Christmas crafts for kids: 15 to make by age, and the one change that makes each one theirs

The best Christmas crafts for kids are ones with a built-in decision: a paper star, a salt-dough ornament or a book of winter stories, plus one question your kid has to answer that the instructions don't. Below are 15 crafts for ages 6 to 13, grouped by age, and each one ends with a "redesign" question. Answer it and a copied craft becomes your kid's own design. In Kubrio's "A book you can hold" course, your kid makes a real paper book of their own, which is a good home for the craft that turns out best.

Which Christmas crafts work for a 6- or 7-year-old?

Crafts with few steps, big shapes, and a result that survives a bit of rough handling. Younger kids want to finish in one sitting, so pick things that take 20 to 30 minutes.

1. Paper snowflake garland. Fold, cut, unfold, string. Redesign: "Make one snowflake that couldn't be mistaken for any other, then say why."
2. Pinecone or paper-plate creature. A pinecone or plate becomes a reindeer, an owl or an elf. Redesign: "Give it one thing it can do that a real animal can't."
3. Handprint wreath. Trace and cut hands in green paper, overlap them in a ring. Redesign: "What does your wreath need to say hello to a visitor?"
4. Cardboard-tube candle holders (no flame). Paint a tube, add a paper flame. Redesign: "Where would a candle like this live, and who would it help?"
5. Salt-dough ornament. Flour, salt and water, shapes pressed out, baked slowly by an adult. Redesign: "Make a shape the cookie cutters don't have."

Which Christmas crafts suit ages 8 to 10?

Crafts with a plan phase, where your kid sketches first and can tell you what went wrong. This is the age when "it doesn't look like I wanted" becomes the interesting problem.

6. Paper house village. One folded paper house each, then a street. Redesign: "Who lives here? Change the door, the windows or the roof to show it."
7. Pop-up card. A card with a paper shape that stands up when it opens. Redesign: "Make the pop-up do the job of the first line of the message."
8. Homemade wrapping paper. Stamps from potatoes or cut sponges, a pattern repeated. Redesign: "Design the pattern for the person receiving it."
9. Paper doll nativity or winter cast. A set of standing figures with costumes. Redesign: "Invent a character who isn't in the usual set." Kubrio's paper doll course makes a paper doll that stands, waves, and changes clothes, and the same moves work for a winter cast.
10. Advent chain with a twist. Paper links with a task or a joke inside each one. Redesign: "Write the 24 slips so they get funnier, or kinder, as the days go."

Which Christmas crafts are right for ages 11 to 13?

Projects with a user, a constraint, and a result someone else can judge. Older kids lose interest in anything that feels like a kindergarten craft, so give them a real problem.

11. A gift box they engineer. A box with a hidden compartment or a latch, made from cardboard. Redesign: "What does the person on the receiving end have to figure out?"
12. Ornaments from found materials. Wire, buttons, scrap card, old maps. Redesign: "Use only what's in the recycling bin, and no more than three materials."
13. A tabletop game for the holiday dinner. A board or card game on a Christmas theme that the whole table can play in ten minutes. Redesign: "Play it once and change one rule that wasn't fun."
14. A winter story book. Eight pages folded from one sheet, a short story, and a cover. Redesign: "Cut the story to what fits on eight pages." Kubrio's book course walks a kid through folding and finishing one.
15. A real fix for the holiday. Find one thing that's annoying about December at your house, such as tangled lights, cold hands at the bus stop, or too many wrapping scraps, and invent a fix. Redesign: "Test it on one person and change it." Kubrio's design thinking course is built around this exact loop: spot a real problem at home and make a fix for it.

Why does one redesign question matter so much?

Because a kid who finishes something and has made choices in it values it more. Norton, Mochon and Ariely (2012) ran a series of studies where people built IKEA boxes, folded origami and assembled Lego, then put a value on what they made. People valued their own creations more than similar ones they hadn't built, and the effect faded when the builders didn't finish or when the thing was taken apart. Effort alone didn't do it; completion did.

