If you love drawing, painting, printing, or practicing other artistic hobbies, there are plenty of fun and festive ways to create something special for the holidays. Homemade decorations, personalized gifts, and creative cards are a perfect way to spread joy — while also giving yourself space for focus and creative expression.
15 Christmas Ideas for Creative Fun for Kids and Adults
Here’s a list of inspiring projects to help make your and your children’s Christmas extra creative and personal!
1. Homemade Christmas Cards
Make your own Christmas cards featuring holiday motifs like elves, Christmas trees, snowmen, or winter landscapes. Use watercolor, ink, or pencil to create unique cards to send to friends and family.
2. Personalized Gift Wrapping
Design and print your own wrapping paper. Create patterns with Christmas motifs (stars, hearts, snowflakes) and print them on kraft paper. Block printing works well for this project — carve your own designs in potato stamps or try linoleum printing.
3. Painted Christmas Baubles
Buy simple glass or plastic baubles and decorate them with acrylic paint or markers — Posca pens work great, but you can also use glitter pens. Paint classic Christmas motifs or your own abstract designs to give your tree a personal touch.
Tip: You can also use the baubles as place cards by adding each guest’s name.
4. Make Your Own Advent Calendar
Draw or paint 24 small artworks to place behind doors in a homemade advent calendar. Each day can reveal a new Christmas motif as part of the countdown to Christmas Eve.
You can also make a simpler version using two sheets of paper — perforate the top one with a needle so it can be opened day by day. Place the sheets on a window and trace the outlines with the help of light from behind.
5. Santa’s Workshop: Draw and Paint Gifts
Draw or paint pictures of gifts you imagine Santa making in his workshop — small scenes with toys, tools, and elves at work.
6. Christmas Wreaths in Watercolor or Colored Pencil
Create detailed drawings of wreaths with fir branches, cones, berries, and ribbons. These can be used as wall decorations or given as gifts.
7. Personalized Christmas Stickers
Design your own Christmas stickers on a computer to decorate gifts or cards. Print them out or cut and glue them onto sticker paper to make your own unique designs.
8. Decorative Fabric Printing
Make potato prints on fabric with Christmas motifs like fir twigs, stars, and angels. Use textile paint to create Christmas tablecloths, napkins, or small gift bags.
9. Santa’s Town in Perspective
Draw an entire town where Santa might live — with small houses, snowy streets, reindeer, and glowing windows. This project allows for plenty of detail and creativity. You can cut out and assemble the town depending on your skill level. A 2D version works well for younger children too.
10. Paper Art and Christmas Cutouts
Create your own paper ornaments and decorations. Draw Christmas motifs and cut them out as silhouettes. These can be used as tree ornaments or gift tags. Learn papercutting techniques at artschool.nu.
11. Marbled Christmas Cards or Wrapping Paper
Make beautiful marbled effects by dipping paper into water mixed with oil or acrylic paints. This creates unique patterns for cards or wrapping paper. Learn how to do paper marbling here:
12. Draw Your Own Christmas Stories
Create a small comic or picture book with a Christmas story — maybe about an elf, a fairy tale, or Santa’s journey. It’s a fun way to combine storytelling and drawing.
13. Christmas Landscapes in Acrylic or Oil
Paint large winter landscapes with snowy trees, Christmas lights, and night skies. This can be a bigger project where you experiment with light and shadow typical of winter scenes.
14. Homemade Gift Tags
Draw small, decorative labels for your Christmas gifts. Add fine details like mistletoe, angels, or trees for a personal touch.
15. Papercut Christmas Decorations
Create detailed cut-out paper figures with Christmas motifs — snowflakes, trees, or hearts — to hang as decorations or display in windows.
