Play in the Snow!  Even if you don’t have snow on the ground, you can use this Super Snow Powder and enjoy 2 gallons of artificial snow!  Grab a bin, throw the contents into the bin, add water and watch it erupt into snow within seconds!  You can also make snow a few different ways using ingredients from your pantry; see here for details.

Christmas Sensory Rice: Make dyed rice using liquid watercolors to make red and green rice, throw it in a bin, add some scoopers, mini funnel, cookie cutter shapes, and let their little hands explore the Christmas rice!  To make the dyed rice with liquid watercolors, check out the recipe here.

Christmas Tree Sensory Bags: Sensory bags, or squish bags, provide kids with a fun sensory experience with virtually no mess.  For those that do not like getting sticky or messy hands, they also make for a great alternative to things like fake snow, play dough, slime, etc.  To make these Christmas tree sensory bags, you will need a quart size Ziploc bag, permanent marker, duct tape, clear hair gel (can be purchased at the dollar store), green liquid watercolor, and “ornaments” (beads, buttons, sequins, and googly eyes).  Read here for further details.

Gingerbread Playdough Recipe: This recipe is a no cook and no cream of tartar homemade playdough.  Most of the ingredients can already be found in your kitchen pantry.  Check out the full ingredients list and directions here. 

Christmas Fine Motor Sensory Play: Grab a bin (or any container), container of water beads (vase filler in craft store), mini ornaments, and kid friendly tweezers or chopsticks.  Fill the bin with the water beads and mini ornaments and let the festive sensory search and find begin.  Watch as your child picks through the bin to pick up the mini ornaments and encourage them to count the ornaments as they find them.

Styrofoam Christmas Tree Decorating: Buy a styrofoam cone (usually in the floral section at Walmart or craft stores like Hobby Lobby and Michaels).  You can use pushpins to add buttons, stickers, yarn, and other craft items to decorate your tree with.  Another idea is to wrap the cone in felt or glitter paper and use glue to add your decorations.  

Cotton Ball Snowman: Start with a piece of blue paper (or other non-white paper), piece of white paper, glue, cotton balls, Q-tips, and white paint (such as finger paint).  Help your child cut out a small, medium, and large circle out of the white paper and let them glue the circles on the blue paper to make the outline of the snowman.  Once the circles are glued in place, show your child how to pinch the edges of the cotton balls with their “pincher fingers” (thumb and pointer fingers), and gently pull on the cotton ball to make it grow.  Once they’ve mastered this, instruct them to slightly turn the cotton ball until it has grown into a larger and flatter circle.  Once the flattened cotton ball is large enough to cover the snowman’s head, help your child glue it onto the top circle.  Repeat this process for the middle and bottom circles.  After the snowman is done, finish off the picture by showing your child how to pinch the Q-tip using the same method as they did for the cotton balls.  Dip the Q-tip in the white paint, and then dab it all around the paper to make snow in the sky.  Let your child make as many or few snowflakes as they want.  Once dry, display their handcrafted snowman on the fridge for everyone to see!

String of Lights Fingerprint Frame: This craft idea is so cute and would even make a great gift!  All you need is a frame with a white mat border, colored ink pads, fine-tip sharpie, and little thumbs to help!  Learn how to make one here.

Build a Snowman: You don’t have to worry about this snowman melting!  You will need felt, googly eyes, buttons, velcro, mod podge or fabric paint, bowls (for tracing) and scissors!  See how you make your very own snowman here.