Are you looking to celebrate Dia de los Muertos this Halloween season? Keep scrolling to find out some awesome Day of the Dead crafts and activities to do with your kids.
This post about Day of the Dead crafts and activities for kids was written by family travel expert Marcie Cheung and contains affiliate links which means if you purchase something from one of my affiliate links, I may earn a small commission that goes back into maintaining this blog.
Are you looking for some fun and festive ways to celebrate Dia de los Muertos with kids?
I’ve compiled a list of our favorite Day of the Dead crafts and activities that we try to do every year.
We love celebrating this holiday with friends and family, but it’s also a great way to teach our children about Mexican culture while having fun! These are all super easy ideas that kids can do at home or in school.
You’ll find everything from sugar skull decorating to making your own offrenda right here!
If you’re looking for a new way to celebrate this holiday season, then check out these awesome Day of the Dead art ideas from other bloggers who love sharing this festive event with friends and family.
These Day of the Dead activities, including making your own sugar skull, Day of the Dead recipes, and even craft ideas for adults, will make it easy to get into the spirit!
Keep scrolling to find the ultimate Day of the Dead craft for your family!
48 Incredible Day of the Dead Crafts, Activities, Recipes, Printables, and Books for Kids
Day of the Dead Crafts for Kids
1. Sugar Skull Craft for Kids
Sugar Skulls are a huge part of Dia de los Muertos. This Sugar Skull craft is perfect for your budding artist to use their creativity to create a beautiful Sugar Skull decoration to hang in your home this Fall.
Make as many as you like for festive Day of the Dead decorations. The cool part is that your kids will come up with their own designs for unique items!
2. Sugar Skull Corner Bookmarks
These Sugar Skull Bookmarks are super easy to make and the perfect craft for your Day of the Dead celebration. This post tells you step-by-step how to make them and includes a free printable template.
3. Day of the Dead Paper Craft
If your kids love to color and you want to create a super easy Day of the Dead craft for kids, this is the one to do.
You’ll get a free sugar skull coloring template. Then, you can add in jewel stickers, glitter, and anything you like to add a little razzle-dazzle.
Cut it out and glue it on a piece of colorful cardstock or construction paper, and you’ve got a super cool Dia de los Muertos decoration!
4. Day of the Dead Sugar Skulls Plaques for Halloween
I’m totally digging this super cute Day of the Dead kid’s craft. Younger kids will probably need a lot of assistance, but it’s awesome for slightly older kids and teens.
I love how kids can really tell a story about the character they are creating by using the plaque space. And you can make as many as you want because each one is unique!
5. Day of the Dead Paper Puppet
I found this really awesome skeleton puppet that is put together by brads. That means you can move all the body parts when you pull the little string.
What’s awesome about this Day of the Dead craft for kids is that you can make several of them, and each one is unique.
6. Paper Day of the Dead Luminaries
If you’re looking for a super easy, 5-minute Day of the Dead craft, you’ll love this Dia de los Muertos luminary. It makes a cute Halloween decoration, and kids will love seeing them all lit up!
7. How to Make Q-Tip Skeletons for Day of the Dead
The great thing about this kid-friendly Day of the Dead craft is that you probably already have all the supplies at home.
These instructions are for a basic skeleton, but you could totally tip the q-tips in food coloring or use markers to change the colors. And you can also decorate the skull in festive colors and even put glitter glue on the paper.
8. Halloween Skull and Ghost Soap Carvings
This is an awesome Dia de los Muertos craft for slightly older kids who want to learn how to carve soap.
You’ll create a template and then use tools to create a 3-D version in soap. Even if your kids don’t normally like crafts, they might like this one!
9. Day of the Dead Memorial Craft
A big part of Dia de los Muertos is about honoring loved ones who have passed away by creating an altar where you display photos and symbolic items.
If your family doesn’t have an altar, another great way to do this is by creating a memory book and decorating it with things your loved one enjoyed in life.
What’s great about this craft for Day of the Dead is that it can look a million different ways, and it’s totally personal.
10. Day of the Dead Origami
While you might not think of origami when searching for Dia de los Muertos crafts, it’s actually a really cool way to create decorations!
This great kit shows you 20 designs with plenty of beautiful origami paper for your create sugar skulls, Spanish boxes, flower crowns, Aztec-inspired flowers, standing fans, candy, and more!
