Why hello beautiful Christmas Sensory Bin!

Look at that bin. The rice. The colors. Oh my stars, this must have taken me FOREVER to set up, right? WRONG. This Christmas Sensory Bin is so easy to make.

And it’s made with mostly Dollar Store items.

Fun & Cheap & Simple – now that’s my kind of kids activity.

RELATED: Do you need some more Christmas activities for kids? I have TONS!

Ok, but how hard was this Christmas sensory bin to make?

Like I said: it was easy peasy!

Years ago, when I started Busy Toddler, I would see beautiful rainbow rice bins on Pinterest and laugh. “WHO HAS TIME FOR THAT?!”

Then I made rainbow rice and found out:

1. It takes like 3 minutes.
2. Kids love HELPING make it (so that’s an activity in and of itself)
3. It really does make rice more fun

Seriously, it takes less than 5 minutes to make beautifully dyed rainbow rice.

RELATED: Wondering about sensory bins and worried about the mess? Read this.

The 411 on making rainbow rice

It’s super easy to make this stuff. I made THREE COLORS here: red, dark green, and lime green.

Here’s what I used FOR EACH COLOR:

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• 4 cups white rice
• 4 tablespoons white vinegar
• Lots of squirts of food coloring (I use this kind or this kind)

Combine this all in a ziplock bag or a container and SHAKE SHAKE SHAKE.

Pour the rice onto a cookie sheet (all the colors) and allow it to sit a few hours (or dry it in a low oven for 30 minutes).

Once it’s dry, dump it into a sensory bin (I use this 28 quart container from Target).

Trust me, it only takes a few minutes to make three batches of colored rice

Use the 1:1 ratio for however much rice your decide to make:

1 cup rice for 1 tablespoon vinegar.

It’s such an easy process and so fun for kids to watch. It’s a little magical.

Now to play with our Christmas Sensory Bin

I had a ball at the Dollar Store and bought a bunch of little nick knacks and supplies to make this bin.

It was a solid $5 investment that I knew I could save for next year.

I made the cutest set up for my son and I was so proud of it.

And after about 2 minutes with his Christmas Sensory Bin…

He took every piece of it out.

I died laughing. He wanted a Mason jar, a dollar store funnel and a dollar store scoop. Everything else was cluttering up his play.

Fine by me.

This isn’t MY sensory bin. It’s HIS sensory bin. It’s not my learning and play. It’s his learning and play.

I set all the supplies next to the bin and sat back to watch

He had his own beautiful ideas with this bin. Slowly, he brought in a few pieces at a time, and I’m still happy I set it up like this.

He has options.

So do his siblings (they’re 5.5 and 7.5 and just as into this Christmas sensory bin as he is).

Remember – sensory play is ageless.

This Christmas bin sits in our kitchen now, for all to enjoy.

The sweet little Dollar Store supplies are being used by everyone – it really is a great bin.

At the end of December, I’ll pack this up in an air tight container and store it away for next Christmas. We will have MANY years to come with this Christmas Sensory Bin.