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It is a great time to do fun and thoughtful holiday activities with kids! I love this season because it is so full of life, joy, and love! It is also a time to celebrate the birth of Christ, spend time with family, and to give thanks for our presence here on earth. What I love most of all about the holidays is GIVING to others!!
Yes, the act of giving makes others feel good but it benefits the giver as well. It boosts “neurochemical drivers of happiness” and helps to normalize levels of serotonin which promotes feelings of comfort and well-being. I wanted my son to give and experience these feelings.
Therefore, we have done the following activities below to share and receive the pleasant feelings of holiday giving!
Paint Rocks and Give as Gifts
Last Christmas, when my son was two years old, I encouraged him to give gifts to family members. We chose to find big rocks in nature and paint them. We packaged them in colorful wrapping paper and gave them away.
My son was so excited that he could give gifts! He asked me 5 consecutive days before Christmas if it was time to give the rocks away. His rocks from last year are currently displayed in my family’s homes and he is proud. This is a simple yet fun project.
Materials Needed
- Plastic Container
- Toothbrush
- Soap Water
- Water
- Washable Paint
- Paint Brushes
- Large rocks from outside
- Newspaper or Magazine pages
- 2 Sturdy Paper Plates
- Cup of Water
- Napkins
- Place Newspaper on table for easy clean-up.
- Pour soap and water in plastic container to make soapy water.
- Clean rocks with soapy water and toothbrush.
- Empty soapy water and put clear water in container to rinse rocks.
- You can also run water over rocks to rinse them.
- Pour water in cup for cleaning paint brushes of previous color.
- Put napkins in paper plate #1 to dry paint brushes.
- Pour small sections of various color paints on paper plate # 2.
- Place rock on table with newspaper or magazine paper.
- Let your child be creative and paint the rock.
Count Money and Buy a Gift
When I was young, it was my job to take my parents’ loose coins and put them in a money jar. Every year, about three weeks before Christmas, I would put the pennies in wrappers. Afterwards, we took a trip to the bank to exchange the coins for dollars. I took this money and bought gifts for my mom, dad, and older brother.
There are so many lessons learned within this activity such as: counting, money recognition, sorting and the purpose of banks. Another skill I learned was awareness of others. A child may buy his dad green socks because it is his favorite color or mom a cup because she loves drinking tea in the morning.
Materials Needed
- Coins
- Money jar
- Coin wrappers (call your bank and local credit union)
- Optional: Nadex Sort and Wrap Set
- Have the child gather loose coins and put into money jar.
- Count coins and sort into money wrappers using the Nadex Sort and Wrap Set.
- Take coins to the bank or credit union and exchange for cash.
- If you don’t have enough coins to fill wrappers, then check with your local bank about the loose coin conversion policy.
- Some banks and credit unions convert coins into cash for customers only.
- Some grocery stores have coin machines but will charge a fee.
- Check out this article for more ways to convert coin into cash.
- Brainstorm with child what family members or friends they will purchase gifts for.
- Have the child list the person’s interest and favorites.
- Make a tentative list of gifts for each member or friend.
- Your list may change once you go shopping.
- Go shopping.
- Help the child the wrap gifts.
- Watch their faces light up when family members or friends open their gift!
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Melissa & Doug Stained Glass Race Car Ornaments
- Please note that you can make other items such as hearts and rainbows.
This is a simple project to make with kids. There are two cars in the kit. Kids will enjoy the experience of decorating their cars with colorful stickers. This activity also helps with spatial awareness, creativity, and focusing. This would be a great gift for children to give to family members.
Materials Needed
- Follow directions in the Kit for the best results.
Create Your Own Christmas Cards Artwork
Instead of buying birthday cards for family members and friends, my son likes to make his own. The personal touch of a handmade card from a child is priceless. The time and effort it takes to create a masterpiece for a loved one fills their soul with joy. The person knows the child took time to make something especially for them. So why not have this same experience during the Holidays?
My son has started to make his Holiday cards already. It is a symbol of appreciation for the person’s role in his life. Your child can create their own masterpiece and present it to family and friends. They can use crayons, stickers, markers, glitter and whatever their minds come up with to decorate this card!
Complete the Form Below to Download Holiday Card!
Below are details about the card…
- Downloadable 5 x 7in postcard
- Child can create artwork in the white rectangular space
- Ability to type in white rectangular space with computer
- Plenty of room for child to create artwork
- Child can deliver or mail postcard to recipient
Please print and cut the postcard on 100lb card stock paper for best results.
Before you download, please know:
- Simply Outrageous Youth Printables are for Personal Use Only
- You may not modify, re-sell, redistribute, or claim the design as your own.
- Please do not remove the credits/watermarks.
I hope you try some of the ideas given here. My son and I had fun doing these hands-on projects! A bonus is we learned a lot in the process!
Tell me about your holiday projects. I want to know as I am always learning!
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My glambaby happens to LOVE rocks, and she collects them any chance she gets, so painting them she does as well, but, giving them as gifts is a great idea, I think she’ll love it.
I love it! Glambaby!!! Oh great! Plus let me know how her rocks turn out. She can “Glam Out” the rocks with some glitter as well!
Being outside in nature is important for all children. Fresh air, exercise, and observation of the natural world are synonymous with childhood. See what your kids can discover about the area around your house, and about themselves.
