Are you looking for homemade stocking stuffers ideas to surprise your children this holiday season? Handmade gifts are the perfect gifts as they are personalised and fun. Our list of 42 children’s DIY stocking stuffer gifts will make Santa’s job easier.

Our cheap stocking stuffers ideas for children are fun to make, inexpensive, thoughtful and sustainable. You can easily create these unique stocking stuffers for children, from homemade play dough to sensory tubs and natural resources.

Using simple materials like construction paper, scissors, glue sticks, string or yarn and other items from around the house, you can make long-lasting and thoughtful children’s homemade gifts.

Our homemade gifts and stocking stuffers suit children, from babies to preschoolers. Explore our list of perfect stocking stuffer ideas for extra holiday cheer!

Made with love, these DIY stocking stuffers ideas are perfect gifts for all occasions. We suggest:

Two children face each other in a sensory tub where they are exploring messy play with cocoa powder, flour and marshmallow. Sensory experiences are fun stocking stuffers ideas for children.

42 DIY homemade stocking stuffer ideas for children

We selected our 42 homemade Christmas gift ideas for the curiosity they stir and the fun and learning experiences they bring to the children and their families.

When selecting which fun stocking stuffers to make, consider any risks, including choking hazards.

Homemade sensory gifts

1. Homemade playdough – There are a few different ways to make homemade playdough. You can either pre-make your fun gift or wrap up the ingredients for a colourful cooking experience.

2. Sensory tubs – Put together homemade sensory tubs using rice, beans, pasta or dried lentils for younger children.

3. Natural resource sensory bin – Create an outdoor-themed sensory bin with homemade items such as pine cones, stones, feathers, wood slices and sea shells.

4. Homemade slime – Make homemade slime using cornstarch, water and food colouring.

5. Natural resource bundles – Create homemade ‘treasure bags’ with nature items like leaves, twigs, pinecones and stones collected from outside the house and on nature trips.

6. Christmas delights messy play – Step into messy play with the sweet delights of cocoa, flour, jelly and marshmallows. Wrap the ingredients in separate containers, then bundle them together for messy play fun.

Green-painted paper plates laid out on a wall to form the hungry caterpillar. The first plate looks like a mask with the caterpillar's face. It has big googly eyes, a darker green nose, a smile with a red tongue and brown antennae. Other green plates have brown feet. Beneath are photos of children eating.

Homemade craft gift ideas for children

7. DIY animal masks and art – Create masks and creative wall art with paper plates. No paper plates? Cut up and recycle cardboard boxes like cereal boxes.

8. String art – Use string in a variety of colours to make homemade wall hangings for your child’s room.

9. Rock art – Paint rocks with homemade paints or markers for a unique stocking stuffer. You can add googly eyes and felt shapes for extra effects or turn them into “story stones”, where each stone has a unique symbol decorated with homemade paints and markers.

10. Handmade book – Make your homemade books using paper, old photos, image cutouts from cereal boxes and old magazines, markers and paints.

11. Felt food – Make homemade felt food items like pizzas and sandwiches using old fabric scraps.

12. Homemade bookmarks – Young readers love collecting bookmarks. Personalised handmade bookmarks offer an opportunity to get creative and make something unique.

Personalised gifts made with love

13. DIY snow globe in a jar – Shaking and turning snow globes upside down is a festive season tradition for some families. You can make these creative DIY stocking stuffers with clean glass jars, glycerin, glitter, hot glue and a few other supplies.

14. Personalised art – Paint or draw a personalised piece of art for each child in the family.

15. Handmade jewellery – Use beads, twine, felt, shells, large seeds and other items to make homemade necklaces and bracelets.

16. Finger knitting – Use yarn to make homemade bracelets, necklaces or other items with a simple finger knitting technique. Add beads, baubles or shells for decoration.

17. DIY felt animal decorations – Felt is a soft, flexible fabric with many different colours and textures, making it ideal for homemade projects like animal decorations. With essential tools like scissors, felt scraps, ribbon and hot glue, you can create personalised ornaments that are sure to please.

18. Cooking experience – Gather all the ingredients for your child’s favourite dish and enjoy a fun cooking experience together.

Three children stand behind a bench sorting through different lengths of cut wooden blocks. Wooden blocks are perfect stocking stuffers ideas.

