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Christmas is just around the corner. Perhaps a beautiful Q-tip painted Christmas tree would be just the thing to provide a bit of holiday cheer?
Not only do these make a great fine motor activity for kids, they are so beautiful that they are displayed in a prime spot in our living room right now. Indeed, my kids had so much fun making these that making just one Q-tip painted Christmas tree wasn’t enough!
Note: For more Christmas activities your kids will love, see my Christmas Activities for Kids page.

To start, I folded a sheet of green heavyweight construction paper in half. I traced half a tree onto the paper and then cut it out. When I opened the paper back up I had a perfectly symmetrical tree.

Once I had the tree shapes prepared, I placed the following materials onto a tray:
- Tree outline
- Plastic painting palette with small squirts of paint in the wells
- Q-tips

I then invited the kids to begin painting. QBoy got right to work making small dots with his Q-tips.

XGirl got very creative with mixing colors together.

After completing one tree each, both kids were still very engaged and wanted to paint some more. So I kept cutting new tree outlines in various sizes for them to decorate.
And now we have a beautiful forest of Christmas trees in our living room. 🙂

More Christmas resources
More Christmas crafts from Gift of Curiosity:
- Craft stick reindeer
- Paper plate reindeer craft
- Christmas tree ribbon craft
- Cinnamon Christmas ornaments
- DIY Christmas snow globes
- Sand-filled Christmas ornaments
- Fine motor Christmas craft
- Gingerbread man craft
For more Christmas activities your kids will love, see my Christmas Activities for Kids page and my Christmas Activities for Kids Pinterest board.
You know, this is such a simple idea – painting with Q-tips – but I never considered it before! Not only would my girls love the Christmas tree painting activity, but I think we’ll brainstorm more ways to use Q-tips in their art time. Thanks so much for the inspiration. 🙂