Montessori Fine Motor Toddler Christmas Activities

There is a lot of hustle and bustle happening during the Christmas season. Let’s slow it down a bit with some intentional Montessori-inspired fine motor toddler Christmas activities. These Christmas-themed fine motor activities are a simple, fun way to bring your child into the holiday spirit while still supporting their growth and independence. These aren’t just cute crafts—they’re hands-on opportunities for our toddlers to build hand strength, pincer grasp, and hand-eye coordination while feeling like they’re really part of the holiday fun. Here are some of my twins’ favorite fine motor Christmas activities that are easy to set up and bring a lot of Christmas joy into our home.

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Christmas Pencils and Eraser Toppers

This one is super simple but so good for fine motor control. Head to the dollar store or Target Dollar Spot and pick up some fun Christmas pencils and eraser toppers. Pushing the erasers on and pulling them off offers a great fine motor expereince and really works the muscles on the sides of the hand. This activitiy will lend itself to fine motor practice as your child puts the erasers on and off the pencils.

What you’ll need:

Christmas Pencils
Christmas-themed eraser toppers

Setting It Up:

Put the Christmas pencils into a cup or mug to hold them.
Place the eraser toppers in a small dish and put it all set up on a tray.
Introduce it to your child and keep it out on your shelf for them to repeat as desired.

tray with cup of pencils and a dish with 4 Christmas pencil toppers.

Montessori Button Christmas Tree

Cut out a Christmas tree shape from Green felt and sew on 6-12 buttons on the tree. Cut out green circles and cut a slit in them for your child to put around the button. This type of fine motor activity is not just great for developing fine motor skills; it is also great for building concentration. This activity offers lots of repetition working with the button fastener, which is a great practical life skill. This will be a great activity for quiet moments during this busy time of year. Put on some quite classical Christmas music and let your child work.

What You’ll Need:

Green Felt – Cut into a Christmas Tree
Green Felt Circles with slits that fit over the buttons
Buttons – Sewn onto the felt Christmas tree

Setting It Up:

Print out a Christmas tree outline and pin it to a piece of green felt.
Cut along the outline to make your felt tree shape.
Sew 4–8 buttons onto the felt tree, spacing them out like ornaments.
From another piece of felt, cut out the same number of small circles (one for each button).
Cut a short slit in the middle of each circle so it can slip over a button.
Place the completed felt tree on a tray, along with a small dish holding all the felt circles.

Candy Cane Bead Stringing

Here’s a favorite fine motor Christmas activity: candy cane bead stringing. Twist a red and white pipe cleaner together to make the classic candy cane, and bend a pipe cleaner into the shape of a candy cane. Offer red, white, and green pony beads for your toddler to thread on. It’s such a fun way to practice pincer grasp, hand-eye coordination, and bilateral coordination. These don’t just have to be an activity; you could use them as decorations around the house or string them together to make a candy cane garland for the stair banister.

What You’ll Need:

Red and white pipe cleaners
Pony Beads- red, green, and white – I ordered these jewel-tone beads

Setting It Up:

Cut your pipe cleaners in half if you’d like smaller candy canes.
Twist one red and one white pipe cleaner together to give that classic striped look.
Bend the twisted pipe cleaner into a candy cane shape.
Place the finished candy canes into a small cup or dish along with a bowl of red, green, and white pony beads.
Invite your toddler to choose a candy cane and start threading beads onto it.

mini candy cane made of pipe cleaner in a basket and small beads in a small dish on a tray.

mini candy cane made of pipe cleaner and small beads

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Christmas-Scented Playdough

Sensory play just got a whole lot better with Christmas-scented playdough like gingerbread, sugar cookie, and pine. Gingerbread playdough paired with a gingerbread cookie cutter will make the best imaginative and creative play for your child. Playdough isn’t just about playing; it offers great sensory exploration and fine motor control when rolling and shaping the dough into all sorts of things! I have Christmas-scented recipes made with essential oils, or scented-playdough recipes made with things you can find right in your kitchen! Check out this video tutorial on how to make homemade playdough in 5 minutes, and then just add in the scents that you want!

Three squished pieces of playdough with text overlay that says "gingerbread", "sugar cookie" and "peppermint"

playdough rolled out with pine tree cut outs.

Playdough is fun as is, but you can make it even more engaging by putting together a Montessori playdough kit. Shop all of our favorite playdough tools and supplies here!

Jingle Bell Scooping

Scooping activities offer a lot of hand-eye coordination and repetition. Fill a dish or container with some mini jingle bells. Offer a second dish and a small scoop for transferring the jingle bells from one dish to the other. The sound of the jingle bells while they transfer them will be very festive.

What You’ll Need:

2 bowls or small dishes
Mini jingle bells
Small scoop (a tablespoon or teaspoon measuring spoon works perfectly)

Setting It Up:

Place two bowls on a tray.
Fill one bowl with mini jingle bells, leaving the other bowl empty.
Add a small scoop to the tray and invite your child to transfer the bells from one bowl to the other.
Variation #1: Offer jingle bells in a small dish with a mini tongs to use to transfer the jingle bells into an ice cube tray.
Variation #2: Offer jingle bells in small stainless steel pitchers for pouring/transferring them from one pitcher to the other.

