Setting Up the Christmas Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

Inside: We had so much fun with our toddler and preschool Christmas theme. Lots of playful learning and gift making. Lots of free printables are included in this post!

Our last theme before winter break is Christmas. In fact, the Christmas theme stretches for 2 weeks since there’s so much happening.

But even with the gifts and treats that we make for our families, I’ve also included some simple fun activities that help burn the excess energy that seems to happen around this time of year.

Come see how I’ve set up our toddler and preschool classroom!

And, as usual, I’ve provided all the printables that were used during these 2 weeks, absolutely free.

Scroll down to find the downloads!

Setting Up the Christmas Theme in the Toddler and Preschool Classroom

Here are some of the activities that we enjoyed, categorized by center or activity:

Art

With all the hustle and bustle that tends to happen over the holidays, young children feed off of it with excess energy.

I’m talking “I cannot sit still, do not expect me to sit still, can I jump and run please” type of energy.

I’ve learned long ago not to fight it.

Just not worth it.

So, one of my favorite art activities to do this time of year is painting on ice.

Now, we just happened to have ice shaped into Christmas trees, but you can use a plain container to freeze water.

You can read more about this activity here: Christmas Tree Ice Painting

Ice Painting for Kids

Gingerbread Ice Painting

Frozen Heart Art

Put the Lights on the Christmas Tree Card

This was a fun fine motor art activity! After helping me write a simple message inside the card, we attached them to our gift bags.

You can read more about it here.

Alphabet Ornaments

One of our last Christmas art activities was this super simple alphabet ornament. After making copies of the printable, I gave the children an ornament with the first letter of their names.They used dot markers and then I laminated them and punched a hole in the top. I attached them to the outside of our gift bags and they can then be used as an ornament. Fun, right?

👉 Scroll down to the free printables section to get the download.

Christmas Gifts

After we were finished creating all our Christmas art pieces, we wrapped them in our homemade gift bags. On the last day of school before winter break, the children took their bags home.

Circle Time

In addition to reading some fun Christmas books and singing Christmas songs during circle time, we also practiced pushing small envelopes into Santa’s mailbox. I purchased this last year at Home Depot and our toddlers and preschoolers love it!

After introducing it at circle time, I then placed it at our writing table along with assorted paper, cards, envelopes, stickers, stamps, and markers.

(Note: I checked Home Depot online and they no longer carry this product. But there are lots of similar mailboxes available, such as this one.)

Music and Movement

Check out our December playlist!

Blocks Center

We turned our train table into a Duplo compatible building table with some new self-stick base plates!

You can read more about it here: The Easiest Way to Convert Your Train Table into a Duplo Table

Dramatic Play

We placed a couple of artificial trees on top of the dramatic play shelf along with some colored lights. Christmas plates, stockings, slice and bake cookies, trays, and a mixer were available as an invitation for some pretend baking. Even our dollies were fed some of our Christmas food!

Fine Motor

I love to use every part of our classroom, and that includes the windows! I found some Christmas vinyl clings that the children loved rearranging on our big window.

Table Activities

During our free-choice centers time, we use our big table for various skill-building activities.

In addition to the printable activities (scroll down to find download links), we loved our chunky Christmas tree puzzle, and we used our magnetic chalk board for sorting bows by color.