DIY sustainable gifts for children

19. Dress-up clothes – Transform everyday items such as old t-shirts, fabric scraps and felt into dress-up clothes.

20. Paper roll crafts – Before you throw out your paper rolls, make them into something else. They can become dolls, puppets, elephant trunks, binoculars, marble tunnels and musical instruments. These fun crafts make homemade gifts with endless possibilities.

21. Sock puppets – Create sock puppets from old washed socks. Add some buttons for the eyes or cut-up scrap material for other features and accessories.

22. Felt finger puppets – Make felt finger puppets from old fabric scraps.

23 Popsicle stick crafts – Recycle washed popsicle sticks into wooden toys like aeroplanes, fish, farm animals, stick barns and farm yards, bird feeders, colourful bugs, flowers, mobiles, keepsake boxes and more.

24. Wooden block cut-offs – Raid the carpenter’s tool shed for homemade wooden block cast-offs. Children of all ages love turning wooden blocks into houses, railroads, farms, fences, tall balanced constructions and other creations of their imagination.

25. Compost kit – Create a sustainable compost collection kit for your children from a repurposed yoghurt or ice cream tub and a sign showing what food items they can put in it.

Three children sit on the ground in a circle around a basket filled with loose parts such as lid tops. Lid tops are useful for homemade games, fun stocking stuffers.

Homemade games as stocking stuffers

26. Scratch-art – Create scratch cards with paints and cardstock. Hide drawings beneath or turn your scratch art into a fun game or puzzle.

27. Pack of cards – Cut out and stick classic card game shapes such as diamonds, spades, hearts and clubs to 52 plain rectangular cards. Draw numbers and characters with red and black markers. Playing cards encourage children to learn about symbols, an important pre-writing skill.

28. Homemade puzzles – Cut unwanted pictures or cards into pieces to craft a homemade jigsaw. Stick the images or drawings onto cardboard for a firmer puzzle piece.

29. DIY checkers board – Collect different coloured lid tops to use as board pieces and make your checkerboard from reused cardboard, like a cereal box.

30. String and popsicle stick puzzles – They are simple and easy to make but offer hours of entertainment as they work to solve the puzzles. To create these homemade puzzles, you will need popsicle sticks, string, scissors and some glue.

Repurposed paper and cardboard craft gift ideas

31. Paper aeroplanes – Fold homemade paper aeroplanes with construction paper or old magazines.

32. Origami – Make origami animals using old paper, paper stock or torn pages from a magazine.

33. Homemade kites – Use recycled paper, sticks and string to make homemade kites.

34. Cardboard box shops and kitchens – This item might be too big to fit in the stocking. Still, cardboard box shops and kitchens are a fun project for the whole family to make.

A toddler in a green hat holds a big fat piece of homemade chalk, a perfect ideal stocking stuffers idea. The child stands in front of a blackboard which is covered in chalk scribbles.

Other stocking stuffer ideas for children

35. Bubble blowers – You can make your own bubble blowers from so many things, including pipe cleaners, straws and plastic bottles with the bottom cut off.

36. Homemade maracas – Use items from around the home, such as paper, rice, beans and old containers, to make maracas. Children love engaging with music and instruments.

37. Bird feeders – Create a homemade birdseed mixture from peanut butter, fruits, vegetables and birdseed to make homemade bird feeders for your backyard.

38. Homemade sidewalk chalk – Mix cornstarch, water and food colouring together to create homemade sidewalk chalk.

39. DIY children’s project kit – Create an archeologist’s buried treasure box. Fill a plastic container with clean sand, include some buried artefacts and provide a small spade and an archeologist’s (paint) brush for uncovering delicate treasure from the past.

40. DIY baby mobile – Mobiles are ideal for supervised play time on their back. Take an embroidery loop and firmly attach different lengths of string. Then add either pom poms, paper planes, paper shapes, origami animals or ribbons.

41. DIY science project – Create a kit for your child’s inquiry. For example, you could explore the absorbency of materials with repurposed glass bottles, food colouring and absorbent materials and resources like cloth, cardboard or flowers.

42. Homemade wooden tree blocks – This project is easy to make, environmentally friendly, and provides hours of fun. To make homemade tree blocks, you will need pre-dried tree branches of different thicknesses and sizes to cut into natural blocks.

Two children and an educator sit outdoors on a blanket with homemade wooden blocks, ideal children's stocking stuffers. They are building a tower together. Other resources are around them including construction signs, toy trucks, short pipes and construction hats.

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