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Festive fun for early years

Blog
The YPO Team
19 Nov 2024

Christmas is finally arriving and if you're still looking for some fun festive Christmas activities to occupy your little ones, you've come to the right place! From bauble painting to Christmas tree decorating, we have the perfect activities that will give your children hours of fun with these arts and crafts. Not only are they engaging, but they also encourage collaboration with others and enhance fine motor skills. What not to like!

Play Dough Christmas Tree

Christmas tree activity

Create the cutest little Christmas trees to decorate your setting – mould play dough into a coned tree shape and add jewels, bells and sequins to decorate.

What you’ll need:

301027 Self Adhesive Acrylic Jewels
320846 Coloured Jingle Bells
740018 Soft Dough

Paint Your Own Bauble

This is a great activity for team building! Squeeze paint into a tub or play tray and work together to manoeuvre the baubles around to make unique patterned baubles.

What you’ll need:

305062 Christmas Star Shaped Bauble Kit - Clear
305063 Christmas Heart Shaped Bauble Kit - Clear
306235 Cosy Black Circle Tuff Tray
734528 Washable Ready Mixed Paint

Paper Plate Christmas Tree

Paint brushes at the ready! To create your own Christmas tree using a paper plate you need to first prep the tree by cutting a plate in half, before gluing together to form a cone shape. Once dry, paint and decorate with pom poms. You could use these to decorate your setting or use as hats for your Christmas party!

What you’ll need:

307123 Paper Plates
309844 Assorted Pom Poms
713368 Washable PVA
731729 Green Washable Ready Mixed Paint

Rudolph the Foam Clay Reindeer

Little ones will love recreating the famous Rudolph with foam clay or play dough. Start by squishing the your foam clay or play dough flat and adding eyes – don’t forget his antlers and red nose!

What you’ll need:

Foam Clay
740018 Soft Dough
743917 Pipe Cleaners
303877 Wiggly Eyes
303920 Metallic beads

Snowman Fine Motor Bottle

Build fine motor skills with the help of Mr Snowman. Start by creating a Snowman using a bottle and adding eyes, a nose, and a mouth - you could even get the children involved in this process and get them to make their own.

Provide a variety of different sized pom poms with tweezers and ask the children to fill the snowman with snow. They’ll soon discover that some will fit in the bottle, and some won’t, which is all part of the fun.

No cheating – you can’t use your hands!

What you’ll need:

Plastic Bottle
301692 White Pom Poms
302511 Christmas Felt Selection
800193 YPO Super Bowls and Tweezers
800015 YPO Tweezers
713368 Washable PVA

Paper Plate Baubles

These paper plate decorations are simple, mess-free and perfect for young children – they also look amazing! All you need to do is supply the children with plates, glue and scrap paper and they’re ready to go.

What you’ll need:

307123 Paper Plates
108219 Jumbo Glitter Mosaics
114839 Jumbo Paper Mosaics
713368 Washable PVA

Yarn and Stick Christmas Tree

Inspired by nature! This activity uses sticks that can be found outside, secured with glue or elastic bands. Encourage children to wrap the yarn around the tree and decorate with pom poms.

What you’ll need:

800160 Natural Tea Branches
753688 YPO Elastic Rubber Bands
713368 Washable PVA
301528 Double Knit Yarn
309844 Assorted Pom Poms

These activities have been taken from Little Learners, a FREE magazine full of early years resources and activities. Click here to read our latest issue.

Author

The YPO Team

YPO supplies products and services to a wide range of customers including schools, local authorities, charities, emergency services, public sector and other businesses such as nurseries and care homes. YPO are 100% publicly owned, by 13 local authorities, which means the profits made are returned to public sector customers, delivering even better value for money.