Christmas is, of course, the Superbowl of crafts, and pro crafters have been working on their projects for months. But crafting is also a fantastic activity for friends and families to do together, making memories that last a lifetime. Here are the best family Christmas craft activities of 2020.
Reasons to Make Crafting Part of Your Holiday Traditions
This year a lot of us have spent a lot of time cooped up at home with each other, and parents are eager for activities that keep kids happy and busy. Christmas is the best time to engage in family craft activities, and it’s a great way to spend long hours at home when it’s dark and cold outside. Here are some of the reasons to make crafting part of your holiday traditions, this year and every year:
- Crafting is educational. For kids, crafting is a great way to improve hand-eye coordination, logical thinking, and communication skills. For everyone, crafting boosts creativity and problem-solving skills.
- Crafting is cooperative. Crafting can be done independently or collaboratively. When done collaboratively, it encourages communication and cooperation, allowing family members to work together as a team.
- Crafting creates life-long memories. People won’t always remember what you bought them, but they will always remember things you did and made together. The combination of sensory inputs like sounds and smells, physical and tactile sensations, and emotional and mental engagement helps these shared experiences become deeply significant and memorable. Christmas craft activities create experiences and memories that last a lifetime.
For those reasons, the best family Christmas craft projects should be done together, and engage a wide range of skills and techniques. Look for activities where the process of making something is more important than the result, and let go of ideas about picture-perfect outcomes. Encourage experimentation and find humor in the unexpected; the focus is on having fun while you do it, rather than admiring your handiwork after the fact.
With those factors in mind, here are some of the best Christmas craft activities for families.
Christmas Family Baking and Cooking
Making Cookies
Cookies are a fantastic family craft activity, and help to refine lifelong kitchen skills. Here’s a great tutorial from America’s Test Kitchen for holiday sugar cookies that are both beautiful and delicious:
Hot Cocoa Bombs
Hot cocoa bombs are beautiful, fun to make, and couldn’t be a better activity for the holidays. You can give them as gifts, or simply make a lot of them to have on hand for chilly winter nights. There are a lot of ways to get creative with the flavors and decorations of hot cocoa bombs, but here’s a simple and easy tutorial to get started:
Gingerbread House
Is there ANYTHING cuter and more fun than a gingerbread house at Christmas? I don’t think so. I like this tutorial from CupcakeJemma because the houses are edible, not just decorative, and you get the basic skills to make houses that are bigger and more ambitious year after year:
Christmas Decoration Family Craft Projects
Air Dry Clay Christmas Decorations
There is really no more family-friendly craft material than air-dry clay. You can make it yourself from common household ingredients, it’s safe and non-toxic for kids, you can decorate it in a huge variety of ways, and it naturally dries without needing any time in the oven (which can be a big deal with holiday cooking). Air dry clay is also a great way to just let kids play and amuse themselves, and you can refrigerate it in an airtight container and use it over and over again. Here are some gorgeous air dry clay Christmas ornaments for your inspiration:
Family Christmas Papercrafts
Here are some fun and cute crafts for the whole family:
(those paper lanterns are gorgeous, but call for a Cricut or some pretty elaborate hand cutting. This similar project from Katescreativespace is simpler and includes a template.)
From the front yard to the kitchen, crafting together can transform your whole house for the holidays, and be a wonderful way to work together and make really special memories. I hope these projects inspire you to make something during this wonderful time of year. Merry Christmas!
Featured photo by Humphrey Muleba on Unsplash
