Enhance your festive Forest School sessions with our Nature Christmas Craft Activities Using Tools – a carefully designed resource packed with creative, age-appropriate ideas for EYFS, KS1 and KS2. This guide supports Forest School leaders and outdoor educators in delivering meaningful, safe and seasonal craft experiences using real tools and natural materials.
Perfect for the busy winter term, this resource takes the stress out of planning by providing 12 high-quality Christmas craft ideas, grouped by age to ensure developmental progression and safe tool use. From peeled stick wands and leaf garlands in EYFS to sawed stick stars in KS1 and whittled decorations in KS2, each activity reinforces key Forest School principles while celebrating the magic of the season.
Children explore creativity, fine motor skills, risk-taking, and connection with nature through woodworking, drilling, mallet work and natural loose parts. Every idea is simple to set up, resource-friendly, and adaptable to any woodland, school field or outdoor learning space.
What’s Included:
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4 EYFS Christmas craft ideas using peelers, mallets and hand punches
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4 KS1 craft ideas using palm drills, secateurs and guided bow-saw work
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4 KS2 craft ideas using knives, hand drills, loppers and saws
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Clear tool progression across the year groups
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Christmas-themed, nature-based designs for all ages
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Activities linked to key Forest School skills and child-led creativity
Why practitioners love this resource:
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Provides developmentally appropriate tool-based activities
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Encourages safe, confident tool use at all levels
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Supports creativity and seasonal celebration outdoors
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Promotes risk-taking in a controlled, purposeful way
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Easy to adapt for mixed groups or whole-school Forest School programmes
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Budget-friendly and uses natural materials found outdoors
This is the perfect companion for anyone delivering Forest School in the winter months, helping you bring festive warmth, woodland creativity and essential tool skills into your outdoor sessions.
Bring Christmas to life in the woods—with crafts that children will treasure and skills that last a lifetime.
