15 Free Printable Christmas Playdough Mats To Use

Playdough play has always been a winner in my house! I remember when my sons were young, it was a guaranteed rainy day activity to keep them occupied without driving me up the wall. Creative but not chaotic, a relatively calm activity without too much tidying up (as long as none got in the carpet..!). 

But it’s always fun to theme the play to the season. And so I’ve made these free Christmas playdough mats for you to help inspire some festive themed craft play with your little ones. 

They are perfect for enjoying some quality time and fun together whilst sneakily working on fine motor skills and development – my favourite kind of activity! It’s a fun Christmas activity to enjoy with kids of all ages – from toddlers and preschoolers to primary school aged children and even beyond. I still find playdough very relaxing to potter with!

How To Use The Mats

Download the free pdf file below. There’s 15 free printable playdough mats in total – I’ve made one set formatted for A4 print and one for US Letter.

Once you’ve downloaded your chosen set, select the specific mats you’d like to use and simply print them out. White cardstock will help them last slightly longer but paper is fine too if you don’t have printable card to hand.

Cover The Sheets

To enable repeat usage, I would either laminate the sheets or place them into clear plastic pockets. That way your little one can play with them time and again and you just need to wipe the plastic cover clean. The other nice thing about the plastic sheet protectors is that you can switch the sheets in and out. But if you’re going to be using the same sheets over and again then laminating will help them last longer and facilitate more independent play.

Pick and Choose Your Favourites

Each mat has a different theme and suggested activity, but I highly encourage going off-piste! Let your little one follow their own ideas—it’ll be so much fun to see what they come up with!

Some of the activities are more involved, like decorating presents for under the tree, or adding Christmas dinner to the plate. Others are simpler and would suit younger children or those looking for a shorter activity, such as adding features to Santa’s face or fairy lights to the chain.  Pick and choose the ones that will work for your little one. 

What Else You’ll Need

Here’s a few things that might be useful to make the most of these Christmas playdough mats:

• Playdough. Of course! As many colours as you’d like (and of course you can encourage them to blend to make their own shades, although I always found it bizarrely stressful watching them do this – please tell me I’m not the only one?!).  You could also use homemade playdough, maybe even Christmas scented playdough like gingerbread or peppermint.
• Rolling pin and cutters. A few playdough tools like a mini rolling pin, blunt knife or little cookie cutters can inspire your child’s play and help them to make more intricate designs as well.
• Gems and mini pom poms. You might like to add in a few other little decorative details for extra flourish too! You could even go for a winter walk and forage some bits to add.

Why Christmas Playdough Mats Are The Best!

As I said above, I adore playdough activities – they hit that sweet spot between crafting creativity and imaginative play.  A festive fun activity for toddlers which can be easily tailored to the child(ren) involved – it’s gentle but interactive and ideal for indoors winter play. And giving the playdough creations a Christmas theme is an excellent way to embrace the festive season.

Plus, this is a brilliant developmental activity too. Secretly building hand-eye co-ordination, fine motor skills, hand strength, number and colour recognition all whilst your little one is busy with creative play. And of course it makes for fantastic sensory play as well. What’s not to love?!

Great Christmas Gift Idea!

These mats make a great gift idea as well.

• They’d be great as party favours or small Christmas gifts when shared with a can or two of playdough each.
• Or as a gift from the elf on December 1st to keep little ones busy throughout advent.
• You could use them as an activity-come-place mats for a kids Christmas party or North Pole Breakfast.
• Or add them to your Christmas Eve Box to keep small hands busy and the festive vibes high!

Download Your Free Playdough Mats

Here are the download links for your own set of Christmas play dough mats. Enjoy!  

I’ve shared below a few more detailed ideas and suggestions for ways to use each one.

[DOWNLOAD A4 LETTER FORMAT HERE]

[DOWNLOAD US LETTER FORMAT HERE]

Notes:

Hopefully it goes without saying but please be sure to always supervise your little one whilst they are playing.

These Christmas playdough mats are intended for personal use only. Please do not share the pdfs with others but instead refer them to this post to download their own copy. Thank you.

15 Festive Printable Play Dough Mats

I’ve created 15 Christmas playdough mats—from Christmas trees to gingerbread houses, Rudolph to fairy lights. Pick your favourites, mix and match, and see where your little one’s creativity takes them! Here’s a bit more about how you could use each design.

Father Christmas

Let’s give Santa some eyes and fill in his beard.

