Sparkly Christmas Process Art
Celebrate the season with sparkly Christmas process art, one of the best Christmas activities for preschoolers! This engaging, open-ended art project allows toddlers and preschoolers to create festive, sparkly masterpieces without a specific outcome in mind.
Christmas process art encourages creativity and exploration, making each piece a unique and cherished keepsake that students, parents, and teachers will treasure.
‘Tis the season for jingle bells and sleighs in preschool, and these Christmas paintings are perfect for young toddlers as well as preschoolers.
Christmas process art is a wonderful way for little ones to embrace the holiday spirit through creativity and exploration.
Unlike traditional crafts, process art focuses on the act of creating rather than the end result, making it especially fitting for early childhood. By combining glitter, liquid glue, and holiday colors, children can enjoy a hands-on experience that captures the festive atmosphere of the season, while also building fine motor skills and confidence.
This simple, yet magical activity is sure to become a holiday favorite in your classroom or at home!
Christmas Art for Preschoolers
Using canvas in preschool is an inexpensive and timeless way to save the beautiful and sparkly art project created in the early years. Since canvas is durable and will stand the test of time, this lovely holiday process art for preschool can be stowed away with the Christmas decorations and displayed for years to come.
Plus, these sparkly Christmas paintings are worth the hassle of glitter because they turn out so beautifully. So beautifully, in fact, that they make wonderful gifts for our little preschoolers to give to their loved ones for the holiday.
Each art piece uses the exact same materials, but since it is process art, they all turn out so differently.
We also love to sprinkle in some fun Christmas centers from my Christmas activity pack as we get closer to Christmas day!
Christmas Books for Preschoolers
Christmas books for toddlers and preschoolers make the season bright and cheery! These are some of our favorite Christmas books for the youngest readers to enjoy this Christmas season.
- Wright, Maureen (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 34 Pages – 10/08/2013 (Publication Date) – Two Lions (Publisher)
- DK (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 18 Pages – 09/06/2022 (Publication Date) – DK Children (Publisher)
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Dougherty, Brandi (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Hardcover Book
- Walstead, Alice (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- Used Book in Good Condition
- Hardcover Book
- Wilson, Karma (Author)
- Tiger Tales (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 26 Pages – 09/05/2017 (Publication Date) – Tiger Tales (Publisher)
- Book about a little reindeer with BIG dreams
- Encourages confidence, perseverance, self-esteem
- Charming illustrations with a fun, encouraging story
- Lucille Colandro (Author)
- English (Publication Language)
- 32 Pages – 10/01/2008 (Publication Date) – Cartwheel Books (Publisher)
- Little Golden Book
- Classic Christmas Story
- Perennial television holiday tale
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Process Art for Christmas
These Christmas process art canvases turn out so beautifully! It’s quick and easy to set up, requires minimal materials, but the end result has a big impact! We packaged these up with mini easels to give away as gifts for Christmas. Grandparents love kid-made Christmas gifts! We also love these sparkly winter process art paintings, too!
Materials
As with many process art activities, sometimes simplicity is key, and these only require a few materials.
- canvas board
- chunky glitter in red, green, and gold
- craft gems
- liquid glue
- tray or sheet pan (to catch the mess)
- easel for display (optional)
We used small canvas boards (size 5×7) for this project, but a larger 8×10 size would be stunning, and not much more expensive. You can also do these paintings on heavy card stock.
The Set Up
Place canvas on a tray or sheet pan with small bowls of the red, green, and gold glitter to the side. The tray will catch most of the glitter mess. Set out some liquid school glue. Save the craft gems for later so that they don’t get covered in glitter in the process of creating. We added them after we were done making our canvases all sparkly with glitter.
Now invite your preschooler to join you in making some beautiful Christmas process art!
How to Make Sparkly Christmas Process Art
Start by inviting your preschooler to squeeze the liquid glue on their canvas. When I introduced the materials to my boys, we talked about the different things we could do with the glue.
