Here is a simple Christmas leaf painting activity that makes a fun and eco-friendly Christmas craft for kids of all ages.

This craft was originally published in 2014 and has been updated and re-shared for today’s audience.

You might also like these 50 Fun and Free Christmas crafts

This activity originally was going to be “leaf Santa painting”, but as kids do, my girls decided to put their own creative spin on things when I set the activity up for them. They wanted to add more colour and their own unique designs as well as Santa leaves which is fine by me.

In the end we put together a combination of Santa leaves and decorative abstract patterned leaves, which turned out looking awesome when all hung together on a branch placed in a vase. 

This is a fabulous collaborative art idea and would work well with a group of kids or a family a home.

We think the finished product makes a gorgeous DIY decoration for Christmas and I love that it is completely biodegradable!

How to set up Christmas leaf painting

To make this craft it’s important to use firm, dry leaves. The fragile, crumbly type won’t work. If you live in Australia, gum leaves are perfect. 

You will need:

• Acrylic paint
• Brushes and water
• String
• A suitable branch for hanging the finished leaves
• A vase and some rocks to hold the branch in place

How to:

Set the activity up by placing the leaves, paints and water out for painting.

I let the girls pick the colour paints they wanted – you don’t need much because the leaves have only a small surface area to cover.

Miss K happily set about making the Santa leaves. She used an example leaf I painted for a reference and carefully copied it.

Aren’t they gorgeous? Equally gorgeous are Miss R’s spotted, patterned leaves in a rainbow of colours.

I tied the leaves to strings and arranged a few bare branches in a vase with some rocks to hang them on. Here are a few pictures of what we came up with…

We are pretty happy with how our leaf paintings turned out. This activity is perfect for all ages, from toddlers that are only just old enough to wield a paint brush to older kids, tweens, teens and even adults (well me anyway!).

More Christmas crafts kids will love

• Make eye-catching silhouette handprint Christmas art
• These mini paper angels are always fun
• All kids will adore making these recycled cardboard Christmas ornaments 
• Create the entire nativity scene from paper using our printable template