Boredom Buster: Mirror Christmas Tree with Foam Decorations

While it has been a few years since I have had a toddler "help" with the Christmas tree decorations, I remember all the fun both of my boys had rearranging the ornaments on the lower portion of our Christmas tree when they were toddlers. The bottom of our tree looked different every single day, new ornaments appearing at the front of the tree for their moment to shine. This simple Christmas tree decorating activity is inspired by those memories.

It is a perfect activity for kids of all ages. However, it is mostly geared towards toddlers and preschoolers. That didn't stop my five- and seven-year-old boys from enjoying it too though!

Here's what you'll need for this Christmas activity:

• green painters tape or washi tape
• large mirror, window, or even try it on the tile around the bathtub during bathtime!
• foam Christmas shapes
• small container of water

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First, make a Christmas tree on your chosen vertical surface using the green painters tape. You can make it as a big or as small as you'd like, but I chose to make it a bit taller than my youngest son so that he had to stretch to decorate the top of it. Too bad I didn’t have a foam star to put on the top of the tree!

Then I set out a shallow container with a small amount of water and the foam shapes. You could substitute a spray bottle filled with water or add a paint brush if you want to sneak in some extra fine motor practice. Simply dip the foam shapes into the water (or spray or paint if using the alternative methods) and stick them to the mirror or window to decorate the Christmas tree. Craft foam sticks to these surfaces when wet, but doesn’t require much to make them stick.

The kids can re-position and redecorate their tree over and over as many times as they like. That's the joy of using water and craft foam!