Creative Christmas Countdown: Drawing Games

Today is day 14 of the Creative Christmas Countdown which means I get to share with you a wonderful activity you can do with your family during advent!  Welcome to all you coming over from Creative with Kids, I hope you take some time to look around Art For Little Hands and see all the other wonderful activities we do in our home.  

Today I am going to share with you fun ideas for playing drawing games.  Drawing games are great for little ones and an easy way to entertain them anytime.  Do you ever feel your child only draws the exact same picture every time they draw?  That is my 8 year old.  A few flowers in the sun is her favorite picture to draw.  I wish she would try new things, but for some kids that is intimidating.  Drawing games are a great way to get your child to try new things to draw and challenge themselves to try drawing things they didn't even think they could.  There are probably many drawing games you can do in your home, but I wanted to share with you the three that we do often (and almost every time we are waiting at the doctors or church or anywhere they need to be entertained and a bit quiet.)  

Pictionary with a theme:

You don't need a pictionary game to play pictionary anytime.  In fact with little ones I find it better to play without the gameboard and really without scoring at all.  To play all you need to do is think up a bunch of words you think would be fun for your children to draw.  I simply took the children out into the hallway and whispered the word, but if your children are old enough to read you can write them out on pieces of paper.   Each child takes a turn drawing a word that only he or she sees and then the family tries to guess what the word is that he or she is drawing.  If your family is large enough you can split into teams and take score.  It was only me and my two older children playing so we didn't keep score.

Here is a list of good Christmas words to get you going with this in your home tonight:

1. Manger
2. Star of Bethlehem
3. Stable
4. Baby Jesus
5. Shepherds
6. Three wise men
7. Christmas tree
8. Santa Clause
9. Stocking
10. Frosty the Snowman
11. snowflake
12. Elves
13. hot cocoa
14. ornament
15. presents
16. nutcracker
17. carol singing
18. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer
19. candy cane
20. Christmas lights

Timed Drawing:

To play a timed drawing game you need drawing materals, a minute timer, and two or more people.  So easy.  What you do is have each member of the family draw a picture of the same thing and then compare drawings.  I played with just my daughter and in the end she said, that was so much fun!  I would really like to do this with everyone in the family just haven't had my husband around enough.  I think the kids would get a kick out of their dad playing this with them.  For this game it is also fun to have song titles for the pictures to draw and even to sing the songs as you draw.

mine: Top, Ally: Bottom -- can you guess the song?
ʞɔoɹ llǝq ǝlƃuıɾ :ɹǝʍsuɐ

Here is a list of songs to draw I came up with:

1. Oh Little Town of Bethlehem
2. Away in a Manger
3. Let It Snow
4. Frosty the Snowman
5. Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer
6. We Three Kings
7. Jingle Bell Rock
8. Baby It's Cold Outside
9. The Little Drummer Boy
10. Oh Christmas Tree
11. Noel (this is a hard one!)
12. Silent Night
13. Up on the Rooftop
14. Santa Clause is Coming to Town
15. Joy to the World
16. I saw Mommy kissing Santa Clause
17. It's the Most wonderful time of the year
18. Santa baby
19. Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree
20. All I want for Christmas

Pass the Drawing: 

This is a game I play often with my son when we are at church or waiting somewhere.  Each person takes a turn drawing one thing to make a whole picture.  You go back and forth until the picture seems done.  This is also a fun one to do with toddlers.  My eldest and me also enjoy doing this in mandala form each taking a turn making the next layer of the mandala.  To give this a theme you can make a rule that each part of the drawing has to go with the theme of Christmas, or whatever theme you chose.  This activity is really good to do with a child that doesn't ever particularly want to fill in all the space on their paper or go into much detail.  Also works with toddlers, just don't expect them to want to keep going always.  My toddler lasted about 2 passes.

For this activity it is good to draw a room to start with, but not necessary.  Lots to fill up in a room. 

my rule is one thing to draw each time.  I say only one color, but my kids hate that and never obey the rule.

I also like to draw blank things like a blank fireplace and let them add the 

embellishments

pictures on the wall are fun for kids to fill in

Our finished picture done together.  I love the little mouse hole my daughter drew on the left wall!

Now you are off to do a drawing game with your little ones.  

Takes only a few minutes and is sure to delight.  Or remember paper and crayons to carry in your purse for those emergency "need to entertain a little one moment" all parents have.

If you haven't had a chance be sure to check out day 1-13 of the Creative Christmas Countdown and keep following along.  Lots of good ideas have been shared already such as holiday book advent, Homemade Christmas cards, walnut baby ornaments, Handmade Thank you cards, Sing a Song, Fun with Grandparents, Hot Cocoa Party, Paper Trees, Gingerbread houses, handmade bird feeders, peppermint play dough, decorate kids rooms for the holidays, and handmade gift wrap.  I can't wait to see the last 10 activities.