Christmas is one of my favorite times of the year. I love all of the Christmas traditions and family time. There are so many ways to spend time together making memories with your kids. I just love the cozy feeling of being together.
To help you get excited about the Christmas season if you aren’t already, I have come up with a list of 100 fun family Christmas activities to make memories with your kids.
These ideas are a great way to get inspiration for what things you want to include on your Christmas Bucket List.
101 Christmas Activities
You shouldn’t feel like you need to do all of these things, they are just ideas. Each year we do things a little bit differently, so each year what activities we do change!
The biggest things is to have fun making memories with your kids.
You can get a printable list of all 100 Christmas Activities at the bottom of the post.
1. Send Christmas Cards
Each year we love sending Christmas cards to family and friends. We also love receiving the cards. It’s such a fun way to keep up with friends and family we don’t see often.
Shutterfly and Costco are two of our favorite places to get holiday greeting cards.
2. Go for a Christmas Lights Drive
We love going for drives to see Christmas lights. It’s always fun to see how the neighbors decorate for the holidays.
Don’t forget to get these 3 essentials to make viewing Christmas lights extra fun.
3. Cut Your Own Christmas Tree
One of the Christmas traditions we look forward to each year is visiting a tree farm and cutting down our Christmas Tree.
Depending on where you live you could visit a tree farm or even go out in the mountains with a permit and cut down your tree.
We go and cut down our Christmas tree each year on the day after Thanksgiving aka Black Friday and it’s always so much fun.
4. Make a Melted Snowman Ornament
Making crafts during the holidays is always a lot of fun. These Melted Snowman Ornaments are fun and easy to make and the kids love them.
5. Dip Chocolates
Growing up each year we dipped chocolates with my great-grandma. Though my kids don’t get to dip chocolates with the same people, I love talking about my memories from growing up and making new memories with my kids doing the same activity.
Do a quick search on pinterest and find some chocolates or other candies you want to make and have fun making holiday memories with your kids making some yummy candy.
6. Make DIY Christmas Gifts
DIY gifts are such a great way to not only save money but give one of a kind gifts. I have made my husband quilts a couple of times for Christmas and he always loves them.
This personalized Guess Who games is also a great DIY Christmas gift that people love and is something they don’t have and unique to them.
7. Play the White Elephant Game
The white elephant game also sometimes called Yankee swap is a fun game to play at a Christmas party or just because.
8. Go See ZooLights
Many zoo’s across the country do ZooLights during the Christmas season. It’s a fun and different way to experience the zoo with all the magic of Christmas.
A couple of years ago we went to the ZooLights at the National Zoo in Washington DC and it was a lot of fun.
9. Make a Christmas Bucket List
Time goes fast and if you’re not careful the holidays will be over and you’ll still have a list of things you want to do.
So you don’t miss out on creating any Christmas memories with your kids create a Christmas Bucket List {use this free printable}. Then add your bucket list items to your calendar so you can do all the holiday activities you want before the holidays are over.
10. Go to a Live Nativity
Many communities or churches do a Live Nativity where you can go and experience the nativity story with people acting out the parts and even sometimes animals.
11. Take Fun Holiday Photos
Christmas is the perfect time to take Fun holiday photos. While it’s fun to take pictures of all your holiday activities so you can remember making fun memories together.
It can also be fun to take some more posed holiday pictures. Check out this printable list of Christmas Photos to take this year for ideas.
12. Do a Christmas Science Experiment
Science is one of my kids favorite subjects right now and during the Christmas season there are some fun seasonal experiments you can do.
Growing icicles to hang on your Christmas tree and this Hot chocolate science experiment are both great places to start.
13. Attend a Christmas Festival
Most areas have a variety of different types of Christmas festivals you can attend. Check your local events or ask friends what festivals you should add to your bucket list this year.
14. Bake Christmas Cookies
Baking and decorating Christmas cookies is one of my favorite ways to spend a day during December. It’s so fun and messy to have everyone in the kitchen together.
15. Go Sledding
If you’re lucky enough to get snow before Christmas, (some years we do and some years we don’t) have fun sledding as family.
16. Listen to Christmas Music
There are many who disagree about when is an okay time to start listening to Christmas music. But no matter what time you start listening to Christmas music have fun enjoying it during the holidays.
You could even create a playlist with all of your family’s favorite Christmas music.
17. Decorate the Yard for Christmas
Hang Christmas lights and have fun decorating your yard for Christmas. You might want to watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation after getting all the decorations up.
18. Watch Christmas Movies
We start watching Christmas movies thanksgiving night with our annual watching of Home Alone. Then we enjoy watching different Christmas movies in the days leading up to Christmas. Here are some of our favorite Christmas movies to enjoy together as a family.
