The festive season is the perfect time to bring a little extra magic to your play setups.  The PlayTRAY makes it easier than ever to create inviting, low prep, child-led activities — whether you're looking to build fine motor skills, spark creativity, or simply enjoy some seasonal sensory fun, the five activities we've pulled together are engaging and wonderful for children of all ages. 

1. Festive Scoop & Pour Sensory Play 

If you're looking for a simple, low-prep sensory activity with a festive twist, coloured Arborio rice is a brilliant option. Arborio has a chunkier texture than regular rice, making it extra satisfying for scooping, pouring, and running through little hands! We’ve coloured ours in red, green, and white for a Christmassy feel and paired it with a few Inspire My Play sensory tools for easy, engaging play.  How to Colour Festive Rice (One-Step Method)  This method uses ready-mix paint, which creates vibrant, even colours, metallics or unusual shades. 

You’ll need: 

• Arborio rice
• Ready-mix paint (red, green, white or your choice)
• A sealable bag or jar
• Baking/greaseproof paper 
  
• A tray 
  

Instructions: 

1. Add the paint: Place your rice into a jar or sealable bag. Add a couple of squirts of ready-mix paint directly onto the rice.
2. Mix thoroughly: Seal the container and scrunch, shake, or rub the paint through the rice. Make sure every grain is coated.
3. Adjust if needed: If the coverage isn’t quite bright enough, add another squirt of paint and repeat.
4. Dry the rice: Spread the coloured rice  in a thin layer on a tray lined with baking paper. Leave it to fully dry — this usually takes a few hours. 
   

Once dry, pour it into the PlayTRAY, add scoops, bowls and funnels, and enjoy! Hide small Christmas toys for a simple festive treasure   hunt. You could also add pinecones, bells, or wooden shapes for multi-sensory play.  Top Tip: Store your coloured rice in an airtight tub or jar so  you can bring it out each  year for festive sensory fun! 

2. Snowy Small World  

Cotton-wool balls make fantastic pretend snow! They’re soft, lightweight, and perfect for little hands to scoop, gather, and move around — without the mess of real sensory snow!  

They also pair perfectly with construction vehicles. My littlest absolutely loved loading up the diggers, tipping out the “snow,” and using the trucks to clear the roads around the tray. It’s such a simple setup that encourages fine motor skills, imaginative play, and lots of storytelling. 

Add our printable winter village to bring the scene to life and create a magical small world setup for your child to explore. 

Here’s how to assemble each piece: 

Houses

Mountains 

3D Trees 

With just cotton-wool snow and these easy printables, you can create a magical winter world that inspires hours of small world play — perfect for the festive season! 

3. Snowflake Milk Tray 

We love the gorgeous swirly patterns you can make with the magic milk experiment, so this time we decided to give it a wintery twist using snowflake cutters and cool blue and purple food colouring. The result is so pretty — and just as fun as ever! If you’re new to magic milk, it’s a simple science activity that creates mesmerising colour explosions. 

Here’s how it works: 

1. Pour a thin layer of milk (full fat works best) into the PlayTRAY lid.
2. Add a few drops of food colouring — we chose blues and purples for a frosty winter feel.
3. Dip a cotton bud into a little washing up liquid.
4. Touch the soapy end to the milk and watch the colours swirl and dance! 
   

The washing up liquid reacts with the fat in the milk, causing the colour to shoot away and form beautiful, marbled patterns. It’s simple, magical, and one of my kids’ all-time favourite activities. 

Tips for Success 

• Choose colours that blend well (like blue and purple) to keep the patterns vibrant for longer — otherwise everything quickly becomes a muddy brown!
• Adding snowflake cutters creates fun winter-themed shapes for the colours to flow around.
• Repeat the experiment as many times as you like — just refresh the milk when the colours stop moving. 

We used the PlayTRAY lid, which is the perfect shallow tray for magic milk. It contains the mess, gives little ones lots of space to experiment, and wipes clean easily afterwards. 

4. Bauble Decorations 

Decorating cotton-wool baubles is such a fun, festive craft activity, and a brilliant workout for little hands! Droppers are always a hit with young children, helping to strengthen fine motor skills as they squeeze, and explore colour mixing. 

We stored our coloured water in the PlayTRAY storage inserts, which were the perfect size. To make the coloured water, simply add a few drops of food colouring. Little ones can easily dip their droppers into each colour and decorate their fluffy baubles in beautiful, vibrant patterns. 

5. Christmas Tree Felt Balls Fine Motor Activity  

Give this fun activity a try and build fine motor skills at the same time! Download our Christmas tree Printable, add velcro dots to the spaces, it’s ready for little ones to decorate using our tongs and colourful felt balls. The Velcro helps keep the baubles in place, giving children the perfect opportunity to practice hand-eye coordination and picking up and transferring objects with a steady pincer grasp.  

You can also turn this into a pom-pom push activity for even more learning-through-play. Simply stick the template onto a cardboard box, cut out the holes, and your child can push the felt balls or pom-poms through. It’s a wonderfully versatile setup that invites repeat play and supports early motor development.   

These festive activities are simple to set up, provide plenty of learning opportunities, and bring the magic of Christmas to playtime. The PlayTRAY makes them even easier to get stuck in, keeping everything contained and accessible for little hands. Whether your child is scooping, exploring small worlds or experimenting with colour, each setup encourages curiosity, creativity, and learning. 

We absolutely love seeing how you and your little ones play, so if you try any of these ideas, don’t forget to tag us @inspiremyplay! Your creations always inspire our community, and we can’t wait to see what you come up with this festive season!