If you are looking for Christmas Gifts Kids Can Make, look no further. In fact, these gift ideas are great crafts for all year round – be it Mother’s Day, Father’s Day or just a special birthday. I am a great believer in that kids should be making as many as their gifts as possible.
The world is a commercial world these days and one of the ways, that we can teach our kids to be thoughtful is to steer away from the shop bought gift ideas and towards the homemade ideas. Combine with a handmade Christmas Card for the perfect personalised Christmas! Needless to say ANYTHING a child makes can count as a “Homemade Gift”, I picked out projects that I thought were “even better” to gift! So, hopefully this is a useful list for you!
Here is a range of crafts that we have made over time, that hopefully will inspire you get crafty with the kids this Christmas! We have lots of Easy Christmas Crafts for Kids for you too!
Though these Gifts Kids Can Make focus a little on Christmas, they are also perfect for Mother’s Day Gifts or Birthday Gifts to family and friends. So do come back and take a peak throughout the year too!
Christmas Gifts Kids to Make
Handmade Bath Bombs 
Bath Bombs have been the most popular “gift giving” DIY over the years. We love “consumable” gifts. A great way to keep down the clutter, but still give something special. They are fun to make and you can add details such as lavendar or essential oils (always read the instructions on these!).
Similarly DIY Bath Salts are EVEN EASIER to make and also fun to give. You can have lots of fun decorating the jar first too (see below for some Jar decorating ideas!).
Paper Weights make fun gifts! 
We have LOVED making these Crayon Rock Paper Weights over the years. They are super easy and fun craft to make and give. Perfect for any gift giving occasion!
We also love this childhood “classic” of making Air Drying Clay tealight holders. A great introduction to air drying clay, but can be made with salt dough too!
DIY Christmas Ornaments are ALWAYS a lovely gift to make at Christmas. Especially for younger children – where these ornaments often turn into precious keepsakes. Making one ornament a year is a really lovely way to create a special and unique family collection. We have an extensive list of ornament ideas for all the family to enjoy!
Just to pick out ONE example from the ornaments DIY List – our lovely little Lavender Heart Key Rings. They can be used as ornaments bit also as key chains or decorations around Valentine’s. We love them because we used cookie cutters to create a pattern and it was one of our first sewing proejcts when the kids were little. So easy and fun. Over the years we have made many variations of this (and even created Party Bag craft kits for friends!), including this Felt Star & Button combinations. The addition of Lavendar makes that extra special!
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These Strawberries make adorable Keychains 
Easy Lavendar Bags for kids to sew 
We mentioned above that the Felt Hearts work well as both ornaments and KEYCHAINS/ Key rings. Practical gifts that remind you every day of the giver are always lovely. And these little felt strawberries – again – are easy to make and would be perfect as key chains! Find out more over Strawberry Keyrings !
Whilst on the topic of sewing – these Lavender Bags are again a great super simple sewing project for kids – that even young children can learn to do. They are again a simple but practical gift that they can make – using off cuts of fabric and home dried lavendar!
Or how about a practical little pin cushion hedgehog? So cute and fun!
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Fun with photo frames
When my kids were little, we had fun painting simple wooden frame wooden frames from IKEA. There are lots of ways to make frames with kids. Now they are older, they can work on something a little more involved, such as these fabulous upcycled Newspaper Swirl Frames. I love that they are fully recycled and you can customise the design and colour to suit the recipient’s intertests. Who doesn’t love getting a nice photo in a frame? Or have a go at these adorable Hama Bead Frames (my kids are obsessed with Hama Beads) or get crafty with preschoolers with these collage frames!
No gift guide would be complete with out some of our Corner Bookmarks! That is because bookmarks are so fun to make, can be designed in SO MANY different ways (check out our special Christmas Bookmark Designs) and are PERFECT for gifting with an actual book.. giving a book that extra special something!
Footprint Bookmarks are rather special too! -
Handprint Crafts are just the best!
If you have a baby or younger kids, then of course Footprint Bookmarks are a must. I am SO HAPPY we made these, as they were quick and easy, and oh so precious. It is crazy how quickly the kids grow. For a “laugh” you could make these each year (be sure to dated them) and see how their feet grow over time!! LOTS more great Creative Bookmark DIYs here.
Similarly, these Footprint Hearts are just too gorgeous. Using homemade clay, these footprints are just the most precious keepsake. These were originally a Valentine’s Projects.. but really are suitable all year round!
Do check out our collection of Christmas Hand & Footprint Crafts too!
Bowls bowls and MORE bowls. Can you tell that we love a PRACTICAL gift? It is so hard to highlight our favourites, but here we have Fabric Mache Bowls (a great upcycled project using fabric scraps), Shredded Papier Mache Fruit Bowls (we have painted these as solar systems too) and of course our very favourite Leaf Bowls !!
But we also have a number of Clay Pinch Pots the kids can make from Snowman Pinch Pots, to Apple Pinch Pots, Leaf Pinch Pots and quirky Monster Pinch Pots.
