Stuffing Stockings Fine Motor Activity

Set up this fun fine motor Christmas tray activity stuffing stockings! Your toddler or preschooler will love to pretend helping to stuff the stockings for Santa.

Stuffing stockings this year?  I just love to fill my kids’ stockings with all kinds of small gifts, just because I know how much joy it brings them when they find it filled on Christmas morning! This is a simple fine motor activity as part of our activity tray series every Wednesday in December, today we are stuffing stockings!

Originally, I set this tray up for then 3-year-old, but my older child loved this simple activity too! I used one of our beloved trays, together with two small stockings and pretend presents ornaments.

This activity works mainly on fine motor skills: using a pincher grip to hold onto the present and adding it to the stocking. It works on bilateral coordination skills too: one hand must open the stocking, while the other hand places the presents inside. Also developing hand-eye coordination with getting it into the opening!

I added a challenge to the activity and asked my older child to count how many presents will fit into the stocking, adding playful counting opportunities.

Here I asked my littlie to only fill it with green presents, then blue presents etc. Working on visual discrimination and classification sorting the colours.

Such a simple idea, but really so educational. It would work great as a workstation in a classroom or one could turn it into pretend to play too: In Santa’s workshop, the elves stuff the stockings on Christmas Eve…

Have you seen the other CHRISTMAS-themed tray activities?

See them here by clicking on these links:

Fine Motor & Sorting Christmas Trees
Fine Motor & Counting Christmas Tree
Sorting Christmas Hats

Also check out this Christmas Pack!