Easy kids Christmas craft ideas

We make our "gingerbread" houses out of rice krispy treats. This will be our 3rd year and it's a game changer!

We're doing pom pom crafts (wreaths, trees, bookmarks). Have your 18 year old pick a new recipe out of a holiday cook book & grab the ingredients. Sounds like it'll be a fun time!

Our extended family gathering last Christmas had everyone competing to create the best gingerbread house. My mom bought smallish individual kits and all ages participated. She invited neighbors over to judge.

You could send pics to extended family and ask them to judge in a variety of categories. Might make a fun zoom interaction.

I recently saw charcuterie chalets! That's more of an essential trip to the grocery store for supplies. Your older daughter could bake bread and crackers?
charcuterie

Before I retired I always made 'gingerbread' houses with my 2nd graders, using graham crackers instead of gingerbread. I made 'glue' out of confectioners sugar and water (the thicker the better), staying after school the day before decorating to put them together. They were a big hit. We've done this with our grandchildren too. 

Pipe cleaner sticks and beads. You can make candy cane, wreath, and snowflake ornaments.

Here is an idea:


CANDY CANE ORNAMENT


And here is my board with ideas towards the bottom:

IDEAS

Shrinky Dinks and those wooden ornaments you paint.

Scavenger hunt

Do you have a fire pit? Maybe dd18 could make a hot chocolate and S'mores charcuterie board.

ETA
Paper snowflakes and those Scandinavian heart baskets made from weaving paper together. Look at Pinterest.

I saw a funny and cute thing I want my uncrafty nephew to make, it was a wreath made out of used TP rolls. Like just the paper tubes with scraps of to still stuck to them in a wreath formation. They then added a 2020 cut out and called it good.

I thought I saw it on Instagram, but I don’t have it saved, so I am not sure where I saw it. Could be really funny, each kid could decorate their own.

I just looked for this on Pinterest and there are actually some really cool looking wreaths that you can make with toilet paper rolls. I might have to start saving some.

DO you have a Tuesday Morning in town? They have gingerbread kits (various kinds). Might make it easier.

I’ll second the graham crackers for gingerbread houses, and I think if you microwave them wrapped in a damp paper towel first you can cut them into angles for the tops of the walls where the roof parts attach without having the crackers break. It’s slick. Cutting Graham Crackers Video. I have also made them out of prepackaged gingerbread cookie mix, roll them fairly thin and bake them longer so they are crispy and more sturdy, and that works great too if you have house cutters.

All of the major craft stores have tons of prepackaged craft kits for kids at this time of year, and many of them have just about everything you need in them to make it easy. We’ve made really cute peel and stick felt ornaments, foam ornaments, the ones with pipe cleaners and beads, jingle bell wreaths, button trees. Pinterest is your friend! In fact, Michael’s has a bunch of free kid’s craft classes linked on their website for the 24 days leading up to Christmas, and many of them look easy enough to figure out without doing the class.

If you want something that takes a little longer, you could look into getting some of the loopy yarn for finger knitting that creates a design to make a pillow, or you could make tied fleece throw blankets out of fleece with Christmas prints.

If you don’t want the whole kitchen mess of baking and decorating cookies yourself, you could look on Facebook Marketplace for a home baker selling sugar cookie decorating kits that come with prebaked cookies, icing and sprinkles. Some grocery stores sell them too, but the homemade ones will taste better.  Or look for people selling Paint Your Own Cookie kits that come with a design stenciled on the cookies with icing and food color paint palettes and a small brush. Kids LOVE doing those and then they can eat it when they’re done.

An oldie: make and decorate paper plate angels. I think Martha Stewart had one made from just one paper plate each. Great if you have punches. You could also use paper doilies and hang them from a thread.

we have also done the one where you cut out 10-12 ball shapes with different patterned paper, fold them in half and the glue all the backs to each other to made a 3d ball ornament. that was easy and fun.