Winter activities for toddlers will keep your kids entertained throughout the cold months when everyone is cooped up inside together. Making it through the holiday season can be tough enough without an energetic toddler zooming around your house. If you notice that your child has a lot of pent of energy this time of year, and you’d like them to focus on something else so you can get your holiday shopping done, work from home, for just RELAX, then this blog is for you.
In addition, we’re going to throw in some family activities for wintertime! This is a great time of year to gather the family and do some unique activities that you can’t do the rest of the year.
Winter Activities for Kids
This list of fun winter activities for kids will help keep your kids entertained until the warmer weather comes back and they can run around outside.
1. Salt Dough Ornaments
If your kids like to play with playdough, they will LOVE making salt dough ornaments! This is a really fun activity to have your kids do alone or get the whole family to join in. Salt dough is super easy to make – all you need is salt, water, and flour.
If you want, you can add a drop of food coloring to the dough to match your holiday theme. You can also glue glitter to the salt dough and seal it with Modge Podge for a little bit of festive sparkle.
Here’s what you need:
- 4 cups of flour
- 1 cup of salt
- 1.5 cups of water (add more if the dough is too tough)
- Drinking straw
- Twine
- Holiday cookie cutters
Optional:
- Food coloring
- Clear craft glue
- Glitter
- Mod Podge
- Craft paint
- Preheat the oven to 200 F
- Mix dough ingredients together and knead until smooth – about 10 minutes
- Flatten dough with your hands or a rolling pin until it’s about ¼ inch thick
- Use cookie cutters to cut out shapes
- Use a drinking straw to punch a hole at the top for the twine, so you can hang the ornaments
- Bake for 1-2 hours – you need the ornaments to dry out COMPLETELY
- Your ornaments are good to go after this! Now, you can decorate them with paint, glitter, rhinestones – whatever you want!
Thread twine through the hole at the top to hang on the tree and admire your child’s beautiful creations for years to come!
2. Magic Snowballs
You only need four ingredients to make this fun wintertime activity for kids that will shock and amaze them! It’s the perfect activity for kids that want to play in the snow, but maybe it hasn’t snowed yet or you live somewhere that doesn’t get snow in the winter.
- Baking soda
- Water
- Vinegar
- Food coloring
- Put a 16oz box of baking soda in the fridge for a couple of hours to make it cold like real snow
- Dump the whole box into a large bowl and mix in about a ½ cup of cold water
- Spread the “snow” on a baking sheet and let your child make snowballs and mini snowmen!
- Meanwhile, dump some white vinegar into large, glass containers with a drop of food coloring
- Tell your child to plop a “snowball” in there and see what happens! They’ll love watching the colorful fizzy reaction
Woo, science!
3. Sticky Snowman Wall
This is another great activity for kids who want to build a snowman, but don’t have any snow. Plus, you know how kids like to play with anything sticky. This winter activity for kids is great because it’s all the sticky without any of the mess!
You’ll need:
- Contact paper
- Orange and black foam sheets
- Cotton balls
- Giant googly eyes
- Permanent marker
- Tape
- Roll out a large sheet of contact paper. Remove the part that covers the sticky side and tape the sheet to the wall, with the NON-STICKY side facing the wall.
- Draw the outline of a snowman
- Cut a carrot nose out of the orange foam sheet and a black top hat, buttons, and arm sticks out of the black foam
- Sit your child in front of the snowman outline and give them the foam pieces, googly eyes, and cotton balls. Allow them to do their best at placing all the pieces in the right spot. It’s like pin the nose on the snowman!
Tip: Give them some extra items to decorate their snowman with, like plastic gems, large glitter flakes, or real buttons!
4. Blanket fort
Is there really ever a time when a blanket fort is a bad idea?
Here’s what you’ll need:
- Strong twine
- Clothespins
- Sheets, blankets, and pillows
- Hammer
- Nail
Hammer a nail in one corner of a room, and another in an opposite corner. Run a long piece of strong twine from one nail to the other. Grab a lightweight sheet and hang it over the twine to create the fort. You’ll want to spread the ends of the sheets out over furniture, so it creates a little room underneath.
Fill the fort with soft blankets, pillows, and your child’s favorite toys. They’ll love cozying up in there while you’re busy around the house! Plus, you can always crawl in there with them to read a book or watch a movie at the end of a long day.
Tip: Drape some Christmas lights over the front of the fort to give it some festive ambiance and make it the perfect spot to hang out after dinner.
More Help from Meaningful Beginnings
The Meaningful Beginnings blog is filled with more great ideas for kid activities! Check out our past articles and stay tuned for more great content. Contact us and let us know if there’s anything specific that you’d like to see here.
