Holiday and Seasonal Crafts for Kids: A Year-Round Guide

We used to dread the holiday craft season. The Pinterest boards full of complicated projects. The bags of plastic googly eyes and foam stickers. The glitter — everywhere, always, forever. The whole thing felt rushed, commercial, and strangely stressful for activities that were supposed to be about joy.

Then we shifted our approach. We stopped chasing holiday-specific crafts designed around characters and consumer themes and started anchoring our family craft traditions in the seasons themselves. We let nature lead. The materials changed with the calendar — pinecones and beeswax in winter, flowers and seeds in spring, shells and sun in summer, leaves and harvest in fall — and something surprising happened. The crafts became calmer, more meaningful, and genuinely beautiful. Our kids stopped asking for craft kits from the store because what we were making from nature felt more real.

This guide organizes our favorite seasonal and holiday crafts across the full year. Every project uses primarily natural or simple materials. Many of them have become annual traditions in our family, marking the passage of time in a way that feels rooted and intentional.

If you already keep a seasonal nature table, these crafts pair perfectly with that practice. Check out our guide to seasonal nature table ideas for more on creating a year-round nature display in your home.

Winter Crafts (December through February)

Winter is a season of darkness and light, of stillness and warmth. Our winter crafts reflect those themes — candlelight, warmth, gathering together, and finding beauty in bare branches and frozen landscapes.

Solstice Lanterns

Ages: 4+ Materials: Glass jars (mason jars work well), tissue paper in warm colors, watered-down white glue, a brush, tea light candles.

Brush a thin layer of watered-down glue onto the outside of a glass jar. Press torn pieces of tissue paper onto the glue, overlapping in layers of warm colors — reds, oranges, yellows, golds. Apply another layer of glue over the tissue paper. Let dry completely. Place a tea light inside. On the winter solstice, the shortest day of the year, we light our lanterns at dusk and tell the story of the light returning. This has become our most cherished winter tradition.

For a more advanced version, older kids can cut silhouette shapes — trees, animals, stars — from black paper and layer them between the tissue paper before sealing with glue. When lit from within, the silhouettes create shadow pictures.

Pine Cone Ornaments

Ages: 3+ Materials: Pine cones collected on nature walks, string or ribbon, paint or beeswax, small beads, dried citrus slices, cinnamon sticks.

The simplest version is a pine cone tied with a ribbon for hanging. From there, kids can paint the tips of the pine cone scales white to look like snow, dip them in beeswax for a warm glow, or wire them together with dried orange slices and cinnamon sticks for fragrant garlands. We make pine cone ornaments every December and our tree is now covered in years of accumulated handmade decorations, each one a memory.

Ice Sun Catchers

Ages: 2+ Materials: A shallow dish or pie tin, water, nature finds (berries, small leaves, flower petals, evergreen sprigs), string.

Arrange nature items in the dish. Pour water over them. Lay a loop of string with both ends submerged in the water (this becomes the hanger). Place outside to freeze overnight, or use the freezer. Once frozen solid, pop the disc out of the dish and hang it from a tree branch or porch railing. The ice catches the winter sun beautifully, and as it slowly melts over the day, children can observe the process of change. This project works best in cold climates where the ice stays frozen for hours, but even in milder regions the freezer can do the job.

Natural Valentines

Ages: 4+ Materials: Heavy card stock or watercolor paper, pressed flowers and leaves (prepare these in advance), glue, watercolor paints.

Skip the commercial valentines. Instead, fold card stock into cards and let children create their own. Press small flowers and fern fronds weeks ahead of time (or use last season's pressed collection). Glue pressed botanicals onto the card front. Add watercolor washes of pink and red. Write a message inside. These handmade valentines feel genuinely special — each one is unique, and the recipient knows real care went into it.

Beeswax Candle Rolling

Ages: 3+ Materials: Sheets of beeswax (available from craft stores or beekeeping suppliers), wick, scissors.

Cut a sheet of beeswax to size if needed. Lay the wick along one edge, letting it extend above the top. Roll the beeswax tightly around the wick, pressing gently to seal. That is it. Even three-year-olds can do this with a little help, and the result is a real, functional candle that smells like honey. We roll beeswax candles for every winter celebration and give them as gifts.

Spring Crafts (March through May)

Spring is about emergence, growth, color returning after the gray months. Our spring crafts center on flowers, seeds, new life, and the green explosion happening outside.