19. Call Santa
Not only can you write a letter to Santa this year you can also give him a call. Find Santa’s number in this post…. yes it actually works.
20. Make a Christmas Wreath
Have fun making a Christmas wreath to decorate with. Last year the kids made a couple of different paper plate wreaths and they loved hanging them on doors throughout the house.
21. Have a Daily Advent Calendar
Advent Calendars are a fun way to countdown the days to Christmas. Each year we do a couple of different advent calendars. Here are just a few fun Advent Calendars you might want to do this year.
22. Read Christmas Picture Books
Reading Christmas books together is something we love. We have so many favorite Christmas pictures books to read together.
Last year we did a Christmas book advent where each day we opened a new Christmas book and it was so much fun.
23. Be a Secret Santa for Someone
Pick a family to be a Secret Santa to this year. Have fun leaving gifts or doing service for the family together.
24. Do a Candy Cane Craft
Have fun doing a Candy Cane Craft and reading the story of the candy cane.
25. Build a Snowman
If you have snow before Christmas head outside and build a snowman. If you don’t have snow you could always build a snowman out of white play-doh.
26. Decorate the Christmas Tree
Have fun decorating the Christmas Tree together. I always love seeing how excited the kids get when we pull out the Christmas ornaments.
27. Make a Christmas Angel Ornament
Last year we made these Christmas Angel Ornaments and they turned out so cute. We loved adding them to our Christmas tree.
28. Get Matching Christmas Pajamas
Getting matching Christmas pajamas is one of our family’s favorite Christmas eve traditions.
Pro Tip: If you’re going to do matching pajamas don’t wait to get them, the closer it gets to Christmas the harder it can be to find the sizes and style you need.
29. Make Hot Chocolate
Make hot chocolate from scratch or from a mix and enjoy drinking it together.
30. Visit Family
If you can visiting extended family is always a fun thing to do during the holiday season. If you aren’t able to visit in person you can always do a video call or phone call to reconnect.
31. Make Sand Dough Ornaments
During the summer we collected Sand from several beaches we visited. As well as making some sand filled beach ornaments we also made some sand dough ornaments using the sand from the beach and some shells we collected.
32. Make a Gingerbread House
Make or if you’re like us, put together a gingerbread house kit and have fun decorating it together. This is a fun way to make memories with your kids that they will remember for years to come.
33. Have a Christmas Scavenger Hunt
Do a quick search on Pinterest and find a fun Christmas scavenger hunt to do together.
34. Read the Christmas Story in the Bible
In the days leading up to Christmas or on Christmas Eve spend time reading the Christmas story in the Bible as a family.
35. Write a Letter to Santa
Writing letters to Santa is a classic Christmas activity that’s fun for the whole family. This is a fun letter to Santa coloring page template makes writing to Santa fun and easy, plus there is an address for Santa! Be sure to save the kids letters or a copy of them if you mail them to look back on as they grow up.
36. Wrap Christmas Gifts
My kids love helping to wrap Christmas gifts so we always let them help wrap at least a few gifts.
37. Go Ice Skating
Find a place near you to go ice skating, even if you live in a warm area you will probably be able to find an indoor ice skating rink.
38. Make a Snowman Craft
Snowman crafts are so fun and the best part is they last beyond the holiday season. You can enjoy your snowman crafts all winter long. Here are 15 fun snowman crafts you don’t want to miss.
39. Go to a Christmas Play
Have fun going to a Christmas Play together, one of our favorites is A Christmas Carol.
40. Decorate Sugar Cookies
One of the kid’s favorite Christmas cookies to make is sugar cookies. They love cutting out the cookies and decorating them. But let’s be honest their favorite part is eating them!
41. Make Paper Snowflakes
Paper snowflakes are a fun and cheap craft to make during the winter. Have fun getting creative and see what snowflake designs you can create.
42. Take a Ride on the Polar Express
See if there are any trains in your area that do a polar express ride. When I was in college my roommates and I went on the Polar Express and had a great time. Now it’s something I really want to do with my kids.
43. Have a Christmas Tree Picnic
Enjoy a fun Christmas picnic around the Christmas tree.
44. Take Pictures with Santa
Take a picture with Santa! You can head to the mall to get this photo taken or you could always get a Santa Suit and let Dad dress up and be Santa in your pictures.
45. Make Christmas Window Stickers
Get some puff paint and have fun creating Window stickers to decorate your house with this Christmas.
46. Color Christmas Coloring Pages
Get a Christmas coloring book or print of some Christmas coloring pages and have fun coloring together.
47. Have a Holiday Game Night
Have a holiday game night and play some of your family’s favorite games.
48.Enjoy Christmas Punch
Make and enjoy drinking some Christmas punch, there are several ways you can make Christmas punch. I personally love the combination of raspberry sherbet and sprite.
49. Make Icicles for Your Tree
Use Borax to grow some icicles for your Christmas tree. This is a fun activity to do with kids and let them watch the crystals form over a day or two.
50. Do a Santa Craft
Do a Santa themed craft like this fun tissue paper Santa. Use the free printable and tissue paper for a fun and easy craft.
51. Play Christmas Bingo
Have fun playing Christmas Bingo with the family. Get a free printable Christmas Bingo game here.
52. Have a Holiday Bake Off
Pick a theme or a challenge and have a holiday bake off.
53. Make a DIY Snow Globe
Have fun turning a mason jar into your own snow globe. Find out how to make your own snow globe now.
54. Attend a Local Christmas Event
Do a search on facebook or google and see what holiday events there are in your area.
55. Drink Eggnog
Drink Eggnog or you can even make your own using one of the many recipes on Pinterest.
56. Make a Popcorn Garland
Add some homemade charm to your Christmas tree this year with a DIY old-fashioned cranberry and popcorn garland!
Because it isn’t as easy as you might think, I’ve got a few tips and tricks as well as a tutorial on how to keep it fresh for years to come! Find out how to make your garland here.
57. Make a Hershey’s Kiss Garland
Make a fun Hershey’s Kiss Garland, it’s a fun and easy craft that the whole family can have fun making. Find out how to make your own Garland here.
58. Indoor Snowball Fight
Have a fun Indoor Snowball Fight using this fun indoor snowball kit or by creating your own snowballs using tube socks.
59. Minute to Win it Games
Have fun playing some Christmas minute to win it games. Here are a few game ideas.
60. Play Christmas Charades
Have fun acting out Christmas items and activities when playing Christmas Charades.
61. Fondue Night
Have a fun fondue night. Make cheesy fondue for dinner and chocolate for dessert!
62. Open a Gift Christmas Eve
Opening a gift Christmas eve is one of our favorite Christmas traditions. Some families open pajamas Christmas eve others do a new game or a book.
63. Hide a Christmas Pickle
Hide a pickle ornament on the Christmas tree when you’re decorating it. The first person to find it gets a special present.
64. Decorate Christmas Tree Cones
Grab a box of sugar cones, some green frosting and candy and have fun decorating an edible Christmas tree.
65. Make Salt Dough Ornaments
Salt dough ornaments are the sweetest little homemade gift! You can make them for the whole family or classroom with hardly any effort and there are plenty of fun personalization options.
Kids will have a great time making these! Get the recipe and find out how to make Salt Dough Ornaments at Good Life Eats.
66. Have an Ugly Sweater Party
Have fun creating or buying ugly Christmas sweaters and have an ugly sweater party. You could even have prizes for different categories.
67. Give Service
Christmas is the perfect time to give service to others. Down Redbud Drive shares an awesome way to put the focus on giving this Christmas.
Use the Acts of Kindness Advent Calendar she created! Use your own ideas, or use the free printable list of acts of kindness instead!
68. Make an Olaf Door
If your kids love Frozen as much as mine do you definitely need to make this Olaf Door. It’s really simple to make and the kids love it.
Find out how to make your own Olaf Door in this post.
69. Elf Yourself
Lauren at Simply Well Balanced shares a fun Elf Yourself body tracing activity that’s perfect to do with kids.
70. Christmas Read Aloud
Pick a Christmas book to read aloud as a family during the holidays. Christmas Jars is a fun chapter book you could read or you could pick a bunch of Christmas picture books to read aloud.
71. Make a Christmas Countdown
Make a Christmas countdown using craft paper. Count down chains are a fun and easy craft to make with kids and a great visual way to count down to Christmas.
72. Do a Pom-Pom Craft
Christmas pom pom crafts are so easy that the whole family can join in. Make garlands, wreaths, and Christmas decorations with simple pom poms at the base.
73. Make Reindeer Ornaments
Reindeer clothespin ornaments are a classic Christmas craft to make with kids. These are perfect to hang on your tree or even a great DIY Christmas gift for grandparents.
74. Sleep Under the Christmas Tree
Pick a night and have a family slumber party under the Christmas tree. Enjoy falling asleep to the lights of the Christmas tree.
75. Learn the Christmas Symbols
Learn about the symbols of Christmas and how they can help us remember Christ during the holidays.
Related Post: How to Have a Christ Centered Christmas
76. Put a Small tree in Each Bedroom
Put a small Christmas tree in each bedroom. Let the kids decorate there tree and spread that Christmas magic throughout the whole house.
77. Have a Mystery Dinner
Have a Christmas Mystery Dinner. Plan a menu and give ever item on the menu a silly Christmas name.
Then have everyone order their meal in courses based on the silly name. Do 2 or 3 courses and see what funny food combinations everyone orders.
78. Watch the Nutcracker
The Nutcracker is a Christmas tradition for many. While going to the Nutcracker might not be your thing you can enjoy watching Disney’s version of the Nutcracker from your own home.
79. Do a Christmas Puzzle
Pick a fun Christmas puzzle to do during the holidays. You could get an easy children’s puzzle or pick a more challenging Christmas puzzle to work on throughout the holidays.
80. Go for a Sleigh Ride
See if there is a place in your area where you can go on a winter sleigh ride. Enjoy the outdoors in a fun and cozy sleigh.
81. Go Caroling
Learn some Christmas songs and have fun going caroling to neighbors and friends.
82. Make Christmas Breakfast
Make a fun Christmas breakfast, we love having a make ahead breakfast casserole on Christmas morning.
83. Travel for Christmas
Travel for Christmas or give the gift of a trip for Christmas. Even the gift of a stay cation can be a lot of fun for families.
Traveling together is a great way to make memories with your kids that will last a lot longer than the toys will.
84. 3 Christmas Gifts
During the holidays it can be hard to stick to a budget. Simplify by sticking tot he 3 Christmas gift challenge for each of your kids.
By cutting back on the number of gifts you can really focus on the things your kids want and will use.
85. Get a Christmas Orange
Do you get a Christmas Orange in your stocking each year? Do a little research and find out why getting a Christmas Orange is a tradition for many.
86. Make a Birthday Cake for Jesus
Christmas is a celebration of Jesus Christ’s birth so celebrate with a birthday cake for Jesus.
87. Try Making a New Christmas Treat
While Christmas is a great time to enjoy favorite family treats, it’s also fun to try making something new.
Find a new recipe to try and see if you find a new favorite.
88. Play Don’t Eat Santa
Did you ever play don’t eat pete? Don’t Eat Santa is a fun holiday twist on that classic childhood game.
89. Draw Names for Gifts
Have siblings or cousins draw names and purchase or make a gift for the person whose name they drew.
This is also a great idea for adults, so you can still give gifts to siblings after you are grown but while staying on budget.
90. Fill the Manger for Jesus
Get a simple manger and in the days leading up to Christmas do service to put hay in the manger. Fill the manger with hay so it’s ready for baby Jesus on Christmas eve.
91. Celebrate St. Nicholas Day
St. Nicholas Day is a fun holiday to celebrate earlier in December. Leave out your shoes and see what treats you find in the morning.
92. Write a Christmas Newsletter
Write a Christmas newsletter to send to family and friends with the highlights of your year.
93. Make a Plate for Santa
Get a plate from the dollar store and have fun decorating it to use to leave cookies for Santa.
94. Have a Christmas Stocking for Jesus
Hang a stocking for Jesus. Write down something you are giving Jesus for the next year. Put the papers in the stocking and store it until next year when you can see how well you did at remember your gift to Christ.
95. New Ornament Each Year
Make or purchase a new ornament each year. This is a fun way for the kids to grow an ornament collection for when they are older and the ornaments can be reminders of things they liked or did growing up.
Plus just think of all the fun you can have making memories with your kids collecting these ornaments.
96. Have a YES day!
Have you ever heard of having a yes day? It’s simple really let the kids decide what they want to do for the day and whenever possible say yes. Giving options is a great way to be able to say yes all day.
97. Eat a Special Christmas Eve Dinner
Make Christmas Eve fun with a special Christmas Eve Dinner. At our house we make homemade pizza on Christmas eve.
98. Track Santa’s Travels
Use Google Maps or NORAD to track Santa on Christmas eve. This is really fun to do with young kids.
They love seeing where Santa is and it’s even educational. You’ll be surprised at some of the countries Santa visits. Last year there were numerous countries I had never heard of.
99. Make Reindeer Food
Just like it’s fun to leave cookies for Santa it can also be fun to make reindeer food and leave it outside for Santa’s Reindeer.
100. Spend Time Together
No matter what Christmas Activities you decide to do this year have fun and spend time together making memories. The best part of Christmas is being with those you love.
Printable
Click the link below to get a printable list with all of these fun Christmas Activity ideas to use to make memories with your kids.
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I just love all these Christmas ideas!