each eyelet hook and hang your finished figures from the Christmas tree.

8. Cookie cutter baubles

Decorate your tree with something delightfully food-y this Christmas – gingerbead cutters! You'll need ribbon, festive gingerbread cutters and old Christmas cards or a pack of Christmas scrapbooking paper. Trace the shape of each cutter onto different cards (or paper) with a pencil, then cut out the shapes. Glue around the edge of each cutter (a hot glue gun or tube of strong glue with a nozzle is easiest for this), then stick the cut-out card in place. Leave to dry. Poke a 1cm horizontal line in the card along the top of each bauble with a wide-eyed needle. Thread the needle with a strip of ribbon and pull through the hole of your first bauble, then remove the needle and tie a knot with the ribbon. Repeat with the rest of the baubles, then hang from your Christmas tree.

9. Handprinted wrapping paper

Paint the palms of your child’s hands with red paint and their fingers with white paint, then press onto brown paper to make Father Christmas faces. Leave the designs to dry, then add details with a black marker. As well as handprints, you can also create festive designs with thumbprints: try white thumbprint snowmen (using a black pen to draw on eyes and mouths and coloured marker pens for noses and scarves); black and white thumbprint penguins (using an orange pen for noses); or brown thumbprint Rudolphs (using a red pen for noses and a black pen for eyes and mouths).

10. Pine cone Christmas trees

Collect pine cones on a wintry walk with the kids to make these mini Christmas tree decorations for your home or child's dollhouse. Cover a table with newspaper and spray the cones with metallic silver paint. Cut little stars from card and spray these with silver paint, too. Once dry, sit the pine cone trees in little glasses or pots, attach the stars to the top with glue and surround with used matchboxes or raisin packets covered in off-cuts of wrapping paper to look like miniature presents.

11. Lolly stick tree decorations

Paint 4 lolly sticks white on one side and set aside to dry on a sheet of newspaper, then paint the other side and set aside. Paint 4 lolly sticks red in the same way, and 4 green. To make a snowflake, glue 2 white sticks at the centre in a cross shape, then another 2. Glue both crosses together at a diagonal angle. Hold firmly in place until set. To make a tree, use the scissors to trim 3 green lolly sticks to size, and glue them horizonatally across a red lolly stick (for the trunk) with the longest stick at the bottom and the shortest at the top, and the blunt end facing up. For a Rudolph decoration, glue 2 red sticks into a ‘V’ shape, then another red stick about a third of the way down across the ‘V’ (the blunt ends will be antlers and ears). To make a candy cane, trim three pieces from a white lolly stick and glue together into a hook shape. Glue the hook to another white lolly stick. Use a brush and different coloured paints to finish your decorations, dotting baubles onto the tree, blue arrows on the snowflake, red stripes across the candy canes and two black eyes and a red nose at the pointed tip for Rudolph. Cut 10cm lenths of ribbon and glue both ends in a loop on the back of each decoration. Hang on the tree or make a batch and give away to family and friends.

12. Present toppers

It’s best to choose your dried flowers and foliage according to the size of the present you’re wrapping. For a large gift, you might want to combine dried grass flowers with a selection of dried seed heads, like poppy or wild carrot. For a smaller gift, use an individual stem like a strawflower (helichrysum). If you are picking flowers and grasses, make sure to dry them well by hanging in small bunches in a dark place. Once you have your dried flowers and foliage, choose which elements you think will look good sprayed with metallic paint. We like to have one hero item that is metallic, and leave the rest natural. Lay the items you’re spraying on sheets of old newspaper or card and spray evenly. Once dry, turn and repeat. Assemble your posy and tie neatly with twine. Wind the twine around the stems a dozen or so times to create a collar, which is then tied off at the back of the posy. Trim all stems neatly below the twine to give a smart finish. Tuck the posy into a ribbon or string on your present. Finish with a kraft luggage tag, if you like, and write on a gift message.

Discover more ideas for kids at Christmas

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Have you tried any of these activities with your kids? We’d love to know in the comments below...