Jolly activities make holiday fun for kids

By Donna Erickson

There's plenty of memory-making in the works for your preschoolers with these jolly activities you'll enjoy together counting down to Christmas Day. Illustration by David Larochelle

• Attach jingle bells to zipper pulls on sweaters and jackets and to hair clips or ponytail holders to ring holiday cheer wherever your kids go.
• Trace both of your child's hands on a sheet of heavy construction paper. Cut a 1-inch-wide strip of heavy paper or cardboard to fit around your child's head. Tape the band together, and then tape the cutout handprint shapes on opposite sides of the band so that they look like reindeer antlers on his head! Your child will have fun pretending he is helping Santa when hiding gifts under the tree or delivering presents to neighbors or to a toy drive.
• Let your child create a village around the Christmas tree with interlocking construction toys, blocks, ships, dolls or a wooden train. If you have a train set from your own childhood, bring it out of storage, unpack it and set it up together.
• Cut several sheets of white printer paper into square shapes. Fold into quarters and then into a triangle. Show your child how to snip off ovals and tiny triangles from the folded edges using her scissors. Unfold to reveal a pretty snowflake. Tape them on or around your child's bedroom window.
  Tip: For round snowflakes, set a dinner plate on the paper before folding. Let your child draw around the plate pattern and cut out the circle.
• Set out crayons and markers and a large sheet of construction paper or a plain shopping bag on the kitchen table. Encourage your child to make doodles, little drawings or a winter scene. Use the one-of-a-kind art to wrap up Grandmother's Christmas present together.
  Tip: If a marker becomes dry, dip it in a cup of water and use it like watercolors!
• While you pack up a box to send in the mail, put a sheet of bubble wrap on the floor for your child to jump on to make funny noises. Join her and let out the wiggles together as you hop and pop.