What are good holiday craft/baking/creative activities to do with children under 8 yrs old?

Target has little kits of ornaments to decorate in their "Dollar Spot" right now.

Make a gingerbread house.

Bake cookies.

Make fudge.

Make other kinds of homemade candies.

Make a paper chain and put a different activity on it for each day.

String popcorn/cranberries. Use it to decorate an outside tree.

Read holiday stories.

Visit the library for holiday crafts or story times.

See if the museums or zoos near you have special holiday activities going on.

Write letters or draw pictures for Santa.

Print out free Christmas coloring pages on the net.

Some recipes:

White Trash

(I usually actually double the following ingredients as we eat a lot of this.)

1 cup Cheerios cereal

1 cup Crispex cereal

1 cup peanuts

1 cup pretzels

1 cup M&M's (I use the holiday red & green ones.)

12 oz white chocolate

1 Tablespoon vegetable oil

Mix Cheerios, Crispex, peanuts, pretzels and M&M's together. Melt white chocolate in microwave. Stir the oil into the melted chips. Pour the melted chocolate over the dry mixture. Gently stir it all together. Spread it all out on wax paper for the chocolate to harden. Break into pieces.

Chocolate Fudge

4 cups sugar

1 jar (7 oz) marshmallow cream

1 1/2 cups (12 oz) can evaporated milk

1 lbs real butter

4 cups (24 oz pkg) chocolate chips (I use Hershey's Special Dark)

Line a 13x9x2 inch pan with foil extending the foil over the edges of the pan. Butter foil lightly. Set aside. In heavy pan (4 qt pan) combine sugar, marshmallow cream, milk & butter. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until mixture comes to full rolling boil. Boil and stir 5 minutes. Remove from heat and immediately add chips. Stir until smooth, pour into prepared pan. Cool until firm. Use the foil to lift it out of the pan. Store in tightly covered pan in cool place. (We always store it in the fridge and then take it out and let it sit for a bit before we'll want some. It will last forever in the fridge!) Makes about 8 dozen (or more!) squares.

Oreo Cookie Bark

(Very easy for the kids to help with!)

1 (20 ounce) pkg of Oreo cookies

2 (18.5 ounce) packages of white chocolate

Line a cookie sheet with waxed paper. Coat the paper with non-stick vegetable spray and set aside. In large mixing bowl, break up half of the cookies into coarse pieces with fingers or the back of a spoon. Melt half the chips in the microwave and then quickly fold into the broken cookie pieces. Pour into prepared pan and spread out to cover half of the pan. Repeat process with other half of cookies and chocolate.

Butterfinger Bars

(This was a new one for us this year and it's really good! Tastes just like Butterfinger candy bars, which I don't buy anymore but really like. I think next time I will try forming it into balls instead of bars though as it was difficult to cut.)

2/3 cup white sugar

2/3 cup white corn syrup

1 (16 oz) jar crunchy peanut butter

3 cups cornflakes cereal

2 cups milk chocolate chips

Heat sugar and syrup together in heavy pan until boiling. Add peanut butter. Mix until blended. Pour over corn flake cereal, coating the cereal well. Press into a 9x13 inch pan. Melt the chocolate chips in a small sauce pan or microwave. Spread over batter. Chill for 20-25 minutes. Cut into bars.

I buy those pre cut cookies and make them with my children every holiday.. My daughter is also 8 and she loves to do it. We also make the little pop corn strings for the Christmas tree and the little red and green rings that u connect together for the tree. She also colors or makes a picture for everyone in the family as a gift. U can also play a Christmas Cd and have her draw a picture to describe each Christmas song that she listened to and then make a little book out of it and show it to Friends and Family over the Holidays! My kids love to do it. Hope I gave u some ideas. Happy Holidays to your and your family!!

For baking I would suggest making cut out cookies I always enjoyed doing that when I was younger. There are alot of crafts you can do like the cotton ball snowman.

Baking cookies, making "stars" out of cardboard and aluminum foil. Stringing popcorn/red and green fruit loops, making construction paper chains.

My sons (8 and 7) love to decorate gift bags. I give them paint and stickers and let them go. I buy the plain brown bags for it. They love it and the person who receives the bag loves that the boys have done it.

I like to make Christmas ornaments because they're something you can keep forever. Applesauce ornaments which you can find online and are a lot of fun and very simple!!!

every year i buy a ginger bread house and let my son put it together and every year i try to buy a bigger one so he dont get bord with the "same ol thing". and he is 5

gingerbread houses, gingerbread men, make and deorate cookies from scratch