11. Sugar Skulls Fuzzy Velvet Coloring Posters
These are cute sugar skulls fuzzy velvet posters celebrating the Day of the Dead. It’s a great Halloween craft activity for kids, toddlers, teens, and adults.
Each poster arrives uncolored, so you can color them with any marker or gel pen to make your own Dia de los Muertos art!
12. Sugar Skull Masks
One of the cutest (and easiest) Dia de los Muertos crafts are these stick masks. They come in sets of 6, so it’s an easy Day of the Dead classroom activity for elementary students.
Or, add them to a Day of the Dead party bag for a fun take-home craft!
13. Paint-Your-Own Sugar Skull: With Gems and Glitter!
Ok, so how cute is this mini sugar skull craft? You’ll get everything you need to create a tiny masterpiece, including glitter, sequins, gemstones, and more!
What’s extra cool is that it comes with a little book about the history of sugar skulls and has plenty of inspiration for you to decorate your own.
These are the cutest Day of the Dead art projects!
14. Day of The Dead Pumpkin Decorating Kit
This Dia de los Muertos pumpkin decorating kit is perfect for the Halloween season. It’s one of my favorite sugar skull craft ideas for kids.
It includes self-adhesive foam pieces, plastic rhinestones, a non-woven polyester veil, and a cardstock top hat that children will enjoy sticking on their pumpkins or jack o’ lanterns!
These are fun Dia de los Muertos art projects for schools and daycares to have as well.
15. Day of The Dead Scratch Art Hanging Decorations
For a super fun Day of the Dead party activity, grab these sugar skull scratch art decorations!
These are easy Day of the Dead kids crafts. Just grab the scratching tool and watch your sugar skull come to life! Kids love not knowing what colors are underneath the surface.
16. Paint Your Own Day of the Dead Neon Rocks
Rock art is something fun to do with kids who love picking up rocks on nature walks. But, if you don’t already have your own rocks, don’t worry! This set comes with 4 large river rocks just waiting to be painted.
You’ll also get many paints, brushes, dotting tools, and a detailed instruction book.
What’s extra fun about this is that you can add these rocks to a little rock garden outside your home.
Or, you can hide these Day of the Dead rocks on your next nature walk! These are awesome Day of the Dead crafts for elementary students.
17. Day of the Dead Crafts Book
And if that’s not enough crafts for you, there’s this book with 24 different Day of the Dead projects that your kids will go nuts for!
In this book, you’ll learn how to make your own ofrenda (Day of the Dead altar), jewelry, masks, sugar skulls, calaveras, and so much more!
Day of the Dead Crafts for Adults
18. Easy Step-by-Step Acrylic Pouring Sugar Skull Art
While I mainly wanted to focus on Dia de los Muertos crafts for kids, I knew I had to include it in my roundup when I ran across this.
It actually sounds pretty easy to do, but you’ll need a lot of time and patience to get the right look. You could probably modify this using a little ceramic skull and then have kids paint them however they want.
This post is beneficial because it explains what each color represents. It’s one of the coolest DIY Dia de los Muertos decorations.
Day of the Dead Activities
19. Make Coco-Inspired Slime
Kids and parents will love this festive, easy-to-make slime craft inspired by Disney/Pixar’s Coco! It’s super sparkly and tons of fun!
20. Play Doh Dia De Los Muertos Sugar Skull Kids Craft
This Dia de los Muertos activity is awesome because it encourages open-ended play for kids. You can add anything you already have, like pony beads, jewels, buttons, sparkly things, etc.
And if you want to use it as a decoration, try creating it with model magic.
21. Dia de Los Muertos Sugar Skull Makeup Tutorial
This is a detailed guide on exactly how to create your own Day of the Dead sugar skull makeup. It gives tips on what products to use and how to achieve this look.
What’s great is that it gives you the basic instructions for applying the makeup, and then you can let your kids show you pictures of what they want their makeup to look like.
22. Easy Day of the Dead Costume for Kids
If you want to go all out, this blog post shows you exactly how to create a DIY Day of the Dead costume for kids that’s budget-friendly and super easy to replicate.
She also gives a make-up tutorial and says what worked (and didn’t) as she applied the makeup to her child.
