If you’re hoping to keep some learning happening during the busy holiday season (while still keeping the fun level high), Christmas math activities are your secret weapon. When kids are excited about the theme — Santa, candy canes, jingle bells — they’re suddenly eager to count, sort, build patterns, solve puzzles, and practice number recognition without even realizing they’re doing math. That’s a win for everyone.
These activities are perfect for toddlers, preschoolers, and early elementary learners. You can set them up with supplies you probably already have around the house or tucked away in your holiday bins, and they work beautifully for classroom centers, play-based learning, homeschool days, or cozy afternoons at home.
From counting Christmas presents to building math puzzles with magnetic tiles, here are fun Christmas math ideas that help kids develop early numeracy skills while fully embracing the holiday excitement.
Why You’ll Love These Christmas Math Activities
- They are hands-on and playful — no worksheets required
- Kids build real math skills: counting, number recognition, patterns, sorting, and subitizing
- Most activities take less than five minutes to set up
- Flexible for different ages and developmental levels
- Perfect for keeping kids busy while you wrap presents, decorate, or prep holiday treats
Math + Christmas magic = the best kind of learning.
10 Christmas Math Activities Preschoolers
Here are fun, festive ideas to try. Full instructions can be found in each linked tutorial at the bottom of the post if you want to dive deeper.
1. Counting Christmas Presents
Wrap small blocks or tiny boxes in tissue or scrap wrapping paper and label them with numbers. Invite toddlers to count the number of objects inside each “present” or match them to a Christmas number line.
2. Christmas Decoration Counting Game
Lay out ornaments and create a Christmas tree in a cardboard box. Kids count ornaments and place the correct number on each branch, practicing one-to-one correspondence.
3. DIY Craft Stick Christmas Puzzles
Draw or glue simple holiday images (tree, reindeer, stocking) onto craft sticks, then cut apart to create counting or sequencing puzzles. Kids line up the numbered sticks to rebuild the picture and see the math pattern.
4. Magnetic Tile Christmas Puzzles
Build Christmas shapes like a tree, candy cane, or star using magnetic tiles, then trace them onto paper and number the spaces. Kids match the tiles to the correct numbers while building early geometry skills.
5. Christmas Bauble Counting
Write numbers on plastic ball ornaments and provide a bowl of small loose parts like pom poms or buttons. Kids fill a large foam puzzle with the correct number of baubles — an easy fine motor + counting combo.
6. DIY Santa Board Game
Create a simple roll-and-move game where kids help Santa fill his sleigh by counting spaces and collecting tokens. It introduces number sense, turn-taking, and early game strategy in a playful Christmas theme.
7. Jingle Bell Puzzle Counting
Place jingle bells in a tray and fill a number puzzle with the correct number of bells. Kids count and sort the bells into the correct sections — and the sound adds extra holiday excitement.
8. Feed Santa Cookie Game
Cut out paper cookies or use toy cookies and number them. Kids “feed” Santa the correct amount by matching cookies to numbers or dice rolls, practicing number recognition and subitizing.
9. Candy Cane Patterns
Use colorful dot stickers, buttons, or cut paper strips to build candy cane patterns (AB, AAB, ABC). Kids practice spotting and extending patterns, which is a major early math skill.
10. Snow Counting Preschooler Activity
Fill tray with snow and create small holes for pom poms — a perfect winter transition into January learning.
Tips for Easy Holiday Learning
- Keep supplies in a small bin so you can grab and go anytime
- Follow your child’s interests — reindeer instead of Santa? Easy swap
- Short bursts of 5–10 minutes are still effective
- Let kids lead — if they want to sort, stack, or play differently, that’s learning too
Math is everywhere, especially in holiday traditions: counting ornaments, splitting cookies, comparing sizes of wrapped gifts, measuring how tall the tree is. Lean into the daily magic!
