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This festive decoration is based on a favorite Christmas character that’s a little mischievous! Kids will enjoy making this Grinch nutcracker craft this holiday season. It’s a fun twist on the usual nutcracker soldier that becomes a cute Grinch decoration that’ll look great displayed at home or in the classroom.

You can find even more Grinch activities to celebrate this beloved Dr. Seuss character. You’ll find ideas to make storytime stretch into a whole afternoon of festive fun.

Collage showing two completed Grinch nutcracker crafts and hands holding them.

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Grinch Craft For Elementary Students

Kids will make a paper soldier dressed like the Grinch from the story, How the Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss. This paper nutcracker blends storytime with hands-on fun, so children end up with a sweet keepsake they created.

This simple activity lets kids get creative while practicing using scissors and following directions. Teachers can use it as an addition to storytime for a fun children’s holiday project, and parents can tweak the steps for younger attention spans while still getting them into the holiday spirit.

Grab our free printable template and a few easy to find supplies like cardstock, glue, and scissors to bring him to life. Set up is really simple and you can keep reading below for our step by step guide on how to put him together.

Supplies

Colored cardstock or construction paper
Scissors
Glue
Grinch Nutcracker Craft Template (click the “click here to get your freebies” image at the end of the post)

Click here to see our favorite kids’ craft supplies.

Directions

Start by downloading and printing the template. Once the template is printed, gather the materials for this fun activity. Get those scissors ready, and let’s help the kids bring this Grinch nutcracker to life!

Hands holding a Grinch Nutcracker craft template.

First, let’s grab the Grinch’s head and his eyes! Color the eyes yellow and glue them onto the Grinch’s face.

Hands gluing the yellow eyes onto the paper Grinch face craft cutout.

Take the white hat base and glue it to the bottom edge of the hat.

Hands gluing the bottom half of the red Santa hat to the paper Grinch craft.

Look for the hat ornament and glue it in the middle of the hat.

Hands assembling the paper Santa hat craft pieces.

Click here to see why I recommend these craft supplies

Carefully glue the entire finished hat to the top of the Grinch’s head. Make sure it lines up nicely!

Hands gluing the completed paper Santa hat to the top of the Grinch face craft.

Now, let’s create the Grinch’s clothes. Take the suit stripe piece and glue it to the top and center of the red body piece.

Hands gluing the white paper belt buckle strip to the red nutcracker body craft piece.

Glue the black belt strip horizontally across the middle of the red body, over the white trim.

Hands gluing the black paper belt piece to the bottom of the red nutcracker body craft.

Next, glue the yellow buckle piece right in the center of the black belt.

Hands gluing the yellow paper belt buckle to the center of the black belt on the Grinch nutcracker body.

Let’s give his clothes a cozy, fluffy trim! Take the suit fluff and glue it to the bottom of the red body piece.

Hands gluing the white wavy paper trim to the bottom of the red nutcracker body craft.

Next, add the suit collar by gluing it to the top part of the red body piece.

Hands gluing the white wavy paper trim to the top of the red nutcracker body craft.

Now comes the fun part! Take your finished Grinch head and glue it right on top of his red outfit. Watch him finally come to life!

Hands gluing the Grinch face craft to the top of the completed nutcracker body craft.

Next, grab the red arm piece, the green hand piece, and the little arm fluff. Help your kids glue the green hand to the back and end of the red arm. Once that’s in place, add the fluffy trim on top to finish off his cozy Grinch sleeve.

Once both arms are ready, it’s time to bring the Grinch together. Help your kids glue one arm on each side of his body so our Grinch nutcracker starts to take shape!

Hands gluing the finished paper nutcracker jacket piece to the Grinch nutcracker body craft.

Now it’s time to give the Grinch his legs! Find the two green leg pieces and help your kids glue them right under his body so he can stand tall in all his grumpy glory.

Hands gluing the paper green legs to the bottom of the Grinch nutcracker craft.

