18 Easy and Affordable DIY Christmas Crafts for Teens to Make and Give

Christmas is fast approaching, and it’s the perfect time to get creative with those kids of yours. We’ve all seen those cute holiday crafts for toddlers and kids, but this post is for teens who want to do something with their own hands.

They may have moved on from the paper plates crafts of their childhood memories but there are still plenty of craft project and diy crafts that are age appropriate and exciting.

DIY Christmas crafts are one of the most popular seasonal activities. With older kids and teenagers at home for the school Christmas holidays, it can be hard to find things to do. This holiday season, why not give your child something to create and enjoy with his or her friends?

Below you’ll find 18 easy and inexpensive DIY Christmas crafts that any teen will love to make.

DIY Home made Christmas gifts for teens to make

I love spending time with my kids during the holiday season, I also know that they can get very overwhelmed with all the gift-giving.

Teenagers do not have a lot of spare cash, but still want to get involved in the gifting during this season. So these easy and affordable Christmas gift ideas that they can make, could be a great solution. 

A great gift isn’t just something that someone opens on Christmas morning. It’s something that they’ll keep and use for years to come. So when it comes to creating the perfect gift, consider what friends and family will love most and have the teenagers try one of these simple, affordable projects.

This year, teens can show how much they care by making one of these 12 easy and affordable DIY projects.

Home made beauty products

Make a tub of this homemade lavender sugar scrub for friends and family who enjoy skincare and pampering. This is a totally natural product with simple wholesome ingredients and trust me it smells so good!

It is simple for a teenage girl to make, following the easy tutorial, and gentle enough to use on their skin (note – it’s not for the face, you use this scrub on your body)

Or make up a few of these super cute home made lip balms which take only ten minutes to make each one? Check out the simple step by step tutorial from Happiness is Homemade

Personalised Notebooks

Personalised notebooks are really popular at the moment. Your teen can make these – all you need is a plain notebook for them to customise.

You can upload your own design, and order this through a print on demand service, or just decorate the notebook by hand adding photos, drawings, song lyrics or inspirational quotes.

After making the notebook, they could add some holiday journal prompts to the inside?

Homemade Bookmarks

Making a hand crafted bookmark to go along with the notebook is a great idea, and we haven’t seen any cooler than these DIY yarn ball Pom Pom book marks. They are so cute!

Get the full tutorial from DesignMom.com

DIY Jewellery Crafts

Try making these gorgeous woven word bracelets with the tutorial from Happy Hour Projects. These would make an amazing gift.

Or try making paracord bracelets which are quite trendy as well as easy to make.

Make a Gift Basket

Think outside the box, and don’t be afraid to get creative. We all know teenagers love snacks, so filling the basket with some treats for their friends is a foolproof option but you can also make a gift basket and fill it up with more personal items, and a variety of small gifts such as a mug, some makeup (affordable brands), a bar of soap, a lip gloss, or whatever your teens and their friends like. 

A great gift basket doesn’t need to cost much money at all, and is easy for teens to put together. It can be as simple or as elaborate as you want it to be.

DIY Sharpie Mugs

We just mentioned mugs, well make them more personal by decorating your own. Teenagers can buy plain white mugs very cheaply then decorate with sharpies, using the tutorial from living well spending less.

Christmas Baking for teens

My teen loves baking, as do so many teenagers. It’s something they can do independently, and enjoy some delicious results at the end so what’s not to love.

Baking is also a great way to make homemade gifts on a budget. Try these easy recipes for teens to bake at Christmas time…

Christmas tree brownies

These Christmas tree brownie treats are super easy to make and the best part is, your teen can even use a box mix to make life even easier.

Santa hat mini cheesecake bites (no bake)

These strawberry Santa desserts are so cute and don’t require any actual baking, just assembling all of the ingredients so this is a great option for younger teens to put together independently.

Christmas Ginger Biscuits Traditional Holiday Cookie Recipe

Ginger cookies and gingerbread men are a classic of Christmas and perfect for all ages. The scent of ginger biscuits baking in the oven brings up so many Christmassy feelings.

