Easy Reindeer Crafts for Toddlers & Preschoolers
Oh we do love this time of year.. Christmas is coming our way and it is time for some lovely Christmas Crafting with Preschoolers and toddlers. A theme we particularly LOVE to work on, is easy Reindeer Crafts for Toddlers.. whether you are crafting simple reindeers for the winter season.. or more specifically looking for cute Rudolph Crafts.. read on. So many fun ideas for you to try out!
There are SO MANY benefits of crafting with toddlers and preschoolers and it isn’t as hard as you think. Christmas crafts are a fun topic to get your little ones interested and excited about crafting. And there are so many themes to explore. From Santa Crafts, to Snowman DIYs, to DIY Christmas Games and more. Today… we willl give Rudolph and his reindeer buddies a go!
Key benefits of crafting with young children include:
There are lots of reasons for crafting with children! In essence, all crafts are educational and great for well being and building traditions. Even those coined as “craftivities”. They often get a “bad rep” in by “hard core” educators, as they believe it restricts creativity. But learning to follow instructions is KEY to many traditional crafts – such as origami, knitting and sewing, there is always a balance to focus on. But in essence, here are some key benefits:
- well being – they simply love love love spending time with you and learning from you
- fine motor skills and spatial awareness
- learning to follow instructions
- opening up the possibilities for free creativity (e.g. teach them a cork can be a snowman.. and they may make a new set of cork people next).
- building traditions during the holiday season
My top tips for crafting with young children at Christmas time:
- Prepare your craft area – if you have a nice “safe” craft area, you will have plenty of space to get creative and if your child knocks something over, you can easily clear up any messes – rather than running around fretting, that the spilled water will drip on a laptop or similar
- Select appropriate crafts – this is where I come in – I try and select the simplest and easiest crafts to complete with your preschooler or toddler during the holiday season. So you will have lots of fun together and lot sof “craft successes.
- Work together – do remember that your toddler or preschooler is still young and it is ok to help! But there is a fine balance between you taking over and your toddler getting the help they need. Personally, I love to cut basic shapes for them (ideally ahead of crafting time) and then let them do all the painting and sticking that they want! And never worry about “wonky” eyes, or things glued in the “wrong place” – that always adds to the charm.
Key features needed to make Reindeer Crafts with Kids
When making reindeer crafts, you will need to focus on some basic elements that turn your ordinary craft into a reindeer or rudolph. Generally speaking, you will need:
- a brown face
- some antlers
- a red nose (if making your red-nosed reindeer Rudolph of course!)
Use thse as a basis and you can create all sorts of lovely Reindeer Crafts for Christmas.
So.. onto our favourite Reindeer Crafts for Toddlers, preschoolers and kids.
Reindeer Crafts for Young Kids
Paper Plate Reindeer Purse
Paper plates are such a fun material to work with young children.. but how do you make a reindeer out of paper plates? Check out our adorable and easy Paper Plate Reindeer Purse – we can’t resist a super duper cute Paper Plate Purse! And have made a number of themed DIY paper purses over the years. From cute Paper Plate Frankenstein Purses, to gorgeous Bunnies.. it is now time for our Reindeer Purse! Got to love a cute red-nosed reindeer!
Handprint Reindeers with Popsicle Sticks
Handprints make great reindeer antlers. Combine them with some popsicle sticks shaped into triangles and you have a wonderful Handprint Reindeer Keepsake!
Reindeer Mason Jars
Preschool fun for Christmas.. turn mason jars into adorable Reindeer Christmas Lanterns or gift jars (fill with treats!). Easy, great for fine motor skills and a fun gift for toddlers to make!
Toilet Paper Roll Reindeer Gift Boxes
Next up in our fun reindeer crafts collection, a quick Toilet Paper Roll Reindeer Gift Box! Now here is a super fun and easy reindeer gift box. All you need to do, is get your toddler or preschooler to pick off all the remaining toilet paper off the tube (great for fine motor skills), you cut out some antlers (you can bulk cut these by layering the paper) and some red noses (you can use pom poms, or use a large hole punch) and they get to stick them in place and draw some eyes. You can then fold the tubes and tie on a jingling bell. Easy Peasy!
Adorable Cardboard Tube Twiggy Rudolph
Make a Toilet Paper Roll Reindeer like this one!