Hang on.. just one more bowl to make.. the fabulous Hama Bead Bowls! But I include this separately, as Hama Beads (also known as Perler Beads) are also a great gift to make. Especially if your kids ADORE Hama Beads a smuch as we do. Keep it simple.. you can turn Hama Beads into Hama Bead Space Invader Coasters, to Hama Bead Cards, Perler Bead Bracelets and of course super simple Perler Bead Ornaments! One craft the kids adore (and great for fine motor skills!!) and so many options for DIY Christmas Gifts! Check out the full range of Perler Bead Ideas here!
Make magnets with sea shells -
Or Fridge Magnets from clay! 
Or personalise with Fingerprint Art
Another great practical craft you can make are Fridget Magnets! Once again, there are lots of ideas to choose from. From Sea Shell Crab Magnets to, Fingerprint Glass Magnets and lovely Lovely clay leaf magnets. We also adore these Saltdough Heart Firdge Magnets, or how about an Alphabet Set of Magnets? Write someone’s name or “send a hug”.
Learn how to make a Terrarium – making a perfect little gift! You can even customize it with fairies, handpainted rocks or make it into a “toy terrarium”. Such a fun alternative project!
So the image of the Collect Kids Art and turn it into a calendar is a little blurry here.. but let me tell you it is a LOVELY project. This is in fact scanned in images of a similar calendar I did for my mother, when I was about 6. And she still has it! You can also make use of our Calendar Printable with prompts to help you along the way!
Or get arty with some handmade votives, similarly, a Photo Candle looks great too!
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Edible Gifts are the best! 
Snowman Jars filled with brownies 
Or combine cookies & ornaments
We LOVE this Rainbow Cookies Gift Jar – they look SO FUN, are consumable, recycled AND an activity. SO many good things about this in one! The idea is simple.. decorate your empty jars, fill with a favourite cookie recipe (minus the eggs and butter) and give! So fun. Here we decorated our jar as Rainbow Cookies, but we also have a fun Snowman Version (perfect for the white flour)!
Baking delicious Christmas Cookies is a super fun way to get excited about Christmas. Why not make an extra batch to create this super easy Cookies & Ornament gift to give? We love combining a homemade back with a homemade ornament. So special!
Now you have made your gifts.. why not give one of these DIY Pop Up Card Projects a go?!
If you need some GIFT BOX ideas to go with any of the above gifts… then these may come in handy!
Fancy more homemade Christmas Ornaments? They are great as a small additional gift.. and we have a range for you to enjoy here:
Hope these Christmas Gifts Kids Can Make have inspired you to get crafty with the kids and make your very own special gifts this year!
Pinkoddy says
Funny I was just sat with your book planning our Christmas makes. Thank you for a great round up of such inspirational ideas.
Red Ted Art says
Awwww thank you Pink Oddy!! So pleased that this came at a timely moment (and that you were reading the book to plan your Christmas crafts! Perfect!!)
Emma @Mummymummymum says
Awww Maggy, what a wonderful collection. I am determind to make more things this year.
Red Ted Art says
Wonderful, I hope you are indeed inspired!
Jane McFadden says
Thanks for these brilliant ideas – will try them out with my little ones. When I was very small we used to make batches of peppermint creams, coconut rolls, turkish delight, and peanut brittle with icing sugar and pink food coloring. I recall my grandfather saying it was one of the best Christmas presents he ever received.
Lizzie Saito says
These are really beautiful projects for kids! I’d love my son to create his own Christmas presents. If your friend is a dog lover, you might want to give them a dog artwork (a painting or a hand blown dog glass figurine) for Christmas that is timeless, beautiful, a piece that gains true value in time, and would remind them of their love towards their dogs.
garry booton says
There are some great ideas here for kids to make presents for others. When our children were young we always used to get them involved in making gifts for Christmas and birthdays.
Nicole Lockard says
Some wonderful gift ideas indeed. We at nicoleandgabi aspire to encourage kids to think creative and let their imagination come out. Do check out our creative hand painted products. I’m sure you guys will love it!
Lena @ WhatMommyDoes says
Thanks for posting these ideas! We are trying to do more of a homemade Christmas this year!
Stephanie Robinson says
I love these ideas but I can’t seem to print anything from your site to use. HELP ?
Red Ted Art says
That is odd, you can’t highlight and copy and save, but you should be able to just “hit print”? So sorry you are having problems.
gaveideer says
Homemade gifts really have a great track of record especially for kid making gifts. Those are so simple and cute.
Jessic says
A homemade gift from the kids is definitely different and would stand out among other commercial gifts! Much more personal and memorable.
kelly says
thanks
Nitin Maheta says
SO many great ideas in one spot Thanks!!!
Red Ted Art says
So pleased you like them!
Lucy says
Thanks for sharing these. I’ve pinned them to inspire people for the My Handmade Christmas challenge on my blog.
Red Ted Art says
Oooh that is a great challenge to run!!!