Day of the Dead Recipes
23. Dia De Los Muertos Cake
Is it really a holiday if you don’t have cake? It doesn’t get much cuter than this lovely Dia de los Muertos cake that’s made with 3 layers of vanilla cake and topped with cream cheese frosting and Day of the Dead sugar skulls!
But, the real awe factor is that the inside is just as colorful!
24. Pumpkin Empanadas
Pumpkin is a fall staple, so why not turn it into these delicious Pumpkin Empanadas for a yummy snack? These are perfect for a snack or to serve in an upcoming Halloween or Day of the Dead party.
25. Gluten-Free ‘Pastel de Elote’ Sweet Mexican Corn Cake
Learn how to make a traditional Pastel de Elote sweet Mexican corn cake that is vegan and gluten-free! You bake it in a bundt pan using fresh corn and top it off with a light glaze.
It’s the perfect Mexican dessert for your Day of the Dead party!
26. Dia de los Muertos Sugar Cookies
Ok, so are these the most adorable Day of the Dead cookies or what?
Basically, you make any type of iced cookie. Then, you pipe a few rings of colorful dots and top it with a pre-made Dia de los Muertos cookie decoration.
27. Pabassinas: Raisin Nut Cookies for Day of the Dead
Pabassinas are raisin-nut cookies that have an anise and citrus flavor. They are iced and topped with sprinkles.
These Mexican cookies are usually served at many Dia de los Muertos celebrations.
28. Day of the Dead Snack for Kids
If you celebrate Day of the Dead at school, this is a really interactive snack idea for a classroom. It only requires a few ingredients for kids to assemble themselves.
Plus, it’s super cute! You could even have different colors of frosting or sprinkles to change it up.
29. Sugar Skull Lollipops
This is one of the easiest Day of the Dead recipes out there. Basically, you take a pre-made skeleton lollipop and use food markers to make it extra colorful and festival for Dia de los Muertos.
Another idea would be to dip them in water and then add sprinkles to them or use cookie icing. So many possibilities!
Day of the Dead Printables
30. Sugar Skull Coloring Pages
There are so many magical and mysterious aspects behind Dia de los Muertos. Help your children learn more about this fun holiday with these free printable sugar skull coloring pages.
It’s a great way to kick off a conversation about other cultures and holidays.
31. Free Printable COCO Word Search Puzzle
My oldest is obsessed with word searches now that he knows how to read. We love the movie Coco, so this free Coco printable word search is bound to be a big hit!
Day of the Dead Children’s Books
32. Day of the Dead: A Count and Find Primer
Our family is pretty obsessed with Greg Paprocki children’s books, so we totally geeked out when we realized he had a toddler board book about the Day of the Dead.
It adorably showcases the holiday, and the illustrations are sure to capture your little one’s attention.
33. Funny Bones: Posada and His Day of the Dead Calaveras
This book is all about the Mexican artist Jose Guadalupe Posada and his gorgeous artwork that has become a huge part of Mexico’s Dia de Muertos festivals.
This book is extra awesome because it highlights this lesser-known Mexican artist with important moments in his life while also talking about how he created these iconic images.
34. The Spirit of Tio Fernando: A Day of the Dead Story
This is a great story about how a boy in Mexico learns how to honor a specific family member for Dia de los Muertos. This book is a way to help kids have a more personal understanding of this Mexican holiday.
What’s also neat about this book is that they explain Day of the Dead history and traditions at the beginning of the book (instead of the end), so it’s easy to set the tone.
35. Gustavo, the Shy Ghost
If you’d like a hilarious book about a cute little ghost who wants to make friends on Day of the Dead, this book is for you!
It’s nice that it’s one of the few Dia de los Muertos books that don’t focus on the iconic sugar skulls. Your whole family will fall in love with Gustavo as soon as you read this funny book.
Day of the Dead Coloring Books
36. Sugar Skulls Coloring Book For Kids
This big coloring book features tons of sugar skulls just waiting to be filled in with bright colors! And there’s plenty of white space so kids can continue drawing fun Day of the Dead scenes.
Each coloring page is blank on the backside, so it makes it perfect for kids to give their artwork as gifts (without seeing coloring on the backside.)
37. Day Of The Dead Animals
This Day of the Dead coloring book features some fun animals that kids will think are super cute to color in.
And the pages are one-sided so that you can use markers, and they won’t bleed through.
