6 Christmas Art Projects

Get into the festive spirit with these fun and creative Christmas art projects that you and your kids can make together. These projects are perfect for family gatherings, gifts, school events, decorations, or simply a fun weekend activity while your whole family is snowed in.

Understanding the Difference Between Arts and Crafts

Is it arts or crafts? Both? And? Both terms are used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Is one better than the other? Nope! But when working on projects like these with your child, it’s important to recognize the overlap and the differences.

Crafting is a creative activity that involves making something tangible, often for decorative or functional purposes. Crafting engages both the mind and hands, often requiring the maker to learn new techniques and skills.

Fine craftsmanship is admirable. Children can benefit greatly from crafting activities, as they develop both specific skills and patience. These experiences can boost self-esteem and instill a sense of accomplishment, teaching young minds that they are capable of learning and achieving difficult tasks.

Art, in contrast to crafts, is a more unstructured process. It's a tangible expression of emotions, ideas, and creativity in a visual form, often possessing aesthetic value. While this value is subjective, it's undeniable that art allows both children and adults to explore and express their full range of feelings. Artists can use their work to communicate ideas, evoke emotions, and shed light on social issues.

While crafts may involve problem-solving, art often presents more complex challenges without predefined solutions. By encouraging diverse perspectives and multiple solutions, art teaches children that there's often more than one right answer.

In this blog post, you’ll find projects that may fall into either “arts” or “crafts” categories. However, we share these art projects for Christmas alongside real artistic techniques that have been featured in our monthly boxes and recognize that children need time and space to explore art, develop their skills, and be creative, which can happen while creating both art and crafts.

1. Architectural Gingerbread Houses

Explore architecture with a twist on this typical Christmas activity – making gingerbread houses! But instead of edible ingredients, make something more lasting with your child.

• With air dry clay and clay tools, have your child sculpt the gingerbread house of their dreams without a reference photo.
• Encourage your child to use nontraditional tools to sculpt, like buttons, pipe cleaners, string, Q-Tips, and whatever else they can (safely) use to make impressions in the clay.
• Display their gingerbread annually as a Christmas decoration.

2. Christmas in Black and White

Can you communicate the themes of Christmas without using red or green? Challenge your young artist to draw what Christmas means to them using only black and white.

• Provide your child with a sketchbook and pencils of varying softness.
• Have your child choose a Christmas object, like an ornament, wrapped gift, Christmas cookie, evergreen tree, or snowman.
• Using value and shading, they’ll observe objects, determine the hardness of edges, and look for shadows.
• Your child can also blend the pencil using their fingers or a blending stick.

3. Abstract Christmas Artwork

Art can communicate feelings and themes, and this season is packed with both. Christmas art can be abstract too! Your child can think outside the (gift) box to create artwork that reflects such an important holiday in their childhood.

• Have your child gather their favorite art supplies.
• Give them this prompt: How does Christmas make me feel?
• Let their imagination and creativity run wild!
• After they are finished creating their artwork, talk with them about their piece. Make sure you are actively listening, asking questions, and showing genuine curiosity.

4. Christmas Cards from an Artist

Your child can put all the art techniques they’ve learned into practice when creating their own handmade Christmas cards. For example, they can create small collages, make snowflakes using the stipping technique, draw in the style of an artist they love, or paint an Impressionist Christmas scene.

• With cardstock, envelopes, and any other art supplies your child loves to use, let your kids express their creativity by designing their own Christmas cards.
• Use various materials like colored paper, markers, stickers, and glitter.
• Encourage them to write heartfelt messages inside.
• Help your child address the envelopes, attach a stamp, and mail their Christmas cards.
• Tip: Your child can repurpose their own art into handmade holiday cards for their friends or family members.

5. Biodegradable Garlands

Garlands have been around since ancient Egypt and have been used in home decor throughout history. Using gross motor skills and mathematical concepts to make patterns, you and your child can make biodegradable garlands for Christmas.

• Create eco-friendly garlands using natural materials like dried orange slices, cinnamon sticks, and pine cones.
• String them together with twine or ribbon.
• Create patterns using different objects.
• Hang your garlands across your Christmas tree or in your family’s living room so everyone can appreciate your child’s workmanship.

6. Papercraft Snowflakes

A childhood rite of passage! But it’s not just snowflakes that your child is working in. They’re sculpting with paper, engaging principles of paper quilling, and experimenting with mirrored images.

• Using repurposed paper bags, cut paper bags into squares.
• Fold the squares into triangles and make cuts along the edges.
• Unfold the paper to reveal beautiful snowflake patterns.
• Tip: Try making very small snowflakes and very big ones to challenge your child’s fine motor skills.

These ideas are a great way to spend quality time with your family and create lasting memories, while creating time and space for your child to work on artistic techniques.

Are you looking for more ways to engage your child in art? They may qualify for free homeschool art curriculum mailed to your door every month. Through Outside the Box Creation, you can order art boxes using your state’s grant funds. Designed by a professional artist, our boxes are filled with high-quality and eco-friendly art supplies, include a detailed project guide with step-by-step instructions, and always contain accompanying books. Get started today!