The colorful glow of a strand of blinking Christmas lights, or a more subdued strand of twinkling white bulbs, fascinate children and adults alike during the winter holidays, and beyond. Incorporating Christmas lights into art activities for preschoolers is a convenient way to combine creativity, science, math and art skills into one lesson plan. When planning Christmas activities with preschoolers, be mindful of the religious and social backgrounds of the students, altering the activities as needed to exclude mention of the religious holiday.

Pompom Christmas Trees
Pompom trees will engage the minds and hands of preschoolers.
Inspire students to learn about shapes and colors while they develop their craft skills by making pompom trees, complete with colorful pompom lights. Provide each student with a piece of green construction paper, or thicker paper, cut into a triangle or Christmas-tree shape. Instruct students to select varying shapes of small green pompoms to glue on to one side of the paper to create the body of the tree. Explain that students should add multicolored pompoms to represent Christmas lights or ornaments. Do not forget the star at the top of the tree. Ask students what should go on top of the tree, and demonstrate how to add a yellow pompom at the tip of their creations.

Ornaments
Each child becomes a star in this Christmas light activity.
Take a photo of each child in the preschool class. Cut out yellow stars from construction paper. Crop the photos to a size that will fit inside the star, either in the shape of a circle or square. Ask students to glue their photo onto the center of the star. Provide additional glue and glitter for the students to make their stars even shinier and brighter. Punch a hole in the top of the star and add a loop of string so that the star ornament can be hung on the Christmas tree.

Class Christmas Lights
Cut out enough circles of multicolored construction paper to represent every student and teacher in the class. Explain to the class that each circle represents one light on a class Christmas tree. Ask students to think about the idea of light. Nudge them, if necessary, to list such things as the sun and stars, lamps and flashlights. Allow children with more abstract thinking to reflect on the idea of love sometimes representing light. Instruct students to draw a picture or cut out an image from a magazine that represents his or her concept of light and affix it to a circle with glue. Hang everyone's lights on the wall, representing a whole string of Christmas lights.

Advent Wreaths
Lead children through the process of making a miniature advent wreath.
Make Advent wreaths to celebrate the period of preparation leading up to the celebration of Jesus' birth. Use small Styrofoam rings--about 5 inches in diameter--for the wreath portion. Show the children how to stick fir twigs into the top of the Styrofoam to make it look like a real wreath. Give each student five candles and show them how to push the "candles" into the wreath to create an Advent wreath. Consider using unsharpened pencils or crayons instead of candles to avoid safety dangers.