Not sure what activities you can do with a baby this winter? Find simple, fun, age-appropriate winter crafts and activities your babies will enjoy to do indoors, during the cold months.

---

With the holidays behind us and winter in full swing, most families find themselves searching for sanity-saving indoor activities to do with the kids. We’ve already enjoyed a few winter activities with our preschooler during several new year’s snow days, but struggle a bit more to find age-appropriate arts and crafts to do with our baby.

Why is it harder to find seasonal activities, especially winter-themed ideas for babies? 

In my experience, most of the fun planned activities require a little more experience and coordination. Whether it’s using more refined fine-motor skills like drawing or cutting or simply being able to follow instructions. And while you should definitely include outdoor play anytime you can, babies can only handle so much ice and freezing snow!!

Babies under the age of two, need things to be much more simple and safer. Because we all know what babies tend to do…put things in their mouth, cry, explore and make a big old mess. Which of course, is a learning experience in itself.

So if you’re looking to make things a little easier this winter, just take a look at our top picks for baby winter activities.

Our ideas include handprint and footprint artwork, sensory play and baby-safe ways to play with snow to avoid as many tears as possible.

(NOTE: Of course, winter reading is another easy activity you can do with babies of ALL ages — so we read these every year — but you can find more active activities in this post below!)

Best Winter Activities for Babies

Baby-Safe Snow and Sensory Play 

Just because it’s ice cold, does’t mean playing in the snow has to be off-limits. Grab a few kid tools, like this paint brush set made for little hands, a pail and shovel or your kid’s favorite figurines (my kids love animals like these little ones!) to make exploring in the snow a little less intimidating for baby. Below are some amazingly, simple yet fun ideas.

• Taste-safe Snow Sensory Play
• Warm Ways to Play with Snow
• Snowy Baby Play
• Ice Bath Sensory Activity
• Edible Pretend Snow
• Winter Sensory Bag
• Ice Muffin Fine-Motor Activity for Baby
• Sensory Snow Bin
• No Mess Winter Sensory Bag

Winter Art Ideas for Baby

Winter is actually a great time for making beautiful picturesque art works with your kids. All you need is a few of these roller brushes for handprint and footprint art and a creative outlook.

• Mitten Handprint Keepsake (download printable below)
• Tape-Resist Winter Snow Art
• Cardinal Handprint
• Winter Painting with Ice
• Easy Penguin Handprint
• Snowflake Handprints
• Polar Bear HandPrint
• Penguin Handprint Family
• Handprint Tree Snowy Fingerprints

Grab the FREE Printable Template Below:

Winter-Themed Indoor Activities

When you’re stuck indoors, and not in the mood to play with snow, think of materials you already have in the house, so you don’t have to go trekking out in the cold. Think: simple obstacle courses using pillows and blanket or putting all those boxes from presents to good use. Love the ideas below!

• Build a Snowman with Baby
• Simple Ideas for Baby Play at Home
• Snowman Drop Box
• Snowball Sort Activity
• Indoor Baby Obstacle Course
• Obstacle Course for Crawling Baby
• Indoor Sensory Board for Baby
• Cardboard House
• Magic Cardboard Box

So many ideas for fun, sensory play indoors baby will look forward to.

Want more baby activities?

• The Best Summer Activities for Babies
• The Best Party Games for Baby’s First Birthday
• The Best Toy Gifts for Baby’s First Year