Simple Diwali crafts for young children - round up post

Diwali is also known as the Festival of Light, and it is celebrated all over the world as one of the largest and most important festivals for Hindus.

I've come up with several Diwali crafts and activities for my children over the last few years, so I'm grouping them all together in this Diwali round up post so that they are all easy to find. Many of these crafts are particularly suitable for younger children.

My most popular craft is my Salt Dough Diwas. One year they were even featured in "Yours" magazine, which I was very excited about! They are really easy to make, and when they are painted and decorated with sequins they are so bright and cheerful. Ours come out now year after year and are still looking as good as the day that we made them.

I first discovered Hama beads around Diwali one year, and now of course they are a regular feature on my blog! I used the large and small circle pegboards to come up with a variety of different Rangoli designs. The small Hama bead Rangoli designs make lovely coasters for a Diwali celebration, or as simple decorations stuck or strung around the room.

The large Hama bead Rangoli designs were also a lot of fun to make, and make nice table mats or standalone decorations. The circle Hama bead pegboard is really versatile, and with the larger board you can make some really complex designs. They look fab in the centre of the table for a Diwali meal.

We've also made some simple Rangoli using dyed rice.These were a bit more fiddly, but looked good and the children had a lot of fun making them. Colouring the rice is really easy and it's fun for the children to get involved.

I also tried a different way of making Rangoli, this time Rangoli using dyed salt for a finer texture, and using my Cricut mini to cut out templates for the different areas. I ran them through the laminator to make them nice and sturdy, and they look great stuck on the window.

We have also put together some really simple Diwali cards which worked very well using some printable colouring pages, and I'll be using this idea again this year. There are lots of different pictures to colour out there and many of them come from the Diwali story so are a great starting point for telling the story.

Finally there are all sorts of sweet treats that you can bake for Diwali. We tried our hand at some Burfi sweets which are very easy to make and use just three ingredients.

If you are teaching your young children about Diwali, here are some books that they might enjoy:

The Best Diwali Ever (affiliate link) - A heart warming picture book about Diwali, siblings and how very special this celebration can be.

Diwali colouring book for kids (affiliate link) - A simple coloring book for young children, suitable for ages 2-5. Contains all sorts of things to colour including lamps, fireworks, candles, lanterns, food & rangoli patterns.

First Festivals: Diwali (affiliate link) - Featuring simple text, gorgeous illustrations and satisfying lift-the-flaps, this book explores common Diwali traditions and helps young children understand the importance of this special holiday.

Mr Men and Little Miss Happy Diwali (affiliate link) - The five-day festival of lights is celebrated by millions of people across the world and the Mr Men and Little Miss can't wait to join in. They're busy cleaning their homes, creating Rangolis, lighting lamps and enjoying all the festivities, including large feasts that Mr Greedy is particularly looking forward to. It’s going to be a busy five days of light and laughter!

We have several years yet of Diwali crafting ahead of us, and so I'll be updating this post with all our new ideas. I also have a huge Pinterest board filled with wonderful Diwali crafts and activities from around the web, do pop over and visit!

Follow Jennifer Jain's board Diwali Crafts and Activities on Pinterest.