We could make lines or dots. The lines could be long and squiggly or straight. The dots could be small or like large blobs. This is an important part of the process, so try not to worry about “wasting” the glue. Just let your preschooler enjoy the freedom of using glue with restraint.
And don’t forget that squeezing the glue bottle is a great hand strengthening activity!
Once we had a fair amount of glue on our canvases, my boys started adding the glitter.
How to Put Glitter on Canvas Paintings
Now, you have three choices in adding glitter. You can skip the loose glitter altogether and just use glitter glue to add on sparkle. Or you can leave the glitter in its original container and have your preschooler sprinkle the glitter onto the glue, or you can put some in a bowl and they can add glitter one pinch at a time.
I prefer the latter because it forces the use of the pincer grasp needed for developing a mature pencil grip, but it also prevents “crazy shaking” which will most certainly result in glitter all over. Either approach has its merits, so choose the approach that works best for you.
Alternatively, if you are opposed to glitter, you can do this activity with food color dyed salt. It won’t be as sparkly, and you have will to dye the salt in advance, but it is a good alternative.
My boys worked in phases. They would add some glue, sprinkle it with glitter, and then add more glue and more glitter. This is also an important part of any Christmas process art activity. It allows preschoolers to view their work with a critical eye and act to make adjustments and additions.
When my boys were certain they were finished with the gluing and glittering, they added the craft gems.
Peeling the gems from their backing and sticking them to the canvas presented another fine motor piece. One of my boys added the gems to the glitter, while the other added them straight to the canvas.
The end result was a Christmas painting they were so proud of!
Another thing I love about these paintings is that since it is process art, preschoolers can do it as well as toddlers. My toddler aged son made one and while his gluing was more in blobs than lines, that is perfectly ok because this is a Christmas process art activity, not a Christmas craft!
Once dry, I displayed the canvases on mini easels.
Alternatively, you could also hot glue a little ribbon to the back so they can hang on the wall.
Christmas Process Art for Toddlers
If you’re looking for more Christmas process art activities for toddlers, you might also find these of interest.
Preschool Christmas Art Ideas
If you’re looking for some free Christmas activities for preschoolers to add to your preschool lesson planning, you will love these:
- Christmas Paper Plate Wreath
- Tie-Dye Coffee Filter Christmas Tree
- Marbled Christmas Cards
- Sticky Snowflake Process Art
Sparkly Christmas Process Art
This sparkly process art canvas painting activity is a colorful and festive way to celebrate the season and encourage creativity! Your preschoolers will end up with unique art that is all their own.
Materials
Instructions
To Set Up - Place canvas on a tray or sheet pan with small bowls of the red, green, and gold glitter to the side. The tray will catch most of the glitter mess. Set out some liquid school glue. Save the craft gems for later so that they don't get covered in glitter in the process of creating.
1. Start by inviting your preschooler to squeeze the liquid glue on their canvas. Invite them to make lines or dots. The lines could be long and squiggly or straight. The dots could be small or like large blobs. This is an important part of the process, so try not to worry about "wasting" the glue. Just let your preschooler enjoy the freedom of using glue with restraint.
2. Now, you have three choices in adding glitter. You can skip the loose glitter altogether and just use glitter glue to add on sparkle. Or you can leave the glitter in its original container and have your preschooler sprinkle the glitter onto the glue, or you can put some in a bowl and they can add glitter one pinch at a time.
3. When they are finished with the gluing and glittering, it's time to add the craft gems.
4. Proudly display the final work of art on an easel!
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I’m Sarah, an educator turned stay-at-home-mama of five! I’m the owner and creator of Stay At Home Educator, a website about intentional teaching and purposeful learning in the early childhood years. I’ve taught a range of levels, from preschool to college and a little bit of everything in between. Right now my focus is teaching my children and running a preschool from my home. Credentials include: Bachelors in Art, Masters in Curriculum and Instruction.