This is a great sensory activity, adding lots of ‘puffs’ of white or grey playdough to Santa’s beard – children can build thumb strength pushing small balls of playdough down to make tuffs of the beard.

Fairy Lights

Add pretty fairy lights to this chain. Which shapes and colours will you use?

Add colourful fairy lights to the chain. Little ones can enjoy choosing different shapes and colours for their lights.  A great way to practise colour recognition and matching sizes as each light is added.

Gingerbread Man

Run run as fast as you can … it’s time to decorate your gingerbread man!

Great for unleashing their imagination, here your little one will decorate their gingerbread man however they want. They can go lavish and detailed or simply add eyes, mouth and buttons – a great one for showcasing their personality and that of their finished gingerbread man!

Candy Canes

Add the stripes to these candy canes. What colours will you choose?

Add the stripes to the candy canes. This is a great one for fine motor practice as little ones match their playdough to the shapes on the mat.  Also a great one if you just want to use 1-2 colours of playdough.

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Snowman

Let’s give Frosty the Snowman a face, buttons, cosy scarf and hat.

Finish Frosty the Snowman by adding a face, buttons, scarf and hat. This is a good one for helping your little one work through a short list of instructions and giving their snowman a fun character too. They can add the white to the snowman’s body as well of course if they want to build up a more 3D design and add texture.

Christmas Tree

Add some ornaments and a star to your Christmas tree.

Little ones will have plenty of fun with this Christmas tree playdough mat, decorating it to their hearts content with lights, decorations, garlands and topper. Anything goes of course and it’d be so much fun to see what they create.

Snow Globe

What’s going on inside your snow globe? Add a wintry scene.

There’s carte blanche here to let their imagination go wild, this is a great one for slightly older children as they build a wintry scene inside their snow globe. Sparkly playdough or eco-glitter, and even some small decorations like mini bottle brush trees or little forest animal figures would be a great addition here to incorporate into their design.

Elf Face

Add a mouth, nose, eyes and hair to your elf’s face.

This one would go well alongside Santa, or perhaps if the playdough mats were delivered by your elf visitor. Help your little one add a face and personality to their festive elf!

Baubles

Time to decorate some fabulous baubles!

Another playdough mat perfect for encouraging your child’s imagination. They can have fun decorating their Christmas baubles however they want. With three baubles on the page and the potential to add different numbers of details to each, this could be a great opportunity for some simple number practice as well.

Rudolph

Oh no! Rudolph is missing his antlers and nose. Add them so he’s ready for Christmas Eve!

If you’re not singing the song whilst you’re adding Rudolph’s features, please let me know how! (I’m humming it as I write this!!)  As well as helping your little one work on their hand-eye coordination and strength as they roll out the playdough for Rudolph’s nose, this is a fun mat for chatting about Santa’s reindeer and stories of Christmas and the North Pole.

Christmas Dinner Plate

Add the meal to your Christmas dinner plate. What will you choose to eat?

A brilliant opportunity to chat with your little one about their favourite (and least favourite) parts of Christmas dinner, the traditions around the meal and perhaps even what others eat at Christmas time around the world too.  This mat is particularly versatile for kids of all ages to create their very own Christmas meal.

Gingerbread House

Let’s add the windows, doors and sweet decorations to this gingerbread house.

A brilliant Christmas playdough mat to use. Children can really go to town here adding all sorts of detail, colour and character to their gingerbread house. This would be a fun one to use with small groups and see all the different gingerbread house creations at the end.

Stocking

Decorate this stocking ready for Santa to fill.

With the suggested star in the middle of the stocking design on the mat, there’s an opportunity here for little ones to practice their cutting skills and hand-eye coordination.  Or they can simply cover the star with playdough and add their own design.

​Wreath

Fill this wreath with plenty of beautiful decorations.

​This playdough mat is very versatile with an endless variety of ways to decorate the wreath. This one could be great for colour recognition or practising counting. And it could be made a particularly sensory activity with other decorative options as well, like gems and mini pom poms.

​Gifts

How will you decorate the gifts for under the tree?

A perfect way to encourage self-expression with an anything goes approach to decorating the three gifts.  Following the outline of the ribbon on the gift with a ‘snake’ of playdough is great for fine motor practice too.

These photos are from my creatively artistic friend Kerry whose little one gave these Christmas playdough mats a proper test run—and a huge thumbs up! So I knew I had to share them with you too. Whether it’s a five-minute creative moment or a whole afternoon hands-on Christmas activity, I’d love to hear which mats become the favourites in your house.