Yes, we technically kick off the holidays the day after Halloween because we are pre-Thanksgiving celebratory freaks. But hanging the Holiday Bucket List on our wall every year makes it official. We’re goin’ in, checking off simple delights and traditions that are extra special these last two months–things we often say we want to do but forget or put aside until the holidays are over and we groan that we never did take hot cocoa in the car late at night to drive and look at Christmas lights.

This list was born from pure delight, from wanting my kids to remember that we enjoyed glorious little moments together over simple holiday things–painting candy canes on our fingernails, shaping pancakes into snowmen, cutting paper snowflakes and hanging them in a window.

I started making bucket lists several yeas ago when my kids were tiny for some accountability to commit to the fun things I dream of at the beginning of new seasons. Over the years, they’ve become an important tradition in our home and something I love sharing with you. I spend many early October and November mornings alone in my kitchen illustrating each item as I make this, and that quiet time has become my church. Sharing this list with you every year is the cherry on top–or maybe steeple, if we’re sticking with church.

We print a copy of ours 16 x 20 (I just send the file to Walgreens Photo) and hang it in the main area of our home. Or you can print it on regular paper and slap it on your fridge. Our kids have so much fun checking things off, but for the record I’d still be enjoying these bucket lists even if I didn’t have kids.

Download and print your own copy of our 2021 Holiday Bucket List

After including a few crafty gifts in the kid gift guide, I decided the crafty and creative gifts deserved their own guide because there are so many great gifts available for the artsy folks. So many of Lainey’s gifts have been pulled from this list. One of the best ways to foster creative kids is to have lots of creative art supplies available to them. You may want to shop for yourself from this list. :o)

1 – Refillable A5 Journal
When Lainey started journaling, she looked at a lot of journals before settling on a binder type. The size is just right, it lays open flat providing a nice work surface, and you can rearrange pages and add more. The cover comes in a variety of different colors. You’ll need A5 Loose Leaf Journal Paper to fill it.

2 – Extraordinary Things to Cut Out and Collage
This book has delivered so many hours of creating in our house (the first night after we bought it, Lainey and her friend and I sat at the dining room table and cut, collaged and talked for SIX HOURS).  There are over 1500 different things to cut out in the book—everything from pop culture art and vintage photographs to architecture, botanicals and travel images. We collage onto thick watercolor paper and card stock, or— if we really want to get fancy—these wooden panels.

3 – Prismacolor Colored Pencils
If you have a creative kid who loves art, you may want to graduate beyond Crayola and invest in a set of really good colored pencils. We love Prismacolor!

4 – 365 Days of Art
Santa’s bringing this for Lainey this year. It’s so good, I want an extra copy for myself. It’s full of creative prompts and exercises to spark reflection through drawing, writing, painting and more.

5 – Self-Outlining Metallic Markers
After a few pop-up holiday ads kept selling these as the “Best Stocking Stuffer!,” I investigated and decided they did look pretty fun for doodling and lettering (see #12).

6 – Resin Kit
We boarded the Resin Train this past summer and never looked back. It’s easy to work with and can create so many beautiful things–jewelry, bookmarks (see #7), keychains! We’ve added dried flowers, glitter, cookie sprinkles and more. We love the bookmarks we made this summer so much, we’re making more to include in teacher holiday gifts.

7 – Bookmark Mold Kit
Includes silicone molds and tassels to turn resin into beautiful bookmarks. My favorite ones we made used glitter and sequins, but there are so many fun things you could put in these.

8 – Rainbow Embroidery Board Kit
Simple, doable for any age and a great price.

9 – Paint Chip Poetry
A fun word play game that encourages players to spontaneously create poems with paint chip names. We’ve used them to make up our own creative writing exercises as well–so great for expanding word choice and including colorful descriptions–a blue that is a “whale song,” whites that are “moonstone” and “sand dollar,” a “rich soil” brown and a “cliff’s edge” gray–delightful creative fun.

10 – Pocket Watercolor Set
Every budding artist needs a good set of watercolors. This one is the perfect size and includes 18 half pans for a variety of colors that can be mixed.

11 – One Color a Day
A brilliant simple journal that prompts you to visually document each day by creating a color and adding words or phrases that reflect your current mood, an observation, or an experience.

12 – Pretty Simple Lettering
Learn the art of modern calligraphy with this how-to hand lettering workbook that teaches the basics of creating alphabets in many different styles, how to develop those styles into one that is uniquely your own, and how to turn hand lettering into beautiful pieces of art.

13 – Sketch Your Style
This interactive guided sketchbook is perfect for anyone who loves fashion and loves to doodle, sketch, and draw. Some pages are blank, while others have printed templates to guide you through creating your own designs and drawing figures and clothing.

14 – In the Forest Watercolor Guide
We’ve gone through every Dana Fox watercolor book in our home. The pages are thick watercolor paper with color palette suggestions and rough sketches of each ocean creature already drawn–all ready for painting.

15 – Watercolor Postcards
The blank canvas of a full sheet of watercolor paper can be intimidating. These watercolor postcards are the perfect size and invitation to freely create art. Save them all to make a mini portfolio, frame them in 5 x 7 frames or slap a postcard stamp on your art and mail it to Grandma.

16 – Calligraphy Brush Markers
Goes perfectly with #12! Great for practicing lettering as well as journaling.

17 – Block Printing Starter Kit
A fun area of art to explore. For years, my aunt and uncle’s Christmas cards were a different block print my aunt used to design.

18 – Ovenbake Polymer Clay Kit
We always like to have a stash of polymer clay on hand for rainy day boredom and days when we have a creative itch to make something. It’s so versatile! We’ve created lots of jewelry with ours (add these to make earrings with your creations).

19 – Sakura Drawing Pen Set
I use Sakura pens for all my watercolor drawings–archival ink, waterproof, fade resistant and no feathering or smearing!

20 – Self-Hardening Modeling Clay
Unleash the potter withing without needing a pottery wheel or kiln. Sculptures can be painted once they dry. We’ve made jewelry bowls, candlesticks and lots of fun sculptures. See #21:

21 – Pottery & Clay Sculpting Tools
For use with #20. These will bring back school art class memories. And clay sculpting with tools is so therapeutic!

22 – A Book That Takes Its Time
One of our favorite art books that is chock-full of creative exercises and inspiration–a complete buffet of ideas and prompts. It’s a save forever book for sure.

23 – Frida Paint-by-Number Kit
These paint-by-number kits are so well-designed! A bit more modern and less tedious than the paint-by-numbers of our youth. We did the Mr. Rogers one a couple years ago, and it was so fun to complete.

24 – Yarn-Bomb Unicorn Kit
Yarn-bombing is super therapeutic, but you can only yarn bomb so many sticks before you want something a little more challenging. This kit has everything you need to complete two colorful unicorns that would look darling styled on a bookshelf.

25 – Chalk Pastels
Our favorite leveled-up sidewalk chalks. The normal thick sidewalk chalk wasn’t doing it for us anymore–we wanted more vivid colors. These take a little longer to wash off a driveway (they do wash off though), but after you see the art you can create with these, you won’t want your masterpieces washed away!

26 – Shrinky Dink Sheets
Another staple in our home for rainy days and creative itches. There’s so much you can make with these, and the process is ridiculously satisfying. All you need are colored pencils (see #3) and an oven. Add a hole punch and jewelry-making accessories if you want to turn your creations into charms and earrings.

27 – Rainbow Punch Needle Kit
It’s simplified needlepoint (the punching is so satisfying!), and the result is darling display-worthy art.