6 Christmas Tree Crafts for Preschoolers (Easy Ideas)
6 Christmas tree crafts for preschoolers, each with a picture and simple steps. Easy ideas for ages 3 to 5 using paper, paint, and glue.
A preschool Christmas tree craft is a green triangle and more glue than you planned. It stays on the fridge until February. Here are six, each with a picture, the supplies, and the steps, from a decorate-a-tree collage to a fork-painted tree.
A three-year-old covers the collage tree with buttons and pom poms until the green disappears. A five-year-old stacks the plate wedges and dots fingerprint lights down the handprint tree, one color per row.
Start here: three christmas tree crafts that always work
6 Christmas tree crafts for preschoolers, with pictures
1. Handprint Christmas tree
The child prints green hands in rows to form a tree, then dots on fingerprint lights and a star.
You need: green poster paint, red, yellow and blue poster paint, yellow paper, white cardstock, glue
How to make it
- Paint your child's palm green and stamp one handprint at the top of the cardstock with the fingers pointing down.
- Stamp 2 more green handprints side by side below it, overlapping slightly, to make a triangle tree.
- Let it dry, then your child presses red, yellow and blue fingerprint dots on the tree as lights.
- Cut a yellow star and glue it at the top.
2. Decorate-a-tree collage
The child covers a pre-cut green tree with buttons, pom poms, sequins and stickers however they like.
You need: green cardstock, white paper, brown paper, buttons, small pom poms, sequins, white glue
How to make it
- You cut a green triangle. Your child glues it, point up, on the white paper.
- Cut a small brown rectangle and glue it under the triangle as the trunk.
- Your child chooses where to glue the buttons, pom poms and sequins on the tree.
- Let the glue dry flat.
3. Pinecone Christmas tree
The child paints a pinecone green and pushes pom poms or beads between the scales as ornaments.
You need: 1 pinecone, green poster paint, small pom poms, yellow paper, glue
How to make it
- Your child paints the pinecone green and stands it on its wide flat end with the point up. Let it dry.
- Push and glue the pom poms between the scales as ornaments.
- Cut a small yellow star and glue it on the very top.
4. Torn paper Christmas tree
The child tears green paper or old wrapping paper and glues the pieces inside a triangle tree outline.
You need: 1 sheet of white cardstock, green construction paper, green wrapping paper scraps, brown paper, 1 gold star sticker, glue stick
How to make it
- Draw a tall triangle on the cardstock with a pencil.
- Your child tears green paper and wrapping paper into small pieces.
- Your child glues the pieces inside the triangle, overlapping, until it is mostly filled.
- Cut a small brown rectangle and glue it at the bottom as the trunk. Stick the star at the top point.
5. Paper plate Christmas tree
The child paints a plate green, it is cut into wedges and stacked into a tree, then decorated with pom poms and a star.
You need: 1 paper plate, green paint, small pom poms, brown paper, yellow paper, white paper, white glue
How to make it
- Your child paints the plate green with streaky strokes. Let it dry.
- You cut the plate into 3 wedges: one large, one medium, one small.
- Glue the wedges on the white sheet, points up and overlapping, largest at the bottom and smallest on top.
- Your child glues pom poms on the wedges.
- Cut a brown rectangle and a yellow star. Glue the rectangle under the bottom wedge and the star at the top.
6. Fork painted Christmas tree
The child stamps green paint with a fork in widening rows to make branches, then adds fingerprint ornaments.
You need: 1 metal fork, green paint, white paper, brown paper, round dot stickers, 1 gold star sticker
How to make it
- Pour green paint onto a plate. Your child dips the fork and presses it on the white paper in a short row at the top.
- Print more rows below, each a little wider, until a triangle tree appears. Let it dry.
- Cut a small brown rectangle and glue it at the bottom as the trunk.
- Your child sticks dots on the green and the gold star at the top.
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Christmas tree crafts for 3 year olds
These 2 need no exact cutting and no small pieces, so a young three can do most of it alone: Decorate-a-tree collage, Torn paper Christmas tree.
Christmas tree crafts with a 3 year old in December
Green paint for the printed trees, green paper for the rest. Cut the triangles and the paper plate wedges the night before, set out a bowl of buttons, pom poms and stickers, and the craft runs itself.
A three year old can tear, glue, press on decorations and stamp with a fork. Cutting the triangle and the wedges and pushing beads between pinecone scales are five year old jobs; stacking the plate tree in order is yours.
Count the ornaments as they go on, and say which is the biggest row and the smallest. The fork painted tree is rows that widen, which is a good first look at big and small.
Old wrapping paper scraps are the best supply for the torn paper tree. The handprint tree is the keepsake to frame, and the pinecone tree sits on the table for the whole month.
What you need for christmas tree crafts
Most of these use the same handful of supplies: brown paper, yellow paper, white paper, small pom pom, green poster paint, white cardstock, glue, white glue. Everything else is named on the craft it belongs to.
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