Classroom teachers are always looking for creative ideas to engage kids with fun lessons. Art teachers, especially, rely on creativity to run their classrooms, but at the middle school level, they also need high-interest projects. Below are 33 Christmas art activities that will engage middle schoolers. The projects range from simple, low-prep crafts to multi-day, slightly more prep art lessons. Each craft and/or lesson can be adapted to fit the needs and supplies of your own classroom. Here are 33 Christmas art activities that will engage middle schoolers.
1. 3D Paper Christmas Trees
This art project is great for middle school students. All you need is card stock paper, scissors, a toothpick, and glue. Kids can either color the trees or they can decorate them with stickers, strings, or pom poms. There is a template to help kids make their trees as well.
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2. Snowman Hat Ornament
This cute craft requires popsicle sticks, buttons, felt, string, and hot glue. Kids will love getting creative and showing off their finished hats. They can also bring this home to display on their own family tree or you can use them to decorate a classroom tree.
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3. Christmas Lights Painted Rocks
This fun craft is easy and cheap. Kids can bring in their own rocks for the project. All you need to provide is paint, sharpie markers, and an acrylic sealer. You can teach kids about lighting and patterns using this activity as well.
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4. Leaf Wreath
The leaf wreath is a cool craft that allows kids to get outside, as well as to create a textured, multi-media art project. All they will need are leaves of various colors, a craft hoop, and string. They can also include ribbons for a beautiful bow.
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5. Fabric Christmas Tree Ornament
This craft requires cinnamon sticks, fabric or ribbon pieces, twine, and hot glue. This craft idea is a great way to teach kids about experimenting with colors and patterns. Use the finished project to create a class tree to display!
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6. Christmas Gnome Ornaments
This craft project takes fifteen minutes to complete, so it is the perfect lesson for a middle school class period. You will need wood slices, craft fur, felt, beads or buttons, twine, and a hot glue gun.
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7. 3D Paper Star Christmas Ornament
Classroom teachers will love this craft because it requires very little preparation and will keep kids busy for the entire class period. You will need the template and instruction sheet linked above and Christmas-y paper.
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8. Twine Wrapped Candy Cane Ornaments
Here is another inexpensive holiday craft that your middle schoolers will love. All you need are candy canes, twine, ribbon, pine tree scraps, and hot glue. This craft is unique and cost-effective and it will last a long time as a beautiful decoration.
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9. Rustic Snow Globe Ornament
If you are looking for a longer project for your class, then this is the perfect craft. You will need a clear, empty ornament, cotton balls, mini trees, glitter, twine, and burlap. This craft is perfect for smaller class sizes.
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10. Origami Christmas Trees
Origami Christmas trees are a perfect art lesson, especially for 6th-grade students. Kids will use the templates to follow directions to create an individual tree using fun, Christmas-y paper. Kids can do these any time, so you can avoid that awkward classroom time where kids have nothing to do!
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11. Popsicle Stick Sleds
Popsicle stick sleds make the perfect holiday art activity. You can make this craft simple or more complex depending on which supplies you choose to use. At the minimum, you will need popsicle sticks, twine, hot glue, and markers.
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12. 3D Pasta Christmas Tree
Here is another cost-effective craft that shows kids how to upcycle and use household items to make excellent decorations. The link above includes an instructional video you can use in your classroom to help kids make the perfect pasta tree.
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13. 3D Paper Snowflakes
3D paper snowflakes are a middle school art class past time. This kid-approved Christmas decoration is the perfect way to teach kids patterns and symmetry. For added bonus, use their beautiful designs to decorate your classroom.
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14. Clothes Pin Christmas Wreath
Here is another easy and fun craft that middle schoolers will love. Have kids bring in a wire hanger. You will provide clothes pins, a wire cutter, spray paint or markers, and ribbon. This holiday design doubles as a picture holder.
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15. Snowman Candy Gift Pot
This little craft is the perfect gift for art students to give to their parents or friends. You will need to provide small planter pots and paint at the minimum. If you have the budget and resources, you can also provide students with candy bags to put into their creations.
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16. Christmas Tree Garland
Teaching kids how to create a Christmas tree garland doubles as an art lesson that uses math. Kids will measure their strings and space out their trees equally. All you need is a string, felt, hot glue, and card stock.
