These Christmas paper crafts for kids will give your
child lots of practice with cutting, tearing, pasting, cutting and folding paper to make some attractive Christmas crafts!
For each Christmas paper craft idea, I have outlined the basic concept, and then explained how it can help build your child's fine motor, coordination and/or planning
skills.
Best of all, these ideas are simple enough that kids who usually struggle with arts and crafts, should be able to come up with a lovely end product.
For your convenience, I have linked to products on Amazon (marked #Ad)
that are similar to the ones I use myself - I may receive a small
commission if you purchase something through these links, which helps
support this site. However, you are under no obligation to purchase
anything!
Make A Collage Background For Any Christmas Picture
Have your child tear or snip paper strips into small pieces and then use the pieces to collage the background of a regular coloring picture.
For the picture above, we used jumbo popsicle sticks (craft sticks)#Ad to create an outline of a stable, and then pasted our snipped paper all around the picture. Looks stunning, and is really encouraging for kids who struggle with coloring or making neat pictures.
Strips of Paper
Tearing Paper
Snipping Paper
Why is this a good activity?
tearing paper with the tripod fingers helps your child to isolate the
use of the fingers that are needed for pencil control. Show your child
how to position the thumbs together on the paper (as above) to make
tearing easy.
snipping paper can help a young child learn to master the art of opening
and closing scissors. If your child struggles with this, try some of my
scissor cutting tips and techniques.
your child is using bilateral coordination when both hands are working
together to tear or snip. Eye-hand coordination is used to paste the
paper collage.
Tip:
Cut the paper strips ahead of time to make it easier for your child, or have an older sibling cut the strips.
Make a simple shape template from a cereal carton or thick card-stock and have your child trace around it onto various papers. Wrapping paper and sheet music can make a pretty addition to regular colored card-stock. You can download a free printable shape template here.
Layered decorations are perfect Christmas paper crafts for kids! We used different sizes of stars and circles to make these cute layered paper crafts. We pasted them onto Christmas cards and used them for gift tags and tree decorations.
Tracing Around A Star Template
Cutting Out
Piles of Stars
Gift Tags and Cards
Why is this a good activity?
Tracing around a template or stencil requires your child to use both hands together in a coordinated way. One hand is doing most of the work, while the other is assisting. This is an important component of writing skills in the classroom.
Tracing around a template requires your child's eyes to guide the hand in staying on the outline of the template. This is called visual-motor coordination, which is very important in handwriting.
Getting all the way around the template will require your child to plan how to move the hands without bumping the template, and may also involve some crossing of the midline.
Tips:
Use simple shapes (circles and squares) for younger kids
Thicker templates can be easier to work with
Regular paper is more forgiving than thin wrapping paper
Tracing on the back of the patterned paper means the pencil "skid" marks won't show on the finished product
If you like the idea, but your child struggles with the tracing aspect, then trace the shape yourself and just have your child cut the shapes out.
If the stars suggested above are too tricky for your child to cut out, try some of these simpler, scissor cutting Christmas paper crafts for kids!
Straight lines are easiest for kids to start with, then they can progress to simple shapes like circles and triangles. Click on each image below to get instructions and free templates for each activity!
Cutting out with scissors can strengthen your child's hands.
If your child holds the scissors correctly, then cutting can also help
get the tripod fingers working well together for better pencil control
Scissor
cutting requires that both hands work together in a coordinated way to
keep the scissors cutting on the line and around the corners. If your
child struggles with this, read my page on bilateral coordination for some info and tips.
All activities should take place under close adult supervision. Some activities use small items which may cause choking. The activities suggested on this website are NOT a substitute for Occupational Therapy intervention. Please read my disclaimer before you use any of the activities.
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