Easy Santa Claus Craft Ideas for Kids

It’s Christmas, and Santa is the highlight in every house! There’s no better way to get in the spirit of the holiday season than to get together with the whole family and craft some Christmas décor. We’ve put together some ideas for your Santa activities to help create his iconic white beard, the red coat, and the friendly face that everybody loves. These crafts will not only please your guests but also teach the kids how to work with craft material and take on complicated projects. Continue reading for some fun Santa crafts for children.

Creative Santa Craft Ideas for Children

Here are some easy-to-make Santa craft ideas for this Christmas:

1. Newspaper Santa

The newspaper Santa is one of the easiest and most creative Santa Claus crafts for preschoolers as it also doubles as an art project.

Supplies:

• Newspaper
• Watercolors
• Blue cardstock
• Peach acrylic paint
• A painting brush and sponge dabber
• Black marker
• Pencil
• Glue
• Scissors

Instructions:

• Start making the Santa by painting one sheet of newspaper with red watercolor. Saturate the paper with the paint and leave it to dry.
• Pick another small sheet of newspaper and paint it with peach acrylic paint using the sponge dabber. Set it aside to dry.
• Take some more unpainted newspaper, and cut out rectangles to make Santa’s cap and beard. Also cut two, long, slim rectangles to make a mustache and the brim of his hat. Finally, cut out a circle to form the tip of Santa’s hat.
• Once the red-painted newspaper is dry, cut out the following items: a half circle to form the body and shoulders, a triangle hat, and an oval nose.
• From the small peach-painted newspaper, cut out the face.
• To make the mustache, take the slim, rectangular strip and slightly pinch and roll the ends with your fingers. Then, use a pencil to wrap the strip to give it a handlebar shape. Then, glue it to the blue cardstock paper.
• Start gluing the pieces together to form Santa. The hat gets glued first to a poster board, and then the brim of the hat goes below. Fold the top vertex of the hat and glue it to the side with the circle cut out to make the tip.
• Glue the rectangular face and beard strip under the brim of the hat.
• Then glue the peach-colored face and nose. The mustache gets glued below the nose, and it’s done!

Source: Pinterest

Source: Pinterest

2. Starfish Santa

The starfish Santa is a fun Christmas decoration project as it is the easiest to make and requires very little effort. The only work that goes into this project is painting it and allowing the different sections to dry up before you paint further. Since it is an attractive decorative item, you could make more than a dozen of these for the Christmas tree and the walls.

Supplies:

• Polystyrene starfish
• Paintbrushes
• Acrylic paint

Instructions:

• Pick up a pack of polystyrene starfishes from the hobby store or order online. You will need acrylic paint as watercolors don’t adhere well to polystyrene.
• Start painting from the center-out. Santa’s suit is red so paint the center of the starfish all the way to half the length of the arms in red using a paintbrush. Be sure to paint in the gaps between the polystyrene beads as well to get a uniform finish. Set it aside to dry for a few hours.
• Pick up white paint and color half of the arms with it to form the white sleeves of Santa’s suit.
• Use a peach color on the ends of four arms consecutively to make the arms and legs. The final arm gets red paint at the tip to make the hat. Allow it to dry for a while.
• Pick up black paint and a fine brush to draw the final features such as the eyes, a smile, belts, buttons, and shoes.
• You can throw in your own creative ideas to make it look more realistic.

Source: Pinterest

3. Paper Plate Santa

This one is a slightly advanced project suited for older kids.

Supplies:

• Paper plates
• Flesh-tone acrylic paint
• Paintbrush
• 1 ft square, red cardstock paper
• White cardstock paper
• 2-inch circle punch
• Googly eyes
• Red pom
• Scissors
• White craft glue
• Glue stick

Instructions:

• Draw a line marking 1/3rd of the paper plate and cut the section off with scissors. Paint the inside of the paper plate with the flesh-tone acrylic paint and set it aside to dry.
• Draw a giant triangle on the red cardstock paper and cut it out.
• On this triangle, mark 6 inches from the top vertex to the middle, and with a ruler draw lines to all three corners of the triangle to mark the center point, where the plate will go.
• Using the 2-inch circle punch, punch out two paper discs from the white cardstock paper. Cut one of these paper discs in half.
• Cut out a narrow strip from the white cardstock to form the brim of Santa’s hat.
• Once your plate is dry, start gluing the cutouts together. One of the 2-inch discs goes to the top of the triangle to form the tip of the hat while the strip forms the brim, and the plate goes under the brim to form the face.
• Using the glue, stick googly eyes. The half-cut discs form the mustache, and the red pom forms the nose. Glue it all in place using the white craft glue.