Flower Pressing

Ages: 3+ Materials: Fresh flowers and leaves, heavy books, parchment paper or wax paper.

Collect flowers on spring walks — wildflowers, garden blooms, interesting leaves, fern fronds. Arrange them between sheets of parchment paper inside a heavy book. Stack more books on top. Wait two to three weeks. Open to find perfectly preserved, paper-thin botanical specimens. The waiting is part of the magic — children check every few days, learning patience alongside botany. Pressed flowers become material for dozens of other projects throughout the year.

Seed Bombs

Ages: 3+ Materials: Air-dry clay or a mixture of clay soil, compost, and water, wildflower seeds native to your region.

Combine two parts clay with one part compost. Add a generous pinch of wildflower seeds. Mix with just enough water to make it moldable. Roll into small balls. Let dry for a day or two. Children can toss seed bombs into bare garden spots, along fence lines, or into containers on the patio. When rain comes, the clay dissolves and the seeds germinate. This craft connects making with environmental action in a concrete, visible way.

Natural Dye Eggs

Ages: 4+ Materials: Hard-boiled eggs (white shells work best), red cabbage, turmeric, onion skins, beets, white vinegar, pots for simmering.

Instead of commercial egg dye kits, use foods from the kitchen. Simmer red cabbage in water for blue dye. Turmeric in water for yellow. Onion skins for deep orange-brown. Beet juice for pink. Add a splash of vinegar to each dye bath. Soak eggs for thirty minutes to several hours depending on how deep you want the color. The colors are softer and more natural than commercial dyes, and the process teaches basic chemistry. Wrap eggs in leaves and secure with old pantyhose before dyeing to create botanical silhouette patterns.

May Day Baskets

Ages: 4+ Materials: Paper or small containers (recycled berry baskets work well), flowers from the garden, ribbon, tape.

May Day baskets are a tradition we adore. On May first, children fill small baskets or paper cones with fresh flowers and hang them on the doorknobs of neighbors and friends, then knock and run away. The craft part is making the baskets — roll paper into cone shapes and staple, or decorate berry baskets with ribbon. The joy is in the giving. This is a tradition that builds community, practices generosity, and celebrates the abundance of spring.

Summer Crafts (June through August)

Summer is expansive, bright, and hot. Our summer crafts use sunlight as a tool, take advantage of long days outdoors, and embrace the mess that warm weather makes possible.

Sun Prints (Cyanotype)

Ages: 5+ Materials: Sun-sensitive paper (cyanotype paper, available from art or science supply stores), flat natural objects (leaves, ferns, flowers), a sunny day, a tray of water.

Arrange objects on the sun-sensitive paper in direct sunlight. Wait five to fifteen minutes (follow the paper instructions). Remove the objects and rinse the paper in water. The paper turns deep blue where sunlight hit it, and the areas under the objects remain white, creating ghostly botanical silhouettes. The results look like fine art, and the process feels like magic. This is one of the most visually stunning crafts on this list.

Shell Art

Ages: 3+ Materials: Shells collected from beach visits, paint, strong glue, frames or driftwood pieces, string.

Summer beach trips yield bags of collected shells. Back home, children can paint shells with faces or patterns, glue them onto driftwood for wall hangings, string them into wind chimes, or frame them in shadow boxes. We also enjoy shell mandalas on the beach itself — arranging shells in circular patterns on the sand, photographing them, and leaving them for the tide.

Tie-Dye with Natural Dyes

Ages: 5+ Materials: White cotton t-shirts or pillowcases, rubber bands, natural dye baths (turmeric for yellow, avocado pits and skins for pink, black beans for blue-purple), large pots, salt or vinegar as fixative.

Twist and bind fabric with rubber bands in classic tie-dye patterns. Simmer in natural dye baths for one to two hours. The colors are softer than synthetic dyes — muted yellows, dusty pinks, gentle blues — and they are entirely non-toxic. Soak fabric in a salt or vinegar bath first to help the color hold. The imperfect, muted results are honestly more beautiful to our eyes than the neon commercial versions.

Pressed Flower Bookmarks

Ages: 4+ Materials: Pressed flowers (from your spring pressing projects), card stock, clear contact paper or a laminator, ribbon, a hole punch.

