Christmas is right around the corner, and our whole family is so excited.
Our youngest will be 18 months old when Christmas hits this year, and I’m excited to see her get excited about opening presents and doing holiday activities with us as a family.
One activity you guys need to try is the Christmas Ornament Rescue!
This is a great one to play while you’re trimming the tree, or even as a way to keep kids from un-trimming the tree in the days that it’s up and decorated.
Hahaha, I know. That’s never gonna happen, right?
Ah, well, better just keep that lower third of the tree undecorated again this year.
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!
Disclosure: We use sponsored, or affiliate, links, which means that we could earn a small commission that helps fund our blog (at no extra cost to you!). All opinions are our own and we only recommend products we love. Thank you for your support and happy shopping!
Supplies Needed
For this activity, you’ll need:
- an empty box (lid optional, we recycled a shoebox)
- green yarn
- tape
- small ornaments
- pom poms
- dry rice
- fine motor tools (this set also comes with water beads, yay!)
Feel free to substitute any of the materials above. You can really use just about any box or small items for the rescue!
Setting Up the Christmas Ornament Rescue activity
Set up for this activity is very simple. Just wrap yarn around an empty box and tape the ends down.
*Note that if your yarn is a tangled mess, it’ll take an extra 5 minutes to untangle enough yarn to wrap around your box.
Next, I poured some dry white rice into the box and added ornaments.
The rice helps keep the round ornaments from rolling around like crazy, and it adds an extra sensory element.
I decided to make set up more difficult for myself by cutting out a Christmas tree shape out of the shoebox lid. (If you were wondering, cardboard is really hard to cut with dull scissors.)
In the end, no one noticed or cared about the lid, so I’m glad I spent ten whole minutes trying to cut that cardboard out. I’m being sarcastic, by the way.
How We Played the Christmas Ornament Rescue Game
I presented my beautiful ornament rescue box with an empty tray and two fine motor tools: long tweezers and scissor scooper doodads. Yes, that is it’s official name.
Apparently the game is not intuitive because Elena’s first question was, “What is it?”
And then, “Why you put doze ornaments in dare?”
*sigh*
I briefly explained that she had to rescue the ornaments stuck behind the Christmas tree web and that she could use the fine motor tools or just use her hands.
Then she asked, “Where do I put da ornament?”
*sigh*
“In the tray.”
From there on, it was smooth sailing. Sometimes she used the fine motor tools, and other times she didn’t.
No biggie.
Watching her struggle to get the snowflake out was the best. She had to work extra hard to free the ornament from the yarn web.
Once the majority of the ornaments were out (or at least just the glittery and shiny ones), Elena put them back in.
Christmas Pom pOm Rescue
We also did this activity with colorful pom poms, and then again with pom poms and ornaments together.
I asked, “Which was your favorite?”
She said, “Ornaments and pom poms together.”
So there you have it, folks. The best way to play the Christmas Ornament Rescue game is with ornaments and pom poms together in the box.
Ornament Rescue with One-Year-Olds
Our one-year-old, Lia, loved this activity, too!
We used shatter-proof ornaments in a range of sizes from mini to medium sized. I didn’t think Lia would put any in her mouth, so I kept the glittery ones in there as well.
The pom poms should be left out if a one-year-old is going to be doing the activity. Ours are still buried deep in there because Lia doesn’t eat them.
I also left out the fine motor tools and the dry rice. Then I tripled the number of ornaments so they really filled up the box.
Lia removed the lid right away, so there’s another reason why cutting out a tree shape in the lid is completely unnecessary.
*sigh*
Your Turn to play Christmas Ornament Rescue
Ramp up your toddler’s fine motor skills with this easy Christmas Ornament Rescue activity.
Like this activity? Check out all our Christmas activities here.
Looking for an organized guide of fun, easy activities to do with your toddler that also encourages their growth and development?
I’ve created a 3-month activity planner just for busy parents like you! The plan includes 65 detailed, simple, and stress-free activities including: arts and crafts, sensory play, motor skills, and STEM–all using easy-to-find supplies.
Let me help make planning activities for your toddler easy, so you can skip the stress and get straight to the fun!