Christmas Crafts, Snacks and Activities

Ho ho ho! With the Christmas break just around the corner, we know you’ll be looking for ways to keep your class focused. Well, look no further! We have a whole host of fun crafts, snacks and activities to keep the festive cheer going as your class winds down for the magical Christmas break. 

Crafts

Magical Paper Snowflakes

Whether you’re looking to make a festive classroom display or encourage your students to make some Christmas crafts, creating paper snowflakes is always a winner, as they are super simple to make and can be decorated in so many ways. All you’ll need is paper (white or coloured), scissors and some decorations.

Once you’ve cut out and folded your paper into the shape you’d like, whether that’ll be a circle, square, etc., all you need to do is cut out random shapes around the edges and then, the fun part, decorate!

Students could colour their snowflakes in, add patterns or even add a bit of sparkle with some biodegradable glitter – the options are endless.

Joyful Foil Baubles

Do you have a Christmas tree up in the school or in your classroom? Why not encourage your students to create some fun festive baubles for the tree?

For this craft idea, all you’ll need is some tin foil, string or ribbon, PVA glue, tissue paper (white or coloured) and decorations.

Simply mould the tin foil into a circle and cover with the PVA glue and tissue paper. Punch a hole at the top (with a hole punch) and thread the string through. All students then have to do is decorate them! They could use buttons, glitter, pom-poms, sequins, etc.

Festive Snowmen Pictures

For the next craft idea, you’ll need card, pen (unless you already have a template) cotton wool/marshmallows, colouring pens, PVA glue, googly eyes, orange card for the nose and black card for the buttons and hat.

Simply cut out a snowman on the card, add cotton wool/marshmallows for the snow and use the card, googly eyes and the buttons for the rest of the features.

Students will have lots of fun. It’s easy to make and encourages students to be extra creative.

Pop-up Christmas Cards

If you’re looking for some fun, DIY pop-up Christmas cards, we have a few cards of our own. Simply download the handy resources:

Character Pop-up Christmas Card

Snowman Pop-up Christmas Card

With them, have your class create their own pop-up cards for mum, dad or maybe Santa!

Festive Pine Cones 

Eek! We love this craft idea and feel like we might need to try this one ourselves!

To begin with, simply share out the pine cones between your students (or you could get your class out in the fresh air and head to the playground and collect some). 

All you’ll need to do then is get your students to paint their pine cone green and let them dry. After this, you’ll need to stick each one on Blu Tack, so they’ll stick on the surface. 

Once this is done, it’s time to decorate! Students can go crazy at this stage and use anything to decorate their festive pine cone, and we particularly like the idea of using a mixture of different, preferably biodegradable, glitters to make them super sparkly! 

When all your students’ pine cones are decorated, leave them to dry again and you’re all done – easy-peasy!

Beaded Candy Canes

Here’s another simple craft idea to get your students in the festive spirit! 

Start by placing some Blu Tack at one end of a green pipe cleaner (colour doesn’t really matter, but green is preferable), to prevent the beads from falling off. Then use some red and white beads (or other colours you have to hand!) and place them on the pipe cleaner one after the other, e.g., white, red, white, red, and so on, until no more beads will fit on.

Then secure the other end with Blu Tack and bend one end of the pipe cleaner, so it’s curved like a candy cane.

Perfect, now you’re all done! These are a perfect Christmas tree decoration!

Snacks

The Grinch-Inspired Fruit Kebabs

Ooh, here’s a yummy idea that’s inspired by Dr Seuss’ movie, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. These fruity delights are one we’re sure your students will love! 

Please note that adult supervision may be needed for this idea, as you’ll be using small cocktail sticks and a knife for cutting the fruit. 

What you’ll need:

• Bananas
• Strawberries
• Small cocktail sticks
• Grapes
• Small marshmallows

Method:

1. To prepare your fruits, you’ll need to cut a banana into thin slices and cut the leaf bit off of all your strawberries (the banana slices and strawberries will be used for the Grinch’s hat). Once you’ve done this, it’s time to let the fun begin and assemble!
2. All you’ll need to do is get your cocktail stick and slide a grape on first, as this will be the Grinch’s head.
3. Once you’ve done this, add a banana slice and the strawberry (so the flat side is on top of the banana you’ve just added).
4. To finish off, add a mini marshmallow as a pom pom to finish off the Grinch’s hat.

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Christmas Pudding Biscuits

For a simple snack these biscuits are super simple to do with students.

Please note that this recipe is enough to make 16 biscuits.  

What you’ll need:

• 175g soft unsalted butter
• 175g caster sugar
• 3 eggs
• 400g plain flour
• 75g cocoa powder
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1 tsp. salt
• 200g white chocolate
• Green writing icing
• Glace cherries

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180˚C/Gas Mark 4.
2. Cream together the butter and the sugar, and beat in the eggs one at a time.
3. With a sift, sift the flour, cocoa powder, salt and baking powder into the bowl and mix together well to form a dough.
4. With cling film, wrap the dough and pop it into the fridge for at least 1 hour.
5. When you’ve left the dough for an hour, roll it out until it’s about ½ cm think and use a large circle cutter to cut 16 circles.
6. Now place each biscuit on a greased baking tray and bake them for 12 minutes. The biscuits should brown slightly but still be spongy to the touch when you take them out. As they cool, they’ll firm up.
7. As the biscuits are cooling, melt the white chocolate and coat half of each biscuit with this.
8. With a knife (adult help may be needed here), trim the glacé cherries and with two pieces, put them on each biscuit to form the holly berries. Use the green writing icing to draw on holly leaves.

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Activities

As we’re sure you’ll be looking forward to winding down for the last day of the year, we wanted to give you some quick ideas for classroom activities you can do with your students for the final school day of the term.

Perfect as a small activity or for your Christmas classroom party, all our ideas are easy to set up and also help communication, leadership and listening skills.

Snowball Throw

Grab some white bean bags or Styrofoam balls and ask your students to take it in turns trying to throw them through decorated rings or Christmas wreaths. It’s a super fun indoor snowball toss! 

By making sure you keep score, you can see who successfully throws the snowballs through most and maybe offer a prize for the highest score. 

Charades

Not only is this an absolute classic, but it’s also a super fun game too and really easy to do. Ask your students to think of a Christmas movie or book and then take turns to act out what it is without talking. 

For Christmas book ideas we’ve got a great list of Christmas-themed reads, that are perfect for reading time at school and at home.

The Name Game

This game is all about guesswork. Sitting in a circle, give your students a sticky note each and then ask them to write the name of a famous person or character on them without anyone seeing what they write. Then ask them to stick the sticky note on the forehead of the person next to them. 

Your students now need to take it in turns to ask one question about what is on their sticky note and when they’ve guessed the person or character, take it off and help everyone else work out theirs.

Word Search

Okay, so who doesn’t love a word search? Create a Christmas-themed word search and add all the words you want your students to find to our Word Search Topic Tool (search for it on EducationCity – its content ID is #2114!). Once you’ve added in the words, you can print the word search out or do it as a class on the whiteboard – a perfect activity!

Free Christmas Classroom Resource Pack

We also have a Christmas-themed Topic Resource pack, which is free to download and includes the following:

• 4 ThinkIts
• 5 Fact Sheets
• 4 Lesson Plans:
• 3 Resource Sheets
• Father Christmas Word Search
• Activity Sheets and Answers
• Craft Idea
• Writing Paper

We hope you like this list of activities and snacks, and that you find something a little bit different to try. Pick and choose what works for you and tweak it to your own needs. Whatever you use, we wish you all a Merry Christmas and look forward to speaking with you in the New Year.