38. Day of the Dead Coloring Book
This book has 44 cool coloring pages with things like flowers and special Day of the Dead designs.
It’s great for relaxing and is fun for everyone, no matter how good you are at coloring.
It’s like a mix of Halloween and Day of the Dead, full of colorful skulls and patterns, so get ready for a fun coloring adventure!
39. Alebrijes Coloring Book For Kids
If you love Disney’s Coco, you know all about alebrijes. And this coloring book celebrates these fantastical creatures in such a fun way!
Kids can learn about Mexican culture and traditions while doing this fun coloring activity.
Day of the Dead Activity Books
40. Day of the Dead Activity Book
This is an award-winning Day of the Dead activity book that’s a great way to talk about Dia de los Muertos in your homeschooling curriculum.
Kids can do many mazes, puzzles, activities, and crafts that will teach them about this fall holiday in such a fun way.
41. Dia de los Muertos: Day of the Dead Coloring and Activity Book
This is a nice Day of the Dead activity book geared for kids age 8-12. There are coloring pages, craft projects, writing prompts, places to create poetry, recipes for traditional Mexican dishes, and more!
Day of the Dead Sticker Books
42. Extreme Stickering Day of the Dead
Sticker coloring books are always a lot of fun, and this one featuring Dia de los Muertos is no exception.
Each page features a puzzle that gives you a few clues on how to get started. The stickers are reusable so that you can do this over and over again.
Plus, in the end, you’ll have a lovely glossy art poster that you can put on your wall.
43. Disney Pixar Coco Mosaic Sticker by Numbers
Kids who love Disney’s Coco will definitely appreciate this beautiful Mosaic Sticker by Numbers activity book with more than 1,000 stickers!
Use them to create stunning scenes from the movie.
44. Day of the Dead Stickers
Older kids will totally love these macabre images of calaveras created by renowned artists Jorge Posada and Julio Ruelas.
There are 19 black-and-white stickers that you can use to decorate just about anything. Or, color them in!
Day of the Dead Decorations
45. Festive Papel Picado Banner
This large banner is a fun Day of the Dead decoration to hang in your home or classroom. It’s a plastic version of the traditional artistic banner seen all across Mexico.
This gorgeous Papel Picado banner is perfect for a Mexican fiesta, Cinco de Mayo, and more!
46. Day of the Dead Porch Signs
How cute are these colorful Dia de los Muertos party decorations? It comes in a set of 2, and they are so pretty that you might be tempted to keep them up all year round!
47. Day Of The Dead Hanging Garland
If you are looking for color Day of the Dead classroom decor, it doesn’t get much easier than this. Just fluff out the tissue pom poms and hang them on any wall.
These are also fun to hang in kid bedroom doorways for a fun surprise!
48. Day of The Dead Photo Props
Whether you are throwing a Day of the Dead party or want to shoot some fun Dia de los Muertos photos for Instagram, these photo props are pretty awesome!
Day of the Dead FAQs
Dia de los Muertos is a festive Mexican holiday that allows loved ones to celebrate the lives of their deceased family members. Assured by ancient indigenous cultures, there are no restrictions on what people can do or how they should act during this time period—no sadness allowed! As such, Dia de los Muertos often incorporates food and drink into its festivities from celebrations in life.
It’s always fun to learn a bit about other cultures through their holidays and traditions. You can totally celebrate the Day of the Dead, even if you aren’t Mexican. Just be sure to be respectful.
During the lively and beautiful tradition known as the Day of the Dead, families celebrate from October 31 through November 2. They honor their deceased loved ones with food, flowers, prayers, and stories about them in a way that is thought-provoking but also joyous.
Some engaging Day of the Dead activities for kids include crafting sugar skulls, creating colorful papel picado banners, and making traditional ofrendas with family mementos. These activities not only entertain but also educate children about the significance of Dia de los Muertos.
Best Activities for Day of the Dead Wrap-Up
We hope that the list of Day of the Dead crafts and activities you’ve seen today has inspired you to celebrate Dia de los Muertos with your kids this Halloween season.
These are awesome ideas for how to get into the festive spirit, but there are so many other ways to create a Dia de los Muertos atmosphere in your home or classroom.
Check out some of our other Day of the Dead content if you want more inspiration on what else can be done!