Two containers, one with jingle bells and a stainless stell scoop.

tray with ice cube tray, bowl of mini jingle bells and a mini tongs.

Stereognostic Bag

A stereognostic bag, or mystery bag, is a simple activity where you place small objects inside a cloth bag, and your child reaches in to explore them without looking. Using only their sense of touch, they try to figure out what each item is. During this type of activity, the child is working with their stereognostic sense, which is the ability to recognize objects by handling them, rather than seeing them.

Fill a little fabric bag with small items like a candy cane, a star ornament, a gingerbread man eraser, a cinnamon stick, or anything that makes you remember the Christmas season. Then invite your child to reach in without looking and try to guess what they’re holding using only their sense of touch. It’s such an excellent activity for sensory development and problem-solving skills. Your toddler or preschooler will love the mystery of it.

cloth drawstring bag with a small red sleigh inside.

What You’ll Need:

Small cloth bag or drawstring pouch
Christmas-themed objects: candy cane, small ornament, cinnamon stick, pine needle sprig, Christmas bow, jingle bell, mini stocking, mini present

Setting It Up:

Choose a Bag: Use a small cloth bag, drawstring pouch, or even a pillowcase. The important part is that your child can’t see inside.
Pick Your Christmas Themed Items: A candy cane, an ornament, a gingerbread man eraser, a cinnamon stick
Invite Your Child: Place the bag in front of your child and explain that they’ll reach inside without looking. Encourage them to use only their hands to feel the object.
Guess the Object: After exploring with their fingers, ask: “What do you think it is?” They can pull it out and check to see if they guessed correctly.
Rotate Items: Swap the small items every few days to keep the activity fresh and engaging.

Basket with mini sleigh, jingle bell, mini present, candy cane, and cinnamon stick.

Christmas Lacing Cards or Plate Sewing

This one is always a hit with older toddlers, but probably more realistically with preschoolers. Use a dessert paper plate and outline a Christmas tree, star, gingerbread man, or any other seasonal shape. Poke holes using an awl, along the edges of the shape. An awl will create smaller holes, better for sewing through. Using a tapestry needle and yarn, show your child how to sew through the holes. It’s a wonderful way to build bilateral coordination and fine motor strength—and it keeps those little hands busy during the festive season!

What You’ll Need:

Dessert paper plates
Awl or Hole punch
Pencil or pen
Yarn
Blunt tapestry needle (I ordered this set of needles)

Package of paper plates, yarn, awl, needles, pen and craft mat.

Setting It Up:

Take a paper plate and use a pencil to draw your festive shape (tree, star, gingerbread man, etc.).
Carefully trace the shape on the plate.
Use a hole punch to punch holes evenly along the outline of the shape.
Cut a length of yarn long enough for your child to lace comfortably.
Thread the yarn through the tapestry needle and tie a knot at one end to prevent it from slipping through. This is something you can show your child how to do.
Demonstrate how to push the needle through the holes—up and down, in and out.
Offer it to your toddler and let them enjoy lacing at their own pace.

Plate with Christmas Tree outline and holes being poked.

Christmas Lacing Cards

A great alternative to plate sewing would be these Christmas lacing cards that offer a variety of patterns! These could even become ornaments for your Christmas tree.

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CiyvoLyeen Christmas Sewing Kit for Kids Felt Christmas Ornaments Craft Supplies DIY Activity for Girls and Boys Educational Sewing Gift for Child Set of 12

Transfering Objects with Tongs

If you want to find activities that also help to build your child’s concentration, try a transfer activity. There are many ways to set up transfer activities for a variety of ages and skill levels. One variation is to offer small seasonal objects. I found these Christmas-themed eraser toppers and placed them in a basket. Using a mini tongs, offer either another basket or an ice cube tray to transfer them into. You can keep a variation of this activity out all the time and change up the item that your child is transferring. Other great options for transfer work would be: jingle bells, white pom poms, and mini plastic snowflakes.

Tray with ice cube tray, small tongs and basket with mini eraser tops.

Close up of a tray with ice cube tray, small tongs and basket with mini eraser tops.

Closing

I love to find fun, simple, and engaging ways to bring the holiday season into our home. These Montessori-inspired Christmas fine motor activities have been some of my favorite ways bring some intentional slow moments into a busy time of the year. They’re simple, hands-on, and perfect for little hands that just want to do what we’re doing. Whether it’s scooping jingle bells, threading beads onto a candy cane, or squishing delicious-smelling playdough, these easy activities bring so much holiday cheer while supporting the development of fine motor skills.

For more ways to slow down, soak in the holiday spirit, and enjoy this magical time of year with our children, check out this family Christmas bucket list with many ideas of how to get the whole family involved this time of year!