And now for the finishing touch, the boots! Grab the two boot pieces and help your kids glue them onto the ends of the legs. Just like that, your Grinch is fully dressed and ready for Christmas mischief.

Hands gluing the black paper nutcracker boots to the bottom of the green legs.

Wasn’t that such a fun Grinch craft to make together? Your kids will love showing off their finished masterpiece. While you’re here, be sure to check out our other Christmas crafts for even more holiday fun.

Hands holding a completed Grinch nutcracker Christmas paper craft.

Max Grinch Dog Torn Paper Craft

Christmas Books for Children

Dasher: This wonderfully illustrated Christmas book for kids gives you the back story on one of Santa’s favorite reindeer, Dasher! Girls will especially love to read this since Dasher is a girl.

Construction Site On Christmas Night: Fans of the fun characters of the construction site books have to add this Christmas-themed story to their collection. See how the trucks get ready for Christmas!

How To Catch An Elf: Kids everywhere love the silliness of this Christmas story. The rhymes and the illustrations will draw the kids in as well. This is a Christmas book kids will want to read every year!

A completed craft of the paper Grinch dressed as a nutcracker.

Christmas Crafts

Reindeer Gnome Craft – For some holiday fun with the kiddos, break out this cute gnome that has clearly caught the Christmas spirit! Kids will make this festive friend dressed up as a reindeer using our free template with 2 different versions depending on their skill level.

Snowman Photo Craft – Kids will become the snowman in this fun project! You’ll just need a picture of their face to use as the snowman’s. Download our free template and gather a few supplies you most likely already have on hand to turn your kiddo into Frosty!

Ballerina Photo Craft

Nutcracker Paper Bag Puppet – March to the beat of holiday fun with this nutcracker puppet made out of a paper bag! Kids will love turning an ordinary bag into a festive soldier ready for action. Grab our free template and soon you’ll have a whole nutcracker parade ready for a merry puppet show!

Christmas Penguin Craft – Waddle into having fun this holiday season with this adorable paper penguin. This cheerful penguin is wearing a Santa hat and ready to hand out a gift. Create this chilly little friend ready to bring bundles of Christmas joy with our free template and a few supplies from your stash.

Christmas Activities

Your little elves can give their brains a workout with these fun Christmas matching worksheets. Kids will match shadows to their colored illustration, match the amount of festive pictures to the correct number, connect the matching pictures with a line, and match the same colored stockings and candy canes.

They’ll boost their observation and memory skills along with practicing colors, shapes, numbers, and more when they complete these fun activity pages.

Add a little sprinkle of holiday fun to learning when kids complete these Christmas dot to dots! They’ll connect the dots to reveal Santa, a reindeer, and a snowman. Once they get the pictures completed by connecting all the dots, they can color it in to create a merry piece of art. Download, print and gather up the crayons for an easy, no prep activity to do this holiday season with the kiddos.

Christmas Tree Worksheets

Sweeten up learning time with these gingerbread man color by numbers! This set includes a gingerbread boy, girl, and house to bring to life as kids color in each numbered space with the color assigned to it in the key at the bottom of the page.

While kids are coloring in their creations, they’ll also by building their fine motor and number recognition skills. It’s a fun activity to use at home or at school, so grab the printables and crayons to get started!

A completed craft of two paper Grinch nutcracker figures with craft supplies on a wooden table.

Make learning the ABCs extra merry with this printable game! Kids will use these Christmas letter find cards to help Santa match his letter to the right presents with the same letter on them.

This fun activity will get kids practicing letter recognition and fine motor skills as they move the manipulatives like mini erasers, pom poms, or even Legos on top of the correct letters.

Did you make this activity with your kids or students? We’d love to feature them on our social media!

For a chance to have your child’s project featured, simply snap a picture of the completed project and post it to our Facebook page, email it to us directly by clicking here, or use #simpleeverydaymom on your social media!

A completed craft of the paper Grinch nutcracker surrounded by red and green paper, scissors, and glue sticks.

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