Source: Pinterest

4. Popcorn Santa Craft

The popcorn Santa is quite a unique idea for Christmas if you’re looking for a catchy idea. It’s easy to make, and kids will have a lot of fun making it.

Supplies:

• Black construction paper – 1 piece
• Red construction paper – 1 piece
• Beige construction paper – 1 piece
• 3 cups of popped popcorn
• Googly eyes
• Glue stick/white craft glue
• 1 small red pom
• Black marker

Instructions:

• The Santa figure is made over black construction paper, so that will be your base. Start by cutting a triangle out of the red construction paper to form Santa’s hat.
• Cut a circle out of the beige paper (about 4 inches or whatever size fits the hat). Cut a small circle from the red paper to form the nose.
• Start gluing the parts together. The beige face goes in the center of the black construction paper. The red hat goes over the face. Stick them both firmly in place.
• Glue the googly eyes to and the nose to the face and draw a smile to complete it.
• Spread some white craft glue at the brim of the hat, around the cheeks, and below the face to stick all the popcorn.
• Spread the popcorn over the glue and press them gently to help bond to the paper.
• Spread some glue at the tip of the hat and drop some more popcorn. Wait for the glue to dry, and it’s done!

Source: Pinterest

5. Strawberry Pops Santa

Edible Santas are the coolest things you can create this Christmas, and everybody will love this one!

Supplies:

• Pink marshmallows
• Water and icing sugar
• Plastic sandwich bag
• Desiccated coconut
• White chocolate chips
• Black icing pen
• Strawberries
• Straws

Instructions:

• Mix the icing sugar with water to make a thick syrup that acts as glue to hold everything together.
• Dip the marshmallow about a third of the way into the syrup to coat it uniformly. Now dip this coated part of the marshmallow into the coconut grating to make the beard.
• Pick two chocolate chips and dip their bottoms into the syrup and stick them to the sides of the marshmallow to form the eyes.
• Using the black icing pen, draw pupils and facial features to complete the face.
• Allow it to dry and stick a straw into the bottom of the marshmallow.
• To make the hat, cut a strawberry in half and dip it in the icing syrup to coat the bottom. Stick it to the top of the marshmallow to complete the Santa. Squeeze a little icing on top to complete the hat.
• Make a few dozen of these and allow them to dry.

Source: Pinterest

6. Handprint Salt Dough Ornament

The Santa salt dough ornament is quite a unique item for your Christmas décor project and is something that will be cherished for years in the family. It doesn’t require any more material than what you already have in the house and costs almost nothing to make. But what they do have is plenty of love and value!

Supplies:

• Dough (mix ½ cup flour, ½ cup salt, ½ cup water to make the dough)
• Oven
• Acrylic paint
• Varnish (optional)
• Paintbrush
• Twine

Instructions:

• The project starts with making the handprints, and this step mandates adult supervision as it involves baking. Start with the raw materials of 1 cup flour 1/2 cup salt ½ cup water and mix them in a big bowl to make the dough. This quantity should be enough to make three kid-size prints. If you need to make more, increase the ingredients proportionately.
• Preheat the oven to 120 degrees Celsius.
• Take a baking tray and cover it with some baking paper.
• Dust a flat surface with some flour and transfer the dough. Roll it out to a thickness of about 7-8 mm. Transfer this to the baking tray.
• Ask your kids to imprint their hands into the dough and cut it out by leaving a margin of 2 mm around the hand impression. You can use the leftover dough to make other ornaments using a cookie cutter.
• Use a skewer or a chopstick to make a tiny hole at the base of the palm imprint. This hole will be used to string the twine. Make the hole about 1 cm from the end.
• Bake the dough cutouts in the oven for 3 hours or more and turn them after every two hours. You could even bake them overnight at lowered temperature to make them extra hard.
• Take the baked handprints out of the oven and allow them to cool. Santa’s image will be made upside down – so the base of the palm and the thumb become the hat while the fingers become the beard. The face is to be painted in the middle.
• Using a pencil draw the outlines for the details on the handprint. A semicircle extending from the base of the thumb to the other side forms the hat. Draw a face with eyes just below the hat.
• Paint the hat with red acrylic paint on both sides. Then, paint the thumbnail white to form the tip of the cap. The face gets a peach paint and a red spot in between for the nose. The rest of the fingers and handprint can be white. Draw a mustache and mark the hat with white dots and allow it to dry for a day.
• Finish it with a few coats of varnish with drying periods in between to give it a beautiful gloss.
• Thread the twine through the needle hole and the Santa Claus handprint is ready!

