Christmas Box and Bag Treasure Basket for Babies and Toddlers

Happy Christmas Eve! Today, I have a Montessori-inspired activity for babies and toddlers that’s very easy to prepare and can be used both before and after Christmas. It’s a good way to recycle Christmas gift boxes and bags.

Preparing the Montessori-Inspired Christmas Gift Box and Bag Treasure Basket

This activity just needs a large basket with Christmas boxes and/or Christmas bags to fit into the basket. I recommend placing a surprise in each container (of course, one that’s large enough not to be a choking hazard). I have Beanie Baby ornaments on the lower branches of the Christmas tree. I removed the tag from each Beanie Baby and placed a Beanie Baby ornament in each container in the basket.

You could use recycled Christmas bags, although I printed out and laminated the small Christmas bag printable linked to in this post: Montessori-Inspired Christmas Activities with Spielgaben {Free Printables}.

Introducing the Treasure Basket

I simply let my 13-month-old granddaughter, Zoey, explore the treasure basket to discover the hidden Beanie Babies. Then I described whether the Beanie Babies were in or out of the containers as Zoey continued to put them in and take them out of their containers.

The Christmas treasure basket has continued to be fun for Zoey as well as good for developing a number of skills. I like using the small printable gift bag because it’s a good coordination challenge when Zoey tries to put the bear back into the gift bag. She does a good job of finding the best way to put the bear back in the bag and improves her coordination and concentration skills at the same time.

Zoey has used the Christmas treasure basket a number of days already.

I love that Zoey can use it after Christmas, too. I plan to keep the Christmas treasure basket on her shelves until I put the Christmas decorations away on New Year’s Day.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful Christmas! 🙂

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