With the holiday season fast approaching, you’re likely trying to think up fun activities to get your family in the holiday spirit while you’re making a gift list for special people in your life. Plenty of creative gift ideas exist that let you combine both tasks. Crème de la Crème put together this list of some fun presents your kids can create to get you started.

Cookie Mix

“person holding clear glass jar with white powder” used with permission via Unsplash by dari_lli

Sweeten up anyone’s holiday with a thoughtful cookie mix. You just need your go-to recipe, the dry ingredients, and a glass jar large enough to hold it all, and you’re good to go. Whether your kiddos want to share their love of chocolate chip cookies with a best friend or favorite teacher or you want to give a taste of a family recipe to relatives and other loved ones, this fun gift is perfect for getting everyone involved.

In addition to a recipe and measured-out dry ingredients, you’ll need supplies like paper or canvas fabric, markers or crayons, scissors, and double-sided tape or adhesive. Gather the dry ingredients from a recipe in the right measurements, then layer everything into a clear container. Your kids are sure to love scooping in the sugar, flour, and other essentials.

Then, dress up the container with the baking instructions taped to one side and a handwritten label your kid creates on the other. Let your child get creative with the decorations, adding their own drawings or cutting the fabric or paper into a fun label shape. This gift is super easy to put together with kids while still being thoughtful and personal.

Decorated Cookie Tins

Prefer to do the baking yourself? You can have fun with a family baking day, then let your kids create the containers to give those sweet treats to teachers, neighbors, cousins, and more. 

Get tins your kids can decorate to create a memorable and touching gift your child can give. Kids can decorate tins with holiday greetings, their own drawings, and more. Fill up the tin with homemade cookies or other holiday-themed goodies. If you don’t have time for baking, you can always get some holiday sweets (think: candy canes, packets of hot chocolate, and more) to put together a fun assortment packaged in a unique way.

Cute Coasters

Kids will enjoy showing off their creativity with this simple yet fun craft activity. All you need is some wool felt in an assortment of festive colors, white adhesive-backed felt, scissors, a ruler, and a pencil. Your children can then help create coasters to package in sets to give out for the holidays.

Use your ruler and pencil to draw squares and rectangles on the felt, varying the sizes and colors you use. Depending on your kids’ abilities, you can cut out the shapes for them or allow them to cut the felt. Next, make a patchwork design by attaching small pieces of felt onto the sticky side of the adhesive-backed felt. After you have the adhesive-backed felt completely covered with this colorful patchwork, cut into 4-inch squares. Voila! You’ve created coasters ideal for drinks at any holiday gathering.

Reusable Drink Sleeves

Give the perfect gift for the coffee or cocoa lover in your child’s life by creating reusable drink sleeves to use on the go. Just gather some old socks, either striped or solid colors, and you have what you need to fashion a reusable sleeve for coffee, tea, or hot cocoa. Along with the socks, you’ll want to gather buttons, felt and felt stickers, fabric scissors, and fabric glue before you start the family crafting session.

Cut 4 inches from each sock leg to create your cup cozy. Then, kids can have fun adding embellishments using the fabric glue. Make fun shapes and decorations like candy canes, snowflakes, and Christmas trees to really get into the seasonal spirit with this gift. You can use buttons to make snowmen, felt to fashion designs in the shape of present boxes, and more. The possibilities are endless, so let your children use their imagination as they go.

Want to take the present to the next level? Wrap the cozy around a cup or container, and add a packet of hot cocoa or a few bags of tea so the recipient has their first tasty drink on hand.

Fabric and Rock Paperweights

Cute yet functional, paperweights made using just fabric and a rock from the backyard help anyone get a little more organized. The gift-making process kicks off with tons of fun when you task your kiddos with finding smooth rocks or stones to use from the backyard or park! Along with the rocks, you’ll need fabric scraps, fabric glue, wax paper, and felt letter stickers to craft some truly cool paperweights.

Start by making a small cut at the end of the fabric you want to use. You can even repurpose old clothes or fabric napkins you’d otherwise throw out for this project. Once you have the small cut made, you or the kids can tear small strips from there. Cut strips into manageable segments, then water down some glue and brush it onto one side of the fabric strip. Adhere fabric strips one by one to the rock, overlapping the edges until you’ve created and the effect you want.

Put the rock on wax paper to dry. Once it does dry, brush on another layer of glue on top of everything and let it dry again. Then kids can go ahead and embellish with letter stickers, felt shapes, and more to create a personalized paperweight for everyone on their gift list.There you have it! Crème de la Crème just gave you some ideas to try out when you’re looking for kid-friendly crafts that you can make into gifts for Christmas and other holidays. Do you have a favorite seasonal gift you love creating with your kids? Or maybe an easy recipe you love baking with your family to give as a present? Drop us a line with your suggestions. We’d love to add some more gift ideas for families to try.