Cut card stock into bookmark-sized strips. Arrange pressed flowers on the strip. Carefully cover with clear contact paper or run through a laminator. Punch a hole at the top and thread ribbon through. These make perfect end-of-summer gifts for teachers or friends. They also give purpose to the pressed flower collection that has been growing since spring, closing a satisfying creative loop.

Fall Crafts (September through November)

Fall is richness, color, gathering in, preparing. Our autumn crafts use the spectacular materials the season provides — blazing leaves, acorns, seed pods, dried grasses, and the harvest coming in from gardens and orchards.

Leaf Prints

Ages: 2+ Materials: Freshly fallen leaves with prominent veins, paint, paper, a brayer or roller (optional).

Brush paint onto the veined side of a leaf — the side with raised veins. Press painted side down onto paper and press firmly or roll gently with a brayer. Peel the leaf away to reveal a detailed botanical print. Use fall leaves in reds, oranges, and yellows for stunning autumn art. Layer prints in overlapping patterns for more complex compositions. This is one of the simplest and most consistently beautiful crafts we do all year.

Acorn Crafts

Ages: 4+ Materials: Acorns (with and without caps), paint, small screws or toothpicks, felt, glue, string.

Acorns are everywhere in fall and their compact, charming shape lends itself to all sorts of miniature projects. Paint faces on them to make tiny people. Glue felt blankets on them and nestle them in walnut shell beds. String them into garlands. Glue them to twigs to make tree sculptures. Our children once spent an entire afternoon building an acorn village on a tree stump, and the satisfaction of working with these small, natural objects was palpable.

Gratitude Trees

Ages: 4+ Materials: A large branch secured in a vase or pot, paper leaves cut from cardstock in fall colors, string or clothespins, pens.

Find a beautiful bare branch and set it in a pot of stones or sand. Cut dozens of leaf shapes from colored paper. Throughout November, family members write things they are grateful for on the paper leaves and hang them on the branch. By the end of the month, the tree is full and heavy with gratitude. We read them aloud on Thanksgiving. This craft builds over weeks and creates a visual representation of abundance that resonates with children.

Harvest Wreaths

Ages: 5+ Materials: A grapevine wreath base (or make one by bending and winding flexible green vines), dried flowers, wheat stalks, small gourds, acorns, seed pods, hot glue (adult supervised), ribbon.

A harvest wreath on the front door marks the season visually and gives children ownership over the home's decoration. Start with a grapevine base. Wire or hot-glue natural materials around the wreath — dried hydrangeas, wheat stalks, small gourds, acorns, milkweed pods, pinecones. Each family member can add something. The wreath becomes a collaborative piece of seasonal art.

For more ideas on using natural materials in art projects throughout the year, our full guide to nature art projects for kids covers twenty projects organized by season and difficulty.

Making Seasonal Crafts a Rhythm

The real power of seasonal crafting is not in any individual project. It is in the rhythm — the returning traditions that mark the passage of time for our children. When our kids see us pulling out the beeswax sheets, they know the winter solstice is approaching. When the flower press comes out, they know spring is here. These crafts become anchors in the year, rituals that children anticipate and remember.

A few practices that help us maintain this rhythm:

Keep a seasonal craft box. We rotate materials four times a year. In fall, out come the pressed leaves, acorn collection, and warm-colored paint. In winter, the beeswax sheets, evergreen sprigs, and candle-making supplies. This keeps things fresh and connected to the season.

Connect crafts to nature walks. Almost every project above starts with time outdoors — collecting leaves, shells, flowers, pinecones, or branches. The craft itself is just the second act. The first act is always the walk.

Repeat favorites. Our kids do not want a new craft every week. They want to make beeswax candles every December and seed bombs every April. Repetition builds mastery and creates tradition. Do not feel pressured to constantly find new projects.

Display and gift. Seasonal crafts decorating the home give children a sense of ownership and contribution. Crafts given as gifts teach generosity. Both practices give the work purpose beyond the making.

For families who follow a Waldorf-inspired approach to handwork and seasonal living, you may also enjoy our guide to Waldorf handwork projects for kids, which covers knitting, felting, and other traditional crafts connected to the rhythm of the year.

Nature gives us everything we need for a year of meaningful making. The seasons change the palette, and our children change the art. Every year the leaf prints look a little different. Every year the beeswax candles are rolled a little more skillfully. That is the beauty of returning — the craft stays the same, but the child grows.