December craft ideas! A collection of childcare activities to enjoy with Christmas and winter themes
December is the perfect time to enjoy cozy, seasonally inspired crafts.
Here, we introduce wonderful ideas that nurture children’s imagination—from creations that evoke winter warmth, like oden, cream stew, and a snug duvet, to seasonal projects such as Christmas wreaths, snow globes, and snowmen.
Using familiar materials, why not enjoy winter-only crafting with children while exploring light, color, and shape? We also provide detailed explanations of key points and creative tips for each project, so please use them as a reference.
Because the items children make are treated as artworks, we use the term “制作 (seisaku)” in the text to mean “production/creation” in the artistic sense.
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December Craft Ideas! A Collection of Childcare Activities to Enjoy with Christmas and Winter Themes (101–110)
Snowflake ornament
Snowflake ornaments perfect for Christmas trees and winter decorations.
Children can enjoy fine-motor play using pipe cleaners and beads, so be sure to include this in your winter crafts! To make them, simply combine three pipe cleaners and thread beads onto each one.
To make it easier for kids, choose beads with larger holes.
Of course, you can also create cute snowflakes just by twisting the pipe cleaners together! Enjoy crafting in a way that suits the children’s ages.
Warm Futon Production
December is the season when we long for a warm, cozy futon, isn’t it? For this craft, make fold lines on two sheets of construction paper where you’ll cut, then cut along the lines with scissors.
Be careful not to cut all the way through on one of the sheets—leave about 1 centimeter uncut at the end.
When combining the cut pieces, please help your child as needed while watching how they’re doing.
Draw your own self-portrait on paper, cut it out, then attach the parts you just made to the base sheet of construction paper to finish.
It’s also fun to make it while imagining the futon you actually use.
Warm Bear
Warm Bear is a wonderful craft that lets each child’s individuality shine.
The teacher prepares a bear illustration, and the children complete it with crayons and paints.
Because the crayon areas resist the paint, the finished piece has a nice sense of depth—that’s the key point.
As the children color freely, each bear ends up with a different expression.
Seeing the completed works will surely delight the parents as well.
It’s a perfect project for a cold winter day that fills everyone with a warm feeling.
Oden shop
When it comes to winter traditions, oden comes to mind.
Some children are probably big fans, too.
So why not try making a pretend oden shop set? In this activity, you use an empty tissue box as a pot and put in oden ingredients that you’ve crafted.
Just thinking about what ingredients to include can be fun.
For example, you can bundle yarn to make shirataki noodles—feel free to get creative.
After you’ve made it, you can also use it for pretend play.
Through make-believe, it could be fun for kids to compare and see what ingredients their friends put in.
Christmas cake hat
Many daycare centers hold Christmas parties, don’t they? As a craft to brighten up the celebration, I’d like to introduce a Christmas cake hat.
This is made by sticking parts onto a long, horizontal sheet of construction paper, much like making a paper cutout.
Roll it into a cylinder and pop it on your head, and it instantly becomes a hat.
Let children arrange the cake design however they like.
Also, threading elastic through the back makes it easier to wear.
Please have an adult handle the step of threading the elastic.