Source: Pinterest

7. Santa Beard Photobooth Prop

Christmas parties and celebrations often have themes like dress-ups and photobooths. If you are looking for a fun crafty way of making something related to a Christmas photo booth that is related to Santa, then this prop is the perfect one for you.

Supplies:

• White cardstock
• popsicle stick
• Duct tape or glue
• Cotton balls

Instructions:

• On a regular white cardstock, draw a shape of Santa’s beard taking into account your child’s mouth size. 
• Also, make a cut out for the mouth.
• Stick the popsicle to the back of the beard using glue or tape.
• Ask your kid to stick cotton balls all over the beard using glue.
  
  

  Source: Pinterest

8. Paper Cone Santa Decoration

You might have already planned for the decoration of your house for Christmas. But anything that involves your kid? Don’t worry, we have one awesome Santa craft for you to enjoy making with your tiny tot. This paper cone Santa decoration is easy to make and will surely beautify your living room.

Supplies:

• White cardstock
• Red scrapbook paper
• Pom pom – red and white
• Pencil
• Scissor
• Glue and glitter glue
• Black gel pen

Instructions:

• Using a large plate, make a big circle on the red craft paper and cut it out.
• Fold the circle in half and cut the circle into two pieces.
• Roll the semi-circle paper to make the red cone and glue the edges.
• On white cardstock, make the shapes of a beard, a face, and the hat brim and cut them out. Remember to make small cutouts after considering your cone’s size.
• Paste everything to their respective places.
• Now, that head, hat brim, and beard are pasted on the red cone, make eyes and mouth of the Santa using a gel pen.
• Add the tiny red pom-pom as Santa’s nose and the white pom-pom on the top of the cone.
  
  

  Source: Pinterest

9. Candy Cane Reindeer

Transform simple candy canes into adorable reindeer ornaments by adding googly eyes, a red pom-pom nose, and brown pipe cleaner antlers.

Supplies:

• Candy canes
• Googly eyes
• Red pom-poms
• Brown pipe cleaners
• Glue

Instructions:

• Take a candy cane and glue googly eyes near the curved end.
• Attach a red pom-pom just below the eyes to create the reindeer’s nose.
• Twist and bend a brown pipe cleaner to form antlers, then glue it on top of the curved end of the candy cane.
• Allow the glue to dry completely before displaying your candy cane reindeer.

10. Popsicle Stick Snowflakes

Create charming snowflake ornaments using popsicle sticks, painted in white with optional glitter, for a delightful touch of winter decor.

Supplies:

• Popsicle sticks
• White paint
• Glitter (optional)
• Glue
• Ribbon or string (for hanging)

Instructions:

• Arrange six popsicle sticks in a snowflake pattern and glue them together at the center where they meet.
• Paint the popsicle sticks white and allow them to dry completely.
• Optionally, add glitter while the paint is still wet for a sparkling effect.
• Once dry, attach a ribbon or string to the back for hanging your popsicle stick snowflake ornament.

Try one or all of these craft ideas this Christmas as part of your decoration. The material to make these are all readily available in most houses. The procedural steps for all these craft projects are simple and can be done by all kids with a little help from you. The handprint dough ornament will require some assistance but is an incredibly rewarding activity, the popcorn Santa is sure to get kids to want something to eat, and the strawberry pops Santa is sure to be a delight with the kids!

Also Read:

Christmas Card Ideas for Children
Christmas Origami Ideas for Children
Homemade Christmas Tree Ornaments for Children