It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas! This is a magical time of year for young children, and much of the joy of the season lies in those exciting Christmas rituals and activities that you take part in together at home as a family. In this blog we’ve put together some of the best and most festive Christmas activities for babies, toddlers and preschoolers – all of which are cost-effective, easy to set up and lots of fun for all involved.
Christmas is celebrated to remember the birth of Jesus Christ, who Christians believe is the Son of God. The name ‘Christmas’ comes from the Mass of Christ (or Jesus). A Mass service (which is sometimes called Communion or Eucharist) is where Christians remember that Jesus died and then came back to life. Below are some of the traditions that have grown with Christmas celebrations that you can do with your children. You don’t have to celebrate religion to enjoy these activities with your children
Christmas crafts for babies
It’s lovely to get your baby involved in the run-up to Christmas, especially if this will be your first one together as a newly expanded family. So it’s good to know that there are lots of age-appropriate seasonal crafts and Christmas activities that they can easily take part in. Here are some of our favourite Christmas activities for babies:
Gingerbread playdough
This irresistibly fragrant sensory dough gives babies a perfect way to explore the scent of the season, role-play a Christmas chef, and give their fine motor skills a workout, too. Into your usual playdough mixture, add cinnamon and ginger, then help them to manipulate and experiment with the dough. The squeezing, pinching, smelling and kneading of the dough is great for sensory exploration and fine motor skills.
Homemade Christmas tree decorations
Make something that you can keep for years to hang on your tree with your child. Find some natural materials in your garden or on a walk. You could use things like pinecones, sticks, ivy, mistletoe etc. With some glue, paint and string, see what magical Christmas tree decorations you can make to hang on your tree.
Christmas light sensory jar
Use a shatterproof jar or bottle for this one! Simply fill your jar with a set of Christmas lights and secure it tightly. Let your baby explore its twinkly properties, exploring all the sensory joys it can bring. Want to experiment? Fill your jar with any Christmas item you can think of!
We recommend using:
- Tinsel
- Baubles
- Pine cones
- Holly
- Ivy
Any other exciting object with interesting colours or textures will be perfect for your baby.
Fun Christmas activities for toddlers
Toddlers love the sense of anticipation and occasion that comes with the build-up to Christmas. Help them enjoy the festive season with these enjoyable and easy Christmas activities for toddlers.
Bauble balancing
A great activity for concentration, balance and problem solving, you can do a bauble balancing activity. Save some old toilet roll inserts and a basket of shatterproof baubles. Challenge your child to see how many baubles they can balance on the toilet roll cardboard. You can have a competition of who can balance the most, or create a pretty pattern with them all. This is great for fine motor skills and you can introduce mathematical language such as counting as you do them.
Christmas colour matching with nature and baubles
Any activity that helps toddlers to learn their colours and match them with natural materials is a great opportunity to support their development. Go on a scavenger hunt in your garden or on a walk and see how many different coloured leaves, sticks, pine cones, branches, grass etc you can find on your walk. Then try to match your coloured baubles with a natural item from your walk. This is a great festive learning activity for toddlers as it provides a time to talk about the changes in seasons, the wonderful variety of colours you can find in nature and if we can match it to the baubles.
Unwrapping fun
Is there anything more exciting than seeing presents all wrapped up under the tree? Parents often say their toddlers love the gift wrap and the packaging almost more than the presents themselves. So this Christmas activity for toddlers involves all the things young children like best! Take one of your toddler’s favourite chunky puzzles and wrap every piece with wrapping paper or wrap some of their favourite toys/objects at home. Challenge them to unwrap all the pieces before they complete the puzzle. This is a fantastic activity for fine motor skills helping towards future handwriting skills. This requires problem-solving and perseverance. If you want to take it to the next level, see if your child can feel the toy/object wrapped up first and if they can guess what it is in the wrapping. A great critical thinking activity.
Exciting Christmas activities for preschoolers
It’s at this age that children first begin to understand the full excitement of Christmas – and to wonder if Santa will pay a visit! Get in the festive spirit with your 3 or 4-year-old and enjoy these exciting Christmas activities for preschoolers.
Write a Christmas list
Your preschooler may not be ready to actually write a list just yet, but they can definitely pick up a pen or pencil and get some practice in. Encourage your child to draw pictures of the toys they would like from Santa.
Sing Christmas carols
Christmas music can really evoke a festive mood. Teach your preschooler the Christmas songs you sang when you were young – join in with jingle bells or other percussion instruments if you are feeling musical! This is a fun, festive musical activity to do with your preschooler, but there are also so many other benefits of music in early childhood education. Learning rhythm and beat is very important for helping with language development. If you have different languages at home it will be great to sing songs in both languages to even further help with language acquisition.
If you would like to take it a step further, try and make some musical instruments to sing your songs with. Use some empty bottles and fill them with various different items to make different sounds with.
Festive fun with All About Children
Here at All About Children, we take every opportunity to enjoy seasonal occasions by creating activities that will help develop and educate your child. For more information about our nursery, please contact us or find out more about our approach.