As Christmas approaches and Christmas decorates start to come out, Miss T becomes increasingly interested in playing with (or, you know, attacking) the Christmas decorations. In order to save them from potential destruction, I’ve put together a Christmas sensory box for her to play with.

Of course, this may just make all the other Christmas items seem more appealing…

Most of the items in this Christmas sensory box I had around the house anyway. The total cost for the extra bits and pieces was $4, but there’s no reason that this should cost you anything at all.

First I gathered everything together, and then began by recovering a tin box we had with Christmas paper. I wanted a tin box because they make a cool sound when you bang on them, but you could also use a plain old cardboard box (or you could buy a tin box, I found some nice ones for around $4).

Next I re-purposed some of the jingle bells I bought for the DIY Music Maker to make a jingly bell string.

The next few things required no construction and I had them lying around the house. There were some Christmas baubles (not glass ones) some smooth and some glittery and textured:

Some tinsel

And cellophone

Some cotton wool (for pretend snow)

Some old Christmas cards (because they’re fun to open and close)

Next I added some of the things I purchased.

A snow globe (from Kmart for $1. I was going to make my own, but this one was cute and perfectly sized for one year old hands)

A Santa jingly pate knife. This is a blunt knife so it’s fairly kid-safe, but I’d stay away from this for younger kids who still mouth a lot.

Lastly I found a collection of all sorts of Christmassy stuff in a bag at the Salvos. There were quite a few things in there I couldn’t use (pipe cleaners with pointy edges, for instance) but also a few things that were good.

Once collected, I popped them all together in the tin:

A lovely sensory Christmas box full of things that sparkle and crinkle and shake and jingle.

Have you made any sensory boxes? Or do anything special for young children to play with at Christmas time?