That's the case for finishing small. A craft that is done in one or two sittings, with one choice in it that your kid made, is likelier to end up on the tree in January than a big one abandoned on day two. It also explains why "make it your own" is more than a slogan. The redesign question is where your kid makes the choice.

What does a kid practise when they make a craft?

More than gluing. Hetland, Winner, Veenema and Sheridan watched visual-arts classes in Boston and described eight Studio Habits of Mind that art teaching builds, including Develop Craft (learning to handle tools and materials), Express (putting a feeling or an idea into the work) and Engage and Persist (staying with a problem). A Christmas craft with a redesign question touches all three: your kid learns to cut and fold, decides what the thing should say, and sticks with the glue that won't hold.

Be honest about the limits. The habits describe what art classes teach. They don't promise that a holiday craft raises a test score. What your kid gets is better at making things and finishing them.

Which Christmas crafts need extra care?

Anything with heat, small parts, or batteries. Hot glue guns and baking need an adult at the table. Ornaments and lights that run on button batteries are a particular hazard for small children: Phoenix Children's lists ornaments, lighted decorations, flameless tea lights and musical greeting cards among holiday items that can contain them. If your younger kid is making a gift for a baby or toddler, leave batteries out. If a child may have swallowed one, go to an emergency department right away and call poison control on 1-800-222-1222.

How do you run a craft session without taking it over?

Set out the materials, ask the redesign question once, and sit on your hands. It is hard not to fix the wonky snowflake. Say "what are you going for?" instead. If your kid wants to see how someone else did it, look at a picture together after they have made their own first attempt, not before.

A few habits help:

• Prep a "yes" box. Paper scraps, tape, string, buttons, markers. Anything in it is allowed.
• Plan on paper first. Two minutes of sketching beats ten minutes of unpicking glue.
• Keep a finish line. Name where it will go (the tree, a card, a gift) before you start.
• Take one photo of each craft. In January the photos make a good "what we made this year" page. A photo of an ornament, plus one line about the choice your kid made, is a page in a book.

Kids who like to draw first can start from the free drawing guides, and a drawing from Thanksgiving drawings for kids can be traced onto a salt-dough shape. For a different kind of project from the same mindset, see Halloween art projects for kids.

What to do at home this week

1. Pick three crafts from the list, one easy and two that need a plan, and put them on the calendar for the next three weekends.
2. Gather a "yes" box of scrap paper, cardboard, string and tape.
3. For each craft, say the redesign question out loud before starting and write the answer on a sticky note.
4. Sketch it on paper for two minutes first.
5. Finish it in one or two sittings and name where it goes.
6. Take a photo, then decide together which one earns a place in a paper book at the end of December.

FAQ

What are easy Christmas crafts for a 6-year-old? Paper snowflakes, a handprint wreath and a pinecone creature all take 20 to 30 minutes and need only paper, scissors and glue. Cut shapes out ahead of time if scissors are still a struggle, and ask the redesign question to keep it your kid's own.

How many crafts should we do before Christmas? Two or three finished crafts beat ten abandoned ones. Pick the ones with a destination, such as a gift, a card or the tree, and stop when your kid starts to lose interest.

My kid says Christmas crafts are babyish. What now? Give an 11- to 13-year-old a problem instead of a craft: a gift box with a mechanism, a game for the dinner table, or a fix for something annoying about December. The materials can be the same; the brief is different.

Do the crafts have to be Christmas-specific? No. A winter story book, a card game or a gift box works for any family and any holiday. The redesign question is what makes it your kid's, not the theme.

Is it okay to use hot glue with kids? With an adult doing the gluing, or for older kids with an adult nearby, yes. Hot glue and salt-dough baking are the two steps in this list that need grown-up hands, and a cardboard-and-tape alternative is nearly always available.