December craft ideas! A collection of childcare activities to enjoy with Christmas and winter themes

Last updated:2025/12/4

10 years as a kindergarten teacher / elementary school teacher / junior and senior high school teacher / childminderkepiko
Graduated from Kunitachi College of Music, Faculty of Music (now: Department of Music Culture and Education, Early Childhood Music Education major). In elementary school, my homeroom teacher was Jun Kusaba, a game researcher. After graduating from university, I worked as a kindergarten teacher for 10 years and as an after-school childcare instructor for 7 years, then took a position as a music teacher at an international school in Singapore. In addition to music education, I engaged in activities that introduced Japanese culture, traditional games, and recreational activities, working with many children. Later, through freelance writing, planning, and editing at Shogakukan, I met many delightful adults and experienced the joy of communicating and sharing. Drawing on the perspective cultivated in the field of education and my experience as an editor, I provide practical information with an emphasis on both input and output, mainly in areas related to music and children. My hobbies include instruments, singing, handicrafts, toys, drawing, traditional games, the outdoors, and books. My special skill is spinning-top tricks.
20 years of experience as a nursery teacher / kindergarten teacherhiyoko sensei
I’m Hiyoko-sensei, a former nursery school teacher from Hyogo Prefecture. Ever since I was five, my dream was to become a childcare worker, and before I knew it, 20 years had passed since I achieved that dream. Through singing and playing with the children, I kept working with the spirit of someone in their twenties, even as I increasingly felt my physical limits year by year (haha). From here on, I’d like to share helpful information carefully and thoughtfully, drawing on my on-site experience.

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.

December craft ideas! A collection of childcare activities to enjoy with Christmas and winter themes (1–10)

Easy way to make oden

@hoikusi1
Oden Craft Project: A Preschool Teacher Explains a Method That Can Also Be Used as a Wall Display (Ages 2+) A preschool teacher will show you the steps for making an oden craft. It’s an easy method that can also serve as a wall decoration. Target Age: 2 years and upChildcare Nursery teacher / Childcare worker #NurseryTeacher #FirstYearNurseryTeacher #Childcare Crafting #Nursery School Craft #Making Play origami Origami Origami play Early childhood education materials #Childcare topic Aspiring childcare worker solid work Translation wall surface Winter #Oden
♪ Original Song – Manual for First-Year Nursery Teachers – Manual for First-Year Nursery Teachers

Let’s add oden ingredients to a paper pot filled with soup! For children old enough to use scissors, draw only guide lines on construction paper and have them cut out the ingredient shapes themselves.

Then they can glue the pieces onto the soup and draw patterns or details.

For younger children who can’t use scissors yet, prepare the ingredient parts in advance and stick double-sided tape on the back so they can enjoy placing them like stickers.

In addition to classics like daikon radish, konnyaku, eggs, and mochi pouches, it’s also fun to think about what other ingredients to include.

Raise the rankinglower

sasashina

Report a problem

Everyone’s favorite! Oden delivery

We’re going to put odeng (Japanese hot pot) ingredients made from origami into a pot made from construction paper.

First, fold gray origami paper into a triangle and stick on a round sticker to make konnyaku.

Next, fold white origami paper into a triangle, stuff some crumpled tissue or similar inside, and glue the edges to make hanpen.

Fold the corners of yellow origami inward to round them, draw the pattern, and you’ve got daikon.

With light orange origami, keep the white side facing up, fold it into a long narrow strip, and stick on a round sticker colored brown to make chikuwa-bu.

For the egg, layer white and yellow construction paper cut into circles.

Paste the finished ingredients into the pot, draw steam, add a noren curtain, and you’re done!

Raise the rankinglower

sasashina

Report a problem

Fun in winter! Let’s play Oden shop

https://www.tiktok.com/@taisougakuen_osaka_ikuno/video/7199952165304077570

Here’s a humorous craft idea where children transform into oden shop owners.

The oden ingredients are made by cutting and pasting construction paper and drawing patterns with pens.

Stick those into a paper pot you’ve made.

Glue the pot near the bottom of a large backing sheet, and above it, attach photos of the children with twisted headbands and their arms folded.

Finally, hang a noren curtain at the top of the backing sheet to finish! The children also write the characters on the noren, and each one gives the shop its own unique vibe.

Raise the rankinglower

sasashina

Report a problem

Oden that can also become a wall!

xn--youtube-m53fjjup.com

Here’s a craft project for making oden that even toddlers can do, and it can also be used for wall displays! First, let’s make the oden shop.

Cut colored construction paper into a face shape, then draw or glue on the oden shopkeeper’s facial features.

For very young children, prepare the face parts in advance.

Apply glue to the head area and stick on yarn hair piece by piece.

It’ll be fun to have yarn in various colors.

Next, let’s make the oden ingredients.

Stamp the konnyaku pattern using a cotton swab, make lots of your favorite ingredients, and then glue them onto colored construction paper of your choice to finish!

Raise the rankinglower

kepiko

Report a problem

Make oden together with adults! From 0-year-old children

This is a craft activity where you stick oden ingredients made from construction paper onto a paper plate.

Depending on age, children can enjoy mainly sticking on pre-made pieces, or they can cut construction paper with scissors, draw patterns, and make the ingredients themselves.

The examples shown here include konnyaku, mochi-filled pouches, and kelp rolls.

There are many other classic oden ingredients too, so it would be fun to freely create them with construction paper.

It’s an idea that excites viewers as well, as they can see what kind of oden each child has made.

Raise the rankinglower

sasashina

Report a problem