Creative craft ideas to try with your kids this winter season

Arts and crafts projects have always been fun and stimulating activities to try with your children, especially around winter when the weather turns chilly and school finishes for the holidays. This year of course they have enjoyed a huge boom in popularity thanks to the current COVID-19 pandemic keeping us all inside more than usual.

One of the great things about crafting is the huge variety of options available these days, with increasingly easy access to lots of different materials and kits online. You can also find plenty of tutorials and creative ideas on the web, with projects that suit all ages and ability levels. So if you’ve been looking for something constructive and imaginative to do at home with the family this winter season, why not give arts and crafts a go? Read on to find out more about the benefits, plus some interesting and fun winter crafting ideas!

What are the benefits of doing crafts?

It has long been accepted that participating in arts and crafts is good for both adults and children of all ages, which is perhaps why it’s been such an important part of human culture for so long. It has positive impacts on both our mental and physical health, with the following being just some of the benefits you can look forward to enjoying as you create:

• Studies have shown that engaging in crafting can reduce both stress and anxiety, most likely by distracting our minds from worries and troubling thoughts. In this way it can be similar to meditation or other mindfulness practices.
• Kids can build fine motor skills, hand-eye coordination and manual dexterity by working on craft projects.
• As well as physical skills, arts and crafts are a great way to boost mental agility and even empathy.
• Creativity can be thought of like a muscle – the more you use it, the more it will grow and develop. By flexing your creativity muscle during crafting, you can benefit from its increased strength at work, school and all other areas of your life.
• Successfully completing projects and learning from the mistakes they make along the way can give children the confidence to experiment and try new things.

If all this has convinced you to give crafting a go then head over to reallymaria.com for supplies, load up a YouTube tutorial, grab the kids and get started!

Winter craft ideas to try together this holiday season

The internet is full of craft ideas, but here are a selection of the best:

• Egg carton penguins – these cute critters are super easy to make and only require a few supplies, making them great for young kids to try.
• Polar bear masks – for a more fun style of mask than the ones we’ve all been having to wear lately!
• Watercolour doily snowflakes – these beautiful creations make an interesting alternative to the paper snowflakes we’ve all made before.
• Glittery mason jar snow globe – ideal for older kids, these decorations add a sparkly touch of magic to your home.