Christmas Activities For Kids

Looking for OT-inspired Christmas activities for kids, that are more than just glitter and glue? As an occupational therapist and homeschooling mom, I have compiled some simple ideas to help build your child’s skills while having fun!

From strengthening hands to developing visual perception skills, be inspired to get alongside your child today!

For your convenience, I may link to products that are similar to the ones I use. I may receive a small commission if you purchase a product through my links, at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my site!

Key Takeaways For Busy Parents:

  • Fun Plus Skills: Use your child’s holiday excitement as a motivational tool to develop skills needed for learning!
  • Strengthen Hands: Simple crafts like threading beads, can help develop fine motor skills. 
  • Start Simply With Scissors: Build your child’s scissor skills confidence with simple snipping activities before moving onto cutting along lines and cutting out shapes.
  • Sense the Season: Use a Christmas stocking as a “mystery bag” and add cinnamon to your playdough.
  • Get Active Indoors: Obstacle courses and brain breaks are great ways to develop gross motor skills while stuck indoors!

What skill do you want to focus on?

christmas activities for kids

Fine Motor Christmas Activities

Fine motor skills help your child hold a pencil, do a button and tie their shoes. Strengthen those hands and fingers with some fine motor Christmas crafts!

Quick Start: Beaded Candy Cane Ornaments

Materials Needed: Red & White Pony Beads#Ad, Pipe Cleaners#Ad (Chenille Stems) cut in half

Instructions:

  1. Set out the beads in a small container
  2. Thread the beads onto a ½ pipe cleaner, alternating colors, or try a 2-1 pattern
  3. Continue until the pipe cleaner is almost full
  4. Twist the ends to secure the beads. Bend it into a cane shape and it’s ready to hang!
preschool christmas beading activity for fine motor skills - candy cane Candy Cane Beading Activity

Try this: use brown pony beads#Ad to create a shepherd's crook for a nativity theme

Benefits: Threading beads develops eye-hand coordination, bilateral coordination (using both hands together), and the pincer grasp (using thumb and index finger)

More than 30 fine motor Christmas activity pages, including Christmas mazes!30 Printable Christmas Activity Pages!

Back to Top


Christmas Scissor Skills Practice

The key to learning to use scissors is to start simple and build confidence! Start with snipping, then progress to cutting on straight lines and then cutting out shapes.

Quick Start: Snip A Peek-A-Boo Christmas Picture

This quick snipping activity can add interest to a Christmas picture – great for a Christmas card or for decorations!

Materials needed: Christmas picture (we used old Christmas cards), green construction paper for “grass”

Instructions: 

  1. Cut the green construction paper to be an inch or two narrower than the picture
  2. Have your child make small snips all along the long edge of the green paper to create a “fringe”
  3. Stick the grass onto the picture
peekaboo Christmas snipping activity for preschoolChristmas Snipping Activity

Pro Tip: Draw short, straight lines to help kids who are not sure where to snip. Ensure your child is holding the scissors with a good scissor grasp. See my scissor cutting tips and techniques to help kids who struggle.

Christmas paper craft and scissor cutting printable packPaper Craft and Scissor Cutting Printables!

Back to Top


Sensory Christmas Activities

Engaging the senses helps the brain learn about the world and process information. Here are some fun sensory activities with a Christmas theme!

Quick Start: Christmas Stocking Touch Perception Game

Hide some objects in a Christmas stocking and have your child identify them by feel.

  • Younger kids: use very different objects, like a spoon, toy car, block, comb etc
  • Older kids: use pattern block shapes and have your child hunt for the shapes to build the picture they are working on

Pro Tip: If your child struggles, try some of the other tactile perception activities on my site for additional practice

More Quick Sensory Christmas Ideas:

  • Add 2 teaspoons of cinnamon to your homemade playdough recipe.
  • Have your child knead dough for your Christmas treats – kneading provides calming proprioceptive input.

Back to Top


Gross Motor Christmas Activities  

For those cold, miserable-weather days, you need ways to burn energy indoors! Gross motor activities help work the large muscles of the body to build essential stability and coordination skills.

Quick Start: Jingle Bell Obstacle Course

Work on upper body strength, motor planning and body awareness with a fun indoor obstacle course!

Materials Needed: varies according to the space and resources you have on hand, but you can use pillows, blankets, chairs, tables, painters tape, sidewalk chalk, and a few jingle bells#Ad.

Instructions: 

  1. Pile up pillows and cushions to create hills to crawl over.
  2. Drape blankets and sheets over chairs and tables to create tunnels to crawl through.
  3. Use sidewalk chalk or painters tape to mark out a path to balance along.
  4. Place the jingle bells at the end of the course.

The goal is to complete the course, grab a jingle bell and run back to the beginning without the bell being heard.

Pro Tip: Set the challenge according to your child’s need and ability, and change the exercise every round. Here are some ideas:

  • Upgrade from crawl to leopard crawl through the tunnel
  • Upgrade from walking along the line to a heel-toe walk along the line
  • Upgrade from running back to the start, to hopping, skipping or jumping back
  • Or do a crab walk with the jingle bell on the tummy
child doing a leopard crawl through an obstacle courseDoing A Leopard Crawl

For more Christmas gross motor activities, try these December Brain Breaks#Ad - great for small spaces, multiple kids and tight budgets!

Back to Top


Skill-Building Christmas Printables

Need quiet, focused Christmas activities for kids to do at home or in school? Look for worksheets and printables that help build important visual perception and visual motor skills, and are not just coloring pages.

Quick Start: Free Downloads

Download these free Christmas word searches to use today! Your child will be developing figure-ground perception as they search for words in the puzzle.

Need more Christmas printables?

  • My Printable Nativity Word Search Pack offers 23 unique word searches ranging from easy to challenging. Perfect for the whole family or a multi-age classroom!
  • Try these December Visual Perceptual Puzzles#Ad: Get 20 visual motor, visual spatial, visual closure and visual perceptual worksheets with a December theme.
  • Teachers and Therapists: check out this Bumper December Christmas Bundle#Ad - Get 25 separate digital downloads that encourage fine motor, gross motor, visual perceptual and handwriting skills
23 Unique Bible Christmas Word SearchesA wide variety of simple and challenging word searches for kids!

Back to Top


Related Christmas Activities for Kids On My Site!

  • Looking for a gift that will help to develop your child's visual perception and spatial perception skills as well as being fun, then take a look at this selection of some of the best learning gifts for kids!


I hope this page of Christmas activities for kids inspires you and encourages you to have fun with your child this season!

Try to do at least one activity with your child each day, and you will be building precious memories and confidence!

pin this page - lots of Christmas activities that build kids skills while having fun!

Thanks for visiting!

Back to Top

Share this page to help others!



Related Pages

5 reasons to bake with your kids this Christmas!Baking at Christmas
Christian Christmas CraftsChristian Christmas Crafts
Christmas gifts that build kids visual perception, spatial perception and planning skillsChristmas Gift Ideas
fine motor Christmas activitiesFine Motor Christmas Activities
christmas bundle of activity resources



View My OT Mom Resources!Instant Downloads! Start Helping Your Child Today!
south african flag

South Africans can pay in rands!

south african flag

South Africans can pay in rands!




Didn't find what you were looking for? Try a search of my site!