Christmas math activities are such a great way to keep academic skills sharp while your home transforms into a festive wonderland. When math feels like play, kids stay curious, engaged, and confident — and that excitement carries into the new year.
Be sure to bookmark this post or pin it for later because holiday schedules get full fast.
Play2Learn Toddler & Preschool Programs for Curious Toddlers
There is no limit to your toddler’s energy and curiosity. That energy and curiosity although a joy can be challenging at times. Their interest in just about everything around them is what makes them great learners. One and two year olds can soak up so much just from their senses!
But as a teacher or parent that thirst for learning can be exhausting. That is why I created this toddler and preschooler program. To help you get the most out of this time with your curious toddler without having to come up with creative ways to play and interact with them.
Play2Learn for Toddlers includes 20 Units for toddlers. Each 2-week toddler unit has 20 super easy to set up and engaging activities for toddlers 18 months to 3 years.
Play2Learn Preschool which includes 20 Units for preschoolers. Each 2-week preschoolers unit has 20 unique and easy to set up and engaging activities for preschoolers 3 years to 5 years. That’s over 800 learning activities for your toddler and preschooler at your fingertips! So many ideas you and your child will never be bored again!
These toddler and preschool lesson plans and activities will definitely keep you and your toddler and preschooler busy playing and learning!
Click here for more information: Play2Learn
Book: Exciting Sensory Bins for Curious Kids
Did you know I wrote a book of sensory bins? Click here for more information Exciting Sensory Bin for Curious Kids. Or grab your copy at Amazon.
Boring afternoons are made exciting with awesome animal-based bins, like Salty Shark Bay or Yarn Farm. Pretend play bins like Birthday Cake Sensory Play or Bubble Tea Party encourage creativity and imagination. And your kids will have so much fun they won’t even know they’re getting smarter with STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and math) activities like Sink or Float Soup, Magnetic Letter Hunt or Ice Cream Scoop and Count.
Designed for toddlers 18 months and up.
Book: Super STEAM Activity Book for Kids
Learning all about science, technology, engineering, art, and math sets kids up for scholastic success―and it can be so much fun! Watch kids enjoy building STEAM skills as they color friendly fish, help water find its way to tree roots, solve math problems with mazes, and more.
Find out more and grab your copy here.
Designed for preschoolers 3 years old and up.
Book: Big Book of Riddles for Kids
Riddle me this: What’s an exciting way to practice critical thinking while having a blast? The Big Riddle Book for Kids, of course! From hilarious puns to tough brain teasers, kids can build problem-solving skills with hundreds of riddles tha. t show them how to think outside the box.
- 350 riddles for kids—Have hours of fun with riddles, puns and jokes, and math and logic puzzles that’ll get their wheels turning!
- Level up their skills—Riddles get trickier as kids progress through the book, challenging them as they get better at solving puzzles!
- Double-check their work—Kids can check their answers in the back of the book with a handy answer key.
Help children expand their minds while having fun with this puzzle book for kids!
Designed for kids ages 6 years old and up.
TV Show: Curious Crafting
I’m so excited to share my crafting TV show Curious Crafting which launched in July 2022 on TVOkids and TVOkids YouTube! Season 2 aired in August 2023! My show was also nominated in 2023 for Best Live Action Preschool Series by the Youth Media Alliance Awards of Excellence.
Curious Crafting Season 1 is also now airing in Australia on ABC! Watch it here!
Set in the ultimate crafting space, Curious Crafting is a short form pre-school age series about the joy of making crafts. I lead a rotating cast of adorable little preschoolers (including my own) making magic out of common household objects.
In each episode we transform recycled items into magical crafts like a milk carton school bus, paper bag puppet or cotton pad turtle. The crafters learn and laugh their way through each activity while demonstrating what their young imaginations can create.
Curious Crafting shares the adventure and joy of making art with takeaway lessons for creating crafts at home.
This show designed for toddlers and preschoolers 2.5 years old and up.
