Christmas activities for toddlers who love getting messy

1. Festive paper plates

First on our list of Christmas activities for toddlers is festive paper plates. If you’ve got spare paper plates make use of them. Turn those paper plates into festive characters you can display around your home.

Gather some paint, glitter, pom poms and sequins and get messy. Turn your paper plates into Santa, reindeers and elves.

What artistic creations will your children make?

2. Christmas cards

This is a great Christmas activity for toddlers that is sure to get messy. Instead of buying Christmas cards for family and friends, spend some quality time with your children making some.

Head to your local craft store and grab some supplies to create some colourful and cool Christmas cards.

Friends and family will appreciate receiving homemade cards that your little one has created.

What design will your little one create?

3. Reindeer footprints

If your children like getting messy with paint, this next idea is perfect. Simply grab some brown paint and paper and you’re good to go. Dip your little one’s foot into some brown paint and press their foot down onto the paper. Turn the footprint into a reindeer. Add a red pom pom for the nose, some googly eyes and create antlers with pipe cleaners.

This is a great idea for a Christmas card or a keepsake for a baby’s first Christmas.

4. Cotton ball snowman

For this next Christmas activity for toddlers, you need paper/card, and plenty of glue and cotton wool balls. The bigger sheet of paper/card you use, the bigger the cotton ball snowman you can create.

Create a snowman template on your paper/card and start applying glue to it. Once the glue has been applied you can stick down the cotton balls to create a snowman. You could stick some brown pipe cleaners on the snowman’s body to create arms.

You could add some snowflakes in the background to give it a winter wonderland feel. Don’t forget to hang your pictures up on the fridge for everyone to see.

5. Paint some festive pictures

Little ones love getting messy with paint and with this next one they’ll be able to make plenty of mess. Just be sure to keep the area covered so it doesn’t go on the furniture or carpets.

Grab some big sheets of paper and plenty of paint and have fun creating some pictures together. You could paint Santa, Mrs Claus or the elves in the workshop. The possibilities are endless.

Hang those pictures on the wall or keep them in a folder for your little ones to look at.

6. Make some festive face masks

Does your little one like dressing up as festive characters? If so, they’ll love this next idea.

Grab some white or coloured pieces of card to create some Christmas themed masks. Remember to cut holes for the eyes and mouth. Stick some string around the masks so your child can wear them.

Add glitter, paint, pom poms, sequins and any other craft supplies to create your characters. You can create a reindeer, a snowman or Santa himself.

Take a family selfie with the masks on and share it on your socials or with family and friends.

7. Christmas party hats

If you’re still looking for Christmas activities for toddlers, we still have more to come. This next activity is crafty and messy so make a space you can get creative in.

Using card, cut it into the shape of a hat. Create different sizes so that they can be worn by adults and children. Adults should use scissors for all the cutting.

Grab some art supplies to use to decorate your hats. Let your little ones decide how they want to design them. Perhaps they will draw pictures of elves on the hat or stick sequins or pom poms on it.

These hats will be perfect to wear at the dinner table on Christmas Day. Whatever designs your children create, get some photos of your guests wearing the hats.

You could post a photo of your guests wearing the hats and ask your friends list to vote their favourite.

8. Reindeer handprints

This next idea is so simple but effective and doesn’t require too much work.

Grab some brown card and place your child’s hand down on the card. Draw around your child’s hand and cut out the template. Do this multiple times until you have used up all the card. Once you have cut out all your templates you can start decorating them.

Turn your hand-print templates into reindeer. You can add glitter, bows, googly eyes, pom poms and more to create some dazzling reindeer. You could hang your decorations on the tree or from door handles to give your home a festive feel.

9. Penguin lightbulbs

This is such a fun and unique Christmas activity for toddlers they’ll enjoy creating.

All you need is a traditional style light bulb and some paints and you’re good to go. Simply tip the lightbulb upside down and paint it black and white to create the penguin’s body. Add some eyes and beak and your penguin is complete.

Add some string around the top of the lightbulb. Your penguins will make great additions to your Christmas tree. Why not make extra penguin lightbulbs and gift them to relatives to display on their trees?

10. Decorate baubles

For more messy Christmas ideas, you could decorate baubles together. Simply buy some plain baubles and craft supplies and get decorating.

There are so many designs you can create. You could paint festive characters, add your name on the baubles or create some colourful glittery baubles.

Hang those baubles on your tree for everyone to admire. You could make extra baubles you could gift to family and friends. They’ll love receiving something the children have made.

Turn this into a tradition you can carry on year upon year.

11. Paint rocks

Here is another great Christmas activity for toddlers. Take a family walk along the beach or park to collect some flat rocks of different sizes. Once you have enough rocks take them home to decorate. Grab some paint and turn your rocks into different festive characters. You can create reindeer, snowmen and elves. Once you’ve decorated the rocks display them in your garden to give it a festive feel. Take a picture of your Christmas themed rocks and share it with others. It may inspire them to follow your ideas.

12. Festive bookmarks

This creative idea is great for young children who love arts and crafts. This craft idea will encourage your little ones to read. Get your children to design some festive themed bookmarks they can use for their books. You could even ask your child if they could make a bookmark for your books. Have fun reading together as a family.

13. Festive toilet roll tubes

We are down to our last few ideas for Christmas activities for toddlers. For this one, you can recycle a product commonly used in your house – toilet roll.

Instead of throwing away the empty toilet roll tubes, let your little ones make something with them. With some craft supplies, they can transform those toilet roll tubes into festive characters.

Display them around your home to give it a festive feel.

14. Create a Christmas sensory bin

Let your little ones get messy as they explore some Christmas themed objects with their hands.

Grab a bin or a large tub you can put the items in. Add some green confetti, bells, tinsel, pom poms and candy canes to create a Christmas sensory bin.

It’s a great way for your little one to explore different colours and feel different textures in between their fingers.

They’ll love making a mess with the objects.

15. Christmas activity packs

We’ve saved our best Christmas activities for toddlers until last. If you’re looking for ways to keep your children occupied check out our activity packs. They are filled with fun and imaginative activities to keep little ones entertained for hours. They’ll have fun making reindeer food, colouring by numbers or even designing their own Christmas jumper.

The best thing about these activity packs is that they can be downloaded for free! Our four activity packs are:

• Santa Academy
• Reindeer Recruit
• Elf Ed
• Fairy Fellow.

Stay up to date with Santa Academy

You can find new stories every day on the Lacus Herald! Your little one can stay up to date with all their favourite characters, as well as the latest news. Lacus Island features 70+ characters, 50+ buildings, 19 unique shops and its own TV and radio stations.

On the Lacus Herald, we will be publishing stories and news updates daily, written by our Author, Jill. You won’t want to miss out!

The Santa Academy app is undergoing a major re-boot, so it won’t be available to download this year. Our app will be back in 2022 with plenty of exciting things to see and do.

Find more fun, festive tips and ideas, such as:

• Easy Christmas crafts for kids
• Christmas printables
• Things to do near you for Christmas
• Christmas activity book ideas
• Christmas art ideas
• Christmas party ideas for kids
• Tips for helping kids to read
• Christmas baking for kids
• Christmas countdown ideas for your family
• Christmas writing ideas
• And many more!