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17. Cookie Cutter Ornaments
This simple craft is great for middle school if you have parents willing to donate cookie cutters or if you can find cookie cutters at the dollar store. All you need in addition to the cookie cutters is craft paper, ribbon or string, and hot glue.
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18. Sparkling Star Ornament
This beautiful craft is another ornament that makes an excellent gift, and better yet, it's cheap and easy to make! All you need is a foam ball, toothpicks, paint, and glitter.
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19. Dangling Star Ornaments
These star ornaments make great gifts for friends or family. Your students can start by making the salt dough for the craft, then use cookie cutters to make the star shapes to decorate. You can provide decorations like sequins, jewels, paint, etc. for kids to use.
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20. Fluffy Santa Ornament
The fluffy Santa is another ornament that doubles as a gift for friends or family. You will need felt, faux fur, white pom-poms, red/pink/white small pom-poms, craft wire, and hot glue. This craft requires a lot of supplies, but the finished product is worth it!
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21. Pringles Can Cookie Container
This activity is perfect for middle schoolers to show off their creativity. You will need students to bring in Pringles cans and you will provide craft paper, paint, embellishments like ribbon, mini ornaments, bells, etc. Have kids Christmas-size their Pringles can.
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22. Fingerprint Christmas Lights
This beautiful image is one kid and their parents will want to frame to use as a decoration year after year. You just need white craft paper, paint, a permanent marker, and fingerprints! You can also do this with colored pencils or oil pastels.
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23. Ornament Drawing
Use this ornament drawing lesson plan to teach kids how to use shadows, light, and color to create 3D shapes. This holiday-themed directed drawing activity will be one that kids are proud of. You can use this activity with paint, colored pencils, oil pastels, or any other media that fits your unit.
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24. Perspective Snowman Drawing
This art lesson tutorial teaches kids about perspective using a bird's eye view of a snowman. Your students will love this fun winter art lesson and they will love to decorate their snowmen. This interactive activity is perfect for middle schoolers.
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25. Toilet Paper Roll Star Ornament
This simple art lesson is a favorite among art teachers. All you need are toilet paper rolls (a great way to get the school to help out!), white paint, hot glue, and glitter. You can make the star as big or small as you want. Tie on a string to make an ornament!
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26. Book-Themed Ugly Sweater Design
Pair your art lesson with an ELA lesson and design an ugly sweater for a character in a book. This is a great way for kids to transfer knowledge from subject to subject and show off their skills to other teachers. Plus, who doesn't love an Ugly Christmas sweater?
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27. Google Slides Christmas Trees
If you want to avoid the mess and use technology instead, have students use Google slides to decorate their own Christmas tree or ornament. Encourage students to use a specific theme and color scheme to add depth and creativity to their project.
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28. Twisted Paper Ornaments
Students will love creating this textured ornament, and this craft activity provides a perfect opportunity to teach kids about texture and patterns. All you need is an old ornament (kids can bring one in, or you can get some at the dollar store) and craft paper.
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29. Icicle Ornaments
This artsy-craft is fun and easy. All you need is hot glue, nonstick paper (like wax paper or a nonstick mat), and glitter glue for the hot glue guns. Kids will use the glue to create icicle patterns made from hot glue.
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30. Salt Dough Houses
Salt dough is a class material for kids to make and decorate sculptures. Once the salt dough is made, have your class create a Christmas town to display in the classroom. All you need are the ingredients for the dough, pain, and a permanent marker!
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31. Paint Stick Snowmen
This craft is easy and cheap! All you need are paint sticks from a local hardware store to get started. Have kids paint the sticks white, then decorate their sticks like a snowman! You can provide permanent markers, beads, ribbon, fabric, string, felt, etc. for kids to use to decorate.
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32. Christmas Pinecone Name Holders
This is another easy and cost-effective craft, especially if you live in an area where pinecones are easy to come by. Use glitter and glue to decorate the pine cones, then make name cards to attach to the pinecones.
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33. Ornament Window Decorations
This project is another great way to upcycle old Christmas ornaments. Use the kids' creations to decorate the windows of your classroom. You will need ribbon or string, an ornament, and Christmas-y embellishments.
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