Yes we love being out in nature! I think it is one of the most important aspects of childhood. Thank you for your comment.
I’d go with counting money and actually buying a gift for a loved one over Christmas. That really nurtures their saving and giving culture.
I think that’s an excellent choice Dalene!! My mother did this with me as a child!! Thank you for your comment.
Great post! I love these activities for kids!
Thank you Morgan for your comment!!
I love how unique and personal each idea is. It allows children to show themselves through their gift. The details you provide for each idea make it doable for busy parents. Thank you.
Thank you Colleen for the comment! It encourages me to keep writing!
Those are all fun activities. I wish I was blogging when my kids were younger. I enjoying reading about all the cool stuff to do with children
Hello Marjimare! Thank you so much for your comment. Yes blogging is definitely a great place to get and receive ideas. I also love reading about all the fun things moms do with their children.
Those are such fun activities. Kids always love nature and hands on project. It’s such a fun way to learn.
Thank you Karen. Hand-on learning is the best! Thank you for your comment!
I totally love your activities and will share to my nephew, it’s better for her to stay away from electronic devices.
Yes I agree. I try to keep my son away from the screen as much as possible. Thank you so much for your comment.
I am loving the sound of the fun activities here. Will try some of them with the kids over the weekend.
Oh good! Please let me know how they like the activities!
I dont have kids yet but maybe i will do it myself hahah. Those mention above are brilliant ideas!. I love the rock idea. I should try it 🙂 🙂
HA HA! Let me know if you try any of these activities. Thank you for the compliment and comments. I did these with my son and had a blast!
These are some great ideas. i don’t think my little ones would be able to do much with it though (they are very young lol). I might try to do painting with them though. My daughter loves rocks.
Hello Lali! Thank you for your comment. Maybe once they are older, you can give it a try! Painting is also a fun activity for the little ones.
Great activity ideas – fun and thoughtful indeed! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you for reading and the compliment Viki!!!
Washing rocks !! That makes me excited and I am not a child anymore. Lovely ideas to keep the little ones busy and have fun at the same time.
Thank you so much for your comment! Yes we had a blast with these activities!!
These ideas are really cute! The best gifts are from the heart. Handmade also makes it that much more special
Thank you for your comment JoJo! Yes I love getting artwork from my son. It holds a special place in my heart!
These are awesome activities and it totally reminds me of visiting my grandmother as she always did crafts and stuff with me when I was a kid growing up. I appreciate it as I have a gift for DIY an dcrafting as an adult and I know that it is all because of her 🙂 This is awesome!
Thank you for reading Melissa! Yes DIY is the best way to go for gifts especially for kids!
Looks like lots of fun! It is definitely great to to that together with kid.
Thank you Lyosha! Thank you for your comment! We had a great time with these activities!
Rock painting is such a fun activity to do together, My children love it and also looking for the rocks in the first place!
Hello Laura! Yes we love rock painting. I love the process of finding the rocks and creating art with them! Thank you for commenting!
I used to paint stained glass window bits a lot when I was a kid so I loved these. Some lovely crafting bits x
Thank you for reading Rhian. My son and I had a great time with these activities.
These are some great ideas to engage kids and materialize them this will boost them to come up with more creativity.
Thank you Sania for your comment and compliment! My son really enjoyed these activities!
Great activities to develop their creativity! It’s good to make sure kids don’t only play with phones and laptops
Thank you Chloé for the compliment! Yes I love activities that are hands on and take kids away from phones and laptops!
Rock painting is a good idea. That is certainly doable for us because we have a lot of acrylic paints in the house.
That’s great! It is such a simple and fun idea! Let us know how your kids like the activity!
Thanks for sharing this kid activities! I think these are cool this coming holiday season. My nieces and nephews are coming over, and these could be fun!
Thank you for commenting Blair. Please let us know which activity you chose to do with your nephews and nieces!
We love making cards and sending them! 4 awesome ideas .thank you for sharing..
Thank you Rachel for reading!
I love the painting rocks idea! My boys are rock hoarders, but I never thought to do this with them. I still need a couple Christmas gifts for the grandparents so we’ll probably give this a try!
Oh good! Let us know how the rocks turned out! I would love to know!
Great post! Will definitely try these activities with my kids! Thank you.
Thank you for reading Pheng!
I like the idea of having them create gifts for family members at an early age. I’m going to incorporate this next year!
Oh good! That sounds like a great idea! Thank you so much for reading and commenting!
Cute activities! They definitely could make for some great gifts!
Thank you for reading and commenting!
I’m not sure which idea I like more the rock painting or the money collecting. Both are such great learning activities that children would love to do! Also they don’t require a ton of money or time on the parent. I will definitely be passing these ideas to my older children to do with their kids.
Thank you Shannah for commenting and reading! I think the kids will have fun doing these activities.
Great ideas. The counting coins idea reminded me of my childhood. I used to count up all my change. At my elementary school, they had sent up this little store in one of the classrooms where you could buy all sorts of little things. Not very useful things, but little trinkets we could buy as gifts. I’d buy something little for each person in my family with the money. Then wrap it up in blank paper and then decorate it. Thanks for sharing.
I love this idea! Didn’t it feel great to give? I used to love seeing the smiles on my family’s faces when I gave them a gift for Christmas! Thank you for reading!