Traditional Orange Slices turned Reindeer Ornaments
I love these reindeer ornaments, as they are a great “twist” on the traditional dried orange slice ornaments. If you want, you can prepare the orange slices, and even paint on the “white part” of the the reindeer ahead of time. Then let your preschooler loose with the googly eyes, pom poms and pre cut antlers! Such a fun activity to work on with the whole family!
Origami Reindeer with Construction Paper
Easy Reindeer Origami – I am a big advocate for origami for preschoolers. You will be surprised how early you can get young children learning to have a go at origami. And it really is fantastic for spatial awareness (and very basic maths, exploring themes such as symmetry). Love these reindeer faces – a basic origami fold, combined with circle stickers, red pom poms or red circle stickers and some paper antlers. These could make a classroom reindeer garland, added to greeting cards or Christmas collages. So much reindeer fun!
Simple Reindeer Greeting Card
Super Simple Rudolph Cards – this is a super fun one to make, as lal you need is some brown or black card and then cut out basic shapes for your preschooler to stick down.
Pin the Reindeer Nose Christmas Party Game
Preschoolers and Toddlers love the party classic “pin the tail”.. and here we have a twist on it by turning it into a “pin the reindeer nose” party game. We went for simple reindeer face shapes. Printed of some bauble coloring pages and hey presto, you have your own pin Rudolph’s nose Christmas Party Game! Where WILL the Reindeer noses end up?! Much fun to be had with all the family!
Make a bottle cap reindeer ornament
Plastic lids and bottle caps can be combined to make an adorable and simple Rudolph Ornament. Start collecting lids in the right colours today. If you can find red bottle caps, try a red pom pom or red glitter paper instead! Or maybe some scrunched up recycled tissue paper? Experiment with what you can find! Love the pipecleaner antlers. These certainly would look fun on the Christmas Tree or could be used to decorate a simple gift too.
Make some Reindeer Food
Of course making reindeer food is always a hit with little ones! Magic Reindeer Food is easy to make! Just remember, don’t get too excited about things like glitter.. Reindeer may be magic, but like tasty edible food like all creatures!
Twig Reindeer Ornament
Similarly to recycled reindeer crafts, we also adore NATURE Reindeer Crafts made from nature finds! Fireflies and Mudpies has this adorable and oh so simple Twig Reindeer Ornament for you to try!
Glass Filled Reindeer Ornaments
DIY filled glass ornaments are super popular – you can of course make tehse using plastic baubles to fill too – making them maybe a little “safer” for toddelers and preschoolers. But I think the glass ones do look fantastic. Filling the glass ornament is a great for fine motor skills and then all you need to do is add the rudolph specific features, like rudolph’s nose and you are all set! Reading Confetti guides us through the process.
Rudolph Jingle Bells Musical Instrument
If you are in the classroom environment and plan lots of music fun.. why not make your own jingly bell Rudolph for the children to play with? They are easy to make as per pre-kpage‘s instructions!
Easy Reindeer Finger Puppet
Or how about this lovely and super easy reindeer finger puppet? Use some light card stock and cut out basic shapes to make this super duper easy Rudolph Craft for Preschoolers! Artsy Momma shows us how!
Reindeer Footprint Christmas Cards for Babies and Toddlers
Any self respecting round up for toddlers surely needs some footprint crafts too. As footprints do make ADORABLE keepsakes of those tiny baby feet and toddler feet. They are the perfect greeting card size for someone special! Emma Owl shows us more.
Handprint Reindeer Ornament
Similarly Buggy and Buddy shares this SUPER CUTE Handprint Reindeer Ornament. Isn’t it lovely? Love how it isn’t just a handprint rudolph craft, but that she then turns it into a simple keepsake ornament by using a little glue and construction paper as a background and adding a pretty ribbon! Adorable.
Reindeer Cupcake Treats
Cute reindeer crafts, can also be edible, did you know? Check out this fantastic Rudolph Cupcake! Chocolate pretzles or curly wirlies make the perfect reindeer antlers!
Anyway.. this brings me to end of our Rudolph Crafts for Preschoolers! We do have a wider collection of “Rudolph Crafts for Kids“, which also includes some fantastic (but of course) easy reindeer sewing projects, as well as many other “next level” reindeer crafts, that you can browse here:
