25 Christmas Activities for Kids That You’ll Love Too

What better way to celebrate the holiday season than making your mini’s day merry and bright with a Christmas activity for kids that will turn your home into a festive winter wonderland.

Christmas Crafts

1. Paper Stockings: Deck the halls with paper stockings made by your littles. This is a great activity for toddlers and big kids, and the best part—you can use supplies that you already have at home like construction paper, leftover wrapping paper, and stickers. Grab the stocking template here.

2. Star Garland: Create a beautiful star garland that you can display every Christmas. You’ll need: wooden stars in a variety of sizes, craft paint, rope, embroidery thread and yarn. Start by letting your minis paint the stars. Be sure to write their names and the year on the back of the start they paint. Then attach the larger stars to the rope with embroidery thread to your rope and use yarn to attach the smaller stars.

3. Twig Christmas Tree: Take your kids on a nature walk and have them gather a twigs and branches. When you get back, bring out yarn, pom poms and buttons, and glue to make these Twig Christmas Trees from Hello Wonderful. Not only do these trees make beautiful ornaments, they can also serve as gifts from your little to friends and family.

4. Christmas Village: Don’t recycle those cardboard boxes yet. Instead, transform them into a Christmas village with the help of some paint, paper, and glue. Use this template to design the homes or create your own. This is a great craft for older kids, but younger kids will enjoy playing with the village when it’s finished.

5. Christmas Paper Chains: From Santa, Frosty, and Rudoldph, use these paper chains as a countdown to Christmas. Hello Wonderful uses construction paper and a few crafting supplies to make this festive trio. Younger crafters will need help making the chains, but kids of all ages will love taking off one chain every day in December.

Snow and Ice Activities

6. Make a Snowman: No snow in the forecast? No worries, you can make your own snow by mixing one cup of baking soda and adding a few tablespoons of water at a time. Stir the mixture and when it’s light and fluffy like snow, it’s time to build a mini snowman.

7. Go Ice Skating: Bundle up the kids and go ice skating. Just be sure to serve up hot chocolate when you’re done.

8. Snow-Light Angels: Instead of laying in snow to make angels, grab a few sets of string lights and have kids lay on the ground while you outline them with the lights. Have contests to see who can make the silliest snow-light angel.

9. Paper Snowflakes: Decorate your windows with paper snow flakes that your little can cut, color, and decorate. Even if you don’t have a white Christmas, you’ll have their DIY snowflakes.

10. Go Sledding: Will it take you 30 minutes to get all of your kids snow gear on? Yes. Will they have fun until their fingers get cold? Also yes. Is it worth the cute pictures and fun memories? Of course!

Christmas Books for Kids

11. Book Advent Calendar: Instead of advent calendars filled with candy and small toys, wrap up Christmas books. Everyday kids can unwrap and read one. If 24 seems like a lot of new books — add a few of your old favorites into the mix, borrow a few from the library, or only count down a few days before Christmas.

12. Read and Make: After reading your child’s favorite Christmas story together, bring out a few colors of playdough, pipe cleaners, and googly eyes from your craft library and let kids make their favorite characters from the book.

13. Acts of Kindness: If you are donating food, clothes, and toys during the holiday season, encourage your kids to pick out their favorite holiday books to donate as well.

Christmas Recipes

14. Hot Chocolate Board: Give a regular mug of hot chocolate an instant upgrade by creating a hot chocolate board full of goodies that kids can dunk into their hot chocolate. Let your littles arrange treats like marshmallows, peppermint sticks, cookies on a plate or board, and add a few bowls of whipped topping, nutella, and sprinkles for a festive addition.

15. Reindeer Rice Krispie Treats: Whip up a batch of Rice Krispie Treats and transform them into a reindeer with edible eyes, candy pieces, mini chocolate covered pretzels. Older kids can help make the treats, but for younger kids, make the treats in advance and let them have fun decorating their reindeer.

16. Christmas Cookie Decorating Kits: Skip the mess of baking in your kitchen and use a cookie kit instead. Create a workspace for each child by covering a baking sheet in foil or parchment paper and let kids add icing and sprinkles to their cookies.

17. Holiday Chocolate Bark: This treat is so delicious and kids will love helping you in the kitchen. Plus holiday chocolate bark is a great gift teachers, friends, and family.

Christmas Party Games

18. Christmas Cookie Decorating Kits: Skip the mess of baking in your kitchen and use a cookie kit instead. Create a workspace for each child by covering a baking sheet in foil or parchment paper and let kids add icing and sprinkles to their cookies.

19. Snowman Slam: For this game you’ll need white cups, construction paper, and rolled-up socks. Start by decorating each cup with a snowman face, stack the cups in a tower, and take turns throwing the socks ino the the tower to see how many snowmen everyone can knock over. Older kids can cut out the construction paper faces, but preschoolers will need help with the scissors.

20. Christmas I-Spy: From the ornaments on your tree to the Christmas decorations in your neighborhood, turn any moment into a game of I-Spy. This quick and easy game will get your kids talking and guessing the answers and you can play almost anywhere.

21. Santa Says: Give the classic game of Simon Says a holiday upgrade with Santa Says. From pretending to give out presents, trying the milk and cookies, to laughing like you’ve got a bowl full of jelly, everyone will love playing this holiday game.

22. Silver Bells Memory Game: Grab a bag of chocolate kisses and with a marker put a letter, number, shape, or color on the bottom of the candy. Make a match for each piece. Lay the candy out and see how long it takes kids to find all of the matching pieces. Adjust the game for different ages by adding more candy pieces for older kids or only colors for younger kids.

23. Ugly Sweater Contest: Gather up leftover wrapping paper, bows, tinsel, and ornaments and let everyone create their own ugly sweater. Let little work in teams and decorate with an adult to make this activity fun for everyone.

Christmas Carols for Kids

24. Christmas Karaoke: Play all of your favorite Christmas carols and take turns singing. Break out a microphone — fake mics work too — and sing along to your favorite holiday tunes.

25. Caroling: After your kids have learned a few new Christmas jams, take them caroling in your neighborhood. If your littles get stage fright, video tape them singing and send it to family for a special holiday gift.

Amanda is a writer and content creator. When she’s not hosting national and local TV segments, creating DIY and life hacks videos, or writing articles that cover parenting, lifestyle trends and everything in between, she’s at her favorite job, being a mom of three.