Holiday art projects capture the magic of the Christmas season for kids of all ages. Age-appropriate art and craft projects for toddlers give them a chance to show off their creativity while adding a festive touch for the holidays. Ideal toddler art projects focus on familiar Christmas symbols and use basic materials that toddlers are able to manipulate.
Pine Painting
Small pieces of pine bough work well as a different painting utensil for a Christmas painting project. The toddlers dip the pine boughs into tempera paint and create designs on the paper with them. Other Christmas objects, such as tinsel or plastic ball ornaments, also work for the painting project. Dab the ball ornaments in paint, and press them onto the paper to create different designs.
Marble Candy Cane
Marble painting creates a distinct look to a child’s artwork. You need a shallow box, marbles, paint and paper for this craft. Cut the paper in the shape of a Christmas symbol, such as a Christmas tree from green paper or a candy cane from white paper. The shapes go inside the box on the bottom. Dip a marble into the appropriate color of paint and drop it into the box on the shape cutout. For example, on the candy cane shape you would use red paint. On the Christmas tree, you could use a variety of colors to create tinsel and decorations. The toddlers tip the box back and forth to make the marble roll around, painting the shape as it rolls.
Collage Wreath
A piece of cardboard cut into a wreath shape creates the base for this toddler Christmas craft. You also need scraps of fabric, paper, wrapping paper and other materials in various shades of green. The toddlers glue the green scraps onto the wreath shape to create a collage effect. Add a ribbon bow or red dots for berries to complete the wreath.
Egg Carton Tree
The cups on an old egg carton make up the tree shape for this toddler Christmas craft. Each row of the Christmas tree is a section of the egg cups. For example, you might have a bottom row of four egg cups with three more rows above it, each with one less cup–three cups, two cups and one cup respectively. Let the kids paint the cups with green tempera paint. They can glue on sequins, ribbon and other embellishments to complete the tree.
