‘Tis the season of giving and when I saw that package of Christmas bows waiting to be put on packages, I knew they were destined for another purpose in this house! Pretty much any item that comes through the door into our home becomes used for sensory play in one way or another. Using those decorative bows and some other sparkly festive items, I put together this Christmas Gifts Sensory Bin for the kids.
A few years ago, when I put together our Winter Wonderland Sensory Bin, I used a foil tray instead of a plastic bin. I like to change up the containers to keep it interesting and also to provide additional sensory input. The foil tray has ridges that provide that extra sensory feedback and it’s shiny so it provides a different visual component than a matte plastic container would.
When I saw how shiny the bows were, I decided that the foil tray would be the perfect container for this sensory bin. I looked around the house and in our sensory drawers and found some other items to complete this sensory play experience.
Christmas Gifts Sensory Bin:
Materials needed:
- foil tray
- Christmas gift bows
- small decorative Christmas gifts (I found mine at the Dollar Store)
- green shiny pompoms
- mini Christmas ornaments
Place all the items into the foil tray. You can use a plastic bin if you don’t have a foil tray. You could also add ribbon curls or strips of holiday wrapping paper. The beauty of this sensory bin is that it uses items that you may already have. You could in fact create it after Christmas by reusing your gift wrap, bows and ribbons.
For dozens of other sensory bin ideas, check out all of our past Sensory Bins.
If you are looking for information on making sensory bins, you may be interested in my book all about it. 
Join our free 5 part email series Sensory Solutions and Activities and get our Sensory System Behaviours Easy Reference Cards.
For this sky sensory bin, we used a base of dry pasta that we dyed blue. If you’ve never dyed pasta before, you can read about how to do it using either 
The hot air balloon from the 
For dozens of other sensory bin ideas, check out 
I am in love with that picture because Dancing Queen’s face looks so peaceful which shows the power of sensory play with kids who have sensory needs and anxiety.
Last year for Christmas, I made a 
To make this eyeball sensory bin, I used 
The cardboard on the cartoon glasses got wet from the water beads after a few days so we ended up having to take those out, but they were a fun element while they lasted. The kids enjoyed trying them on and laughing at each other! They also liked playing with the ring finger puppets.
Making a bin-in-a-bag couldn’t be simpler. You take your latest sensory bin and dump the contents into a resealable bag and then pass it along to someone so that their kids can enjoy a new sensory bin experience.
I’m thankful that I have friends who share their sensory bins with me when I’m in a bit of a creative funk! (Michelle did give me permission to post pictures of her lovely creation).
For the base, I used salt, but you could also use sugar (which I don’t recommend because it may be too tempting for kids to eat it!) or epsom salt. I added 
This Frozen sensory bin is a simple one but it combines several textures and opens itself up to imaginative play with the addition of the characters.