Christmas Cutting Practice Printables for Scissor Skills
These Christmas cutting practice pages give kids a candy cane, a gingerbread man, a stocking and 11 more holiday shapes to cut out. Every shape has a dashed cutting line around it, and each page says “I can cut out Christmas shapes” across the top.
The shapes come in three sizes: one big shape per page, four per page, and nine small ones per page, all in color and in black and white. That makes it easy to start big and work down as scissor skills grow.
Why Cutting Practice Matters
Cutting builds hand strength, since the hand has to open and close the scissors again and again. It also gets both hands working together. One hand cuts while the other holds the paper and turns it, which is a big job for a preschooler.
The shapes in this set ask for different kinds of cuts. The gift and the Santa hat are mostly straight lines and corners. The ornament, the wreath and the Christmas light are smooth curves. The star has sharp points where kids have to stop, turn the paper and start again. The gingerbread man and the reindeer’s antlers have the tightest turns of all.
The dashed line sits a little outside each shape, so kids have some room. Cutting close to the line is the goal, not cutting exactly on it.
Setting Kids Up to Succeed
- Use child-size scissors that fit small hands.
- Thumbs up. The thumb goes in the small hole and the fingers go in the big one, with the thumb pointing to the ceiling.
- Hold and turn the paper with the helper hand. The paper turns, not the scissors.
- Keep elbows close to the body and cut away from the body.
- Say “open, close” while cutting to help with the rhythm.
Making It Easier or Harder
Start with the big shapes, one per page. They have long, gentle lines and fewer turns. When those feel easy, move to four shapes per page, then nine. The smaller shapes mean shorter cuts and more turning.
For kids who are just starting, cut the four-per-page sheets into quarters first so they are holding a smaller piece of paper. Kids who are still learning to open and close scissors can practice by snipping the edge of a page before cutting along a line.
The black-and-white pages give kids something extra to do: color the shapes first, then cut them out.
Ways to Use Them in December
- A scissor skills center, with a few shapes out at a time.
- A paper garland. Cut out the small shapes and glue them to a long strip of yarn or paper.
- A decorated tree. Cut out ornaments and lights and glue them onto the big Christmas tree.
- Holiday cards. Glue a cut-out shape to the front of a folded piece of cardstock.
What’s in the Set
- 14 shapes: bell, candy cane, Christmas light, Christmas tree, gingerbread man, Santa hat, Mrs. Claus, ornament, gift, reindeer, Santa, star, stocking and wreath
- Three sizes: one per page, four per page and nine per page
- Color and black-and-white versions, with the lights and ornaments in five colors and Santa and Mrs. Claus in two skin tones
- 86 cutting pages in all
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