Young children delight in the approach of winter holidays! Depending on whether we are Montessori homeschooling, in a secular school, or in a Montessori school that teaches religion, we have more than enough ideas for projects during the holiday season. Here are just a few craft ideas for the Montessori preschool classroom to help you get inspired for the holidays!

Montessori Preschool Christmas Crafts and Activity Guide

Countdown to Christmas

Advent calendars and wreaths have long been associated with the countdown to Christmas. Making a paper chain is fun and easy for young children to make themselves.

What You Need:

• 24 pieces of red and green construction paper, cut into 1”x6” strips
• Glue

What You Do:

• Glue the ends of the first strip together to form a ring.
• Thread the second strip through the first one.
• Glue ends together to form another ring, entwined with the first one.
• Repeat until all strips are used, forming one long chain.
• Copy the following poem onto white paper and then glue to red or green construction paper. This will serve as the top of the chain and represents Day 25 or Christmas Day:

December 1st until Christmas Is the longest time of the year. It seems as though old Santa Never will appear. How many days until Christmas? It’s mighty hard to count. So this little chain of links Will tell you the exact amount. (Author unknown)

Decorating Cookies

What child can resist spreading icing and liberally sprinkling cookies with cake sprinkles? And eating them is the best part!

What You Need:

• Pre-baked sugar cookies
• Prepared white icing
• Colored cake sprinkles
• Butter knives or spatulas for spreading frosting

What You Do:

• Allow children to spread cookies with frosting.
• While frosting is still “wet”, sprinkle with cake sprinkles.
• Allow frosting to set
• Enjoy with a cool glass of milk!

Reindeer Hand Puppet

Use these cute puppets when you sing Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer or Up on the Housetop.

What You Need:

• A small, brown paper bag (one for each child)
• Dark brown, red and black construction paper
• Glue
• Scissors
• Markers or crayons

What You Do:

• • Trace the child’s hands on the brown construction paper. (These will be the antlers for the reindeer).
  • Cut out the handprints.
  • Glue handprint antlers to the back of the paper bag flap (behind the “head”).
  • Fold the lower two corners under of the front flap to create a more angled reindeer head.
  • Cut out eyes from the white and black construction paper, and the nose from red construction paper.

• Draw a mouth using markers or crayons.