Teenagers will have a lot of fun baking, decorating, eating and sharing with friends.

Christmas Dalgona Candy

If your teens have been watching the popular Netflix show Squid Game, they might enjoy making dalgona candy, the traditional Korean honeycomb game. This time, with a Christmas theme.

Challenge each other to see if you can successfully cut out the shape, and will you survive? The shape of a candy cane is kind of like an umbrella… uh oh

Be aware, the mixture for making dalgona candy is super hot and can be dangerous so even for teens you probably want to be nearby just keeping an eye on the situation.

Christmas Photo Ideas for teens

Have the older kids set up a photoshoot, and see what edits they can come up with. They can take some inspiration from this white box Christmas photography idea or see if they can work out how to get bokeh in Christmas tree pictures

A Christmas photography challenge is a great way to keep kids entertained over the holidays. Teenagers can take their mobile phone and a checklist of festive items to find and photograph like a Christmas photography scavenger hunt.

The results can be framed in a multi photo frame to make a cool photo collage, which makes an affordable gift idea for family members, such as grandparents (Amazon affiliate links)

You can also buy a photo snow globe pretty cheaply where you just add your own photo to personalise and these also make a cool gift.

Christmas Adult Coloring pages for teens

Using intricate Christmas coloring pages like this detailed Christmas stocking coloring page, teenagers can decorate to create a wall hanging to display during the Christmas season.

This is a fun project idea that will keep your teen busy for a few hours colouring all of the details, and becomes a cool diy Christmas decoration when it’s finished and framed. It’s best to go for totally plain picture frame like a glass clip photo frame that way it doesn’t detract from the artwork.

Many of these diy gift ideas also double up as Creative boredom busters for these older kids – that’s a win win!

Christmas decorations for teens to make

Teenagers, especially teen girls, may enjoy making some of these easy crafts like these snowflakes out of clothes pegs or clothespins. They can be used to decorate the house during the festive season.

To make these, all you need is a few simple supplies: 6-8 clothes pins per snowflake, white acrylic paint and a hot glue gun.

If your teen enjoyed a good crafting session when she or he was younger, there is a good chance that with a dose of Christmas nostalgia they would still like to get involved and make some cool crafts and diy ideas.

They may have moved on from the paper plates crafts of their childhood but there are still plenty of craft project and diy crafts that are age appropriate and exciting.

Fun Christmas Wrapping Ideas for Teens

Any Christmas presents can be made even more special by taking care over the wrapping and presentation.

Teenagers can also make their own gift tags and other wrapping embellishments using our free Christmas printables

DIY Christmas Crackers

Amongst those free printables you can also find templates for teenagers to make their own Christmas crackers, this is a great contribution towards the Christmas dinner and a fun way for the teens to get involved in some fun crafts at Christmas time

Handmade Christmas Cards

Teens can make their own holiday cards using Photos they took themselves, like we talked about earlier.

Or by using some simple crafts, there are so many easy Christmas craft ideas that translate really nicely onto the front of greeting cards, like these Christmas light or music note Christmas cards made from buttons.

Older kids can also try other simple craft supplies like Pom poms and use their own creativity and initiative, that way the end result will be an amazing gift that’s more personal to them.

Making cards is an easy project, and a thoughtful way to give gift cards or money in a way that’s more personal (inside the handmade card)

We hope these DIY Christmas gifts and fun project ideas have given you some inspiration on Christmas activities that are suitable for the teenage years.

Although our children ages are getting older, and they spend more time in their rooms and busy on social media and TikTok there are still lots of fun ways to connect and have the best Christmas together.

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We hope you enjoyed these simple diy ideas for teen gifts and can use these to spend time with your teenagers in creative ways over the Christmas season. The best thing about Christmas time is the chance to connect and spend that quality time.

Please feel free to share this blog posy with friends and family who might find it useful or pin to your Pinterest Boards. Thanks so much!

Have fun together, and merry Christmas!