Winter Crafts Five cozy projects for ages 3–7 — snowflakes, a snowman, ornaments and a pinecone tree

❄️ Paper Snowflakes

Start here. A folded square of paper, a few careful snips, and the unfold reveal gets a gasp every single time — no two snowflakes alike is not a slogan, it is geometry. Coffee filters are the training wheels: round, thin, and easy for small scissors. Make twenty; windows look better with a blizzard.

You need:

• White paper or white coffee filters
• Scissors
• Glitter glue or stickers (optional)

1. Fold a square of paper in half to make a triangle, then in half again. Small hands can stop after one or two folds.
2. Cut little shapes into the folded edges — triangles, bumps and notches. Don't cut all the way across, or your snowflake falls apart!
3. Open it up very carefully, and see your snowflake.
4. Make a whole flurry of them, and tape them to a window.

⛄ Cotton-Ball Snowman

The winter cousin of the Halloween cotton-ball ghost, and just as forgiving: three circles of glue, a pile of stretched cotton, and a snowman appears. On dark blue paper it looks like a night scene, which makes ordinary cotton and glue feel like a real art project.

You need:

• Blue or dark-colored paper
• Cotton balls
• Glue
• Orange and black paper scraps (or markers)
• 2 small twigs (optional)

1. Draw three stacked circles on the paper as a guide — big, medium and small.
2. Glue cotton balls inside the circles until your snowman is filled in and fluffy.
3. Add black paper eyes and buttons, and an orange triangle for the nose.
4. Glue extra cotton along the bottom for snow, and add twig arms if you like.

⭐ Salt-Dough Ornaments

The keepsake of the whole section. Flour, salt and water become ornaments that — fully dried and stored dry — genuinely last for years. Names and the year scratched on the back before baking turn them into the decorations grandparents ask about. This is the one project here that needs the oven, and the baking step belongs to a grown-up.

You need:

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 1/2 cup water
• Cookie cutters
• A drinking straw
• A rolling pin
• Paints
• Ribbon

1. Stir the flour and salt together, mix in the water, and knead until you have a smooth dough.
2. Roll the dough about 1/4 inch (5 mm) thick, and cut out shapes with the cookie cutters.
3. Poke a hole near the top of each shape with the straw.
4. Grown-up step: bake at 250°F (120°C) for 2–3 hours until hard — or leave the ornaments to air-dry for 2–3 days instead.
5. Paint your ornaments, let the paint dry, thread ribbon through the hole, and hang them up.

🎄 Paper-Chain Garland

Paper chains are the oldest decoration in the book because they work: one loop becomes ten becomes a whole doorway of color, and the making is a perfect assembly line for siblings or a classroom. Count the loops as you go and it is secretly a math lesson too.

You need:

• Strips of colored paper, about 1 × 6 inches (2.5 × 15 cm)
• A glue stick or tape

1. Bend the first strip into a circle, and glue the ends together.
2. Thread the next strip through the first circle, then glue its ends together too.
3. Keep going, taking turns with the colors, until your chain is as long as you want it.
4. Hang it on the tree, along a shelf, or around a doorway.

🎄 Pinecone Christmas Tree

One pinecone, painted green, dotted with pom-pom ornaments and topped with a star, becomes a tabletop tree that small hands made entirely themselves. It stands in a cork or a little pot, takes fifteen minutes, and survives being admired at close range by its maker roughly four hundred times a day.

You need:

• 1 clean, dry pinecone
• Green paint
• Tiny pom-poms or beads
• Glue
• A yellow paper star
• A cork or small pot (for the base)

1. Paint the pinecone green, all over, and let it dry.
2. Put a tiny dot of glue on the tip of each pinecone scale.
3. Stick pom-poms or beads onto the glue dots, as ornaments.
4. Glue the paper star on top, and stand your tree in a cork or a small pot.

🏠 Making Winter Crafts Last All Season

Give the crafts a home as they are made and winter crafting turns into decorating, which lasts for weeks. Snowflakes go straight onto windows with a dot of tape. Paper chains grow a few loops at a time — some families add one loop per day as a countdown to a holiday and take one off each morning. The pinecone tree graduates to the middle of the table.

The salt-dough ornaments deserve real care, because they are the one thing here your grandchildren could plausibly hang. Dry them completely — underbaked dough goes soft and moldy in storage — then keep them in a dry box, an egg carton is perfect, wrapped loosely in tissue. Painted and sealed with a clear craft sealer (a grown-up job), they last for years.

And when January arrives and the decorations come down, keep the snowflakes up. Snow season runs long after the holidays, and a window of paper snowflakes in February is a small, true pleasure.