The festive season is the perfect time to get creative with your little one, and you don’t need to buy anything fancy to make something magical. With a few recycled materials, some imagination and a little festive sparkle, you can create beautiful crafts while teaching children about sustainability, resourcefulness and caring for our planet.
As part of our wider energy-saving project across all of our nurseries, we recently celebrated our own Recycling Week. It encouraged children to think about how everyday materials can be reused in fun and meaningful ways, a theme that fits perfectly with festive crafting. These simple activities help nurture eco-friendly habits and show children that small actions can have a positive impact on the world around them.
Here are some fun and easy ideas to try at home using items you probably already have around the house:
- Toilet Roll Tube Reindeer
What you will need:
- Empty toilet roll tube
- Brown paint or crayons
- Googly eyes (or draw your own!)
- Paper scraps for antlers
- Glue
How to make it: Let your child decorate the tube with brown paint or colouring. Cut antlers from scrap paper or an old cereal box and glue them to the inside edge of the tube. Add eyes and a little red nose, and your reindeer is ready to help spread Christmas cheer.
- Jar Lid Baubles
What you’ll need:
- Old jams jar lids
- Ribbon or string
- Glue, paint or stickers
- Scrap paper or leftover wrapping paper
How to make it: Cover the inside of the lid with festive paper or let your child paint it with sparkly colours. Glue a ribbon to the top and hang it on the tree. These sweet little baubles are perfect keepsakes and help give everyday items a second life.
- Egg Carton Christmas Trees
What you’ll need:
- An egg carton
- Green paint
- Stickers, sequins or bits of coloured paper
- A bit of cardboard for the base
How to make it: Cut out the cone-shaped sections from the egg carton, paint them green and stack them to make a little tree. Let your little one decorate with tiny “ornaments”. Simple, charming and perfect for tiny hands.
- Paper Roll Snowflakes
What you will need:
- Toilet or kitchen roll tubes
- White paint
- Glue and a few sparkly bits if you have them
How to make it: Flatten the tubes, cut them into rings and arrange them into a snowflake shape. Glue together and paint white or silver. These make beautiful decorations for windows, walls or hanging mobiles.
- Festive Collage Cards
What you’ll need:
- Scrap cardboard (cereal boxes work brilliantly)
- Old magazines, wrapping paper or leaflets
- Glue and crayons
How to make it: Cut the cardboard into card shapes and let your child create their own festive picture using cut-out shapes from magazines or leftover wrapping paper. Great for developing fine motor skills and creativity, and lovely for sending to family and friends.
Crafting with recycled materials teaches children that creativity doesn’t require new things. It encourages problem-solving, imagination and respect for the environment, all while creating time for bonding, laughter and festive fun.
At Bright Little Stars, we love activities that support learning through play and help children explore the world in meaningful, hands-on ways.
And… don’t worry about the outcome being “perfect”. For little ones, the joy is in the messy fingers, the gluey tables and the sense of pride in making something themselves.
