Are you looking for some fun family-friendly and kid-friendly Christmas activities that are cheap or free? Here is a Christmas Bucket list with 30 items to help you create meaningful memories and Christmas traditions with your family! These are simple, frugal, festive, and fun! Free printable PDF download included!
Meaningful (and Fun) Christmas Activities that Become Family Traditions
Once December hits, we are all about the memories. There’s something very magical when you have kids and feel like you are reliving your best Christmas days through their eyes. Or maybe even experiencing them for the first time.
The month of December can feel hectic, and I truly believe in guarding your time and leaving margins. The Christmas season should NOT be so busy that we are stressed and resentful.
However, it is such an ideal time to build memories and traditions as a family that your kids (and you) will remember forever.
A Christmas Bucket List for families is the way to go, in my opinion. Having lots of cheap and budget-friendly Christmas activities is truly a no-brainer for most families today.
Christmas Bucket List (Can Be) > Advent Calendars
I have to say this from the start. I LOVE advent activities. I love the concept of advent devotionals. I love the Countdown to Christmas. I love DIY advent calendars. I love free printable calendars. Heck, I even created my own 22-page advent calendar full activity bundle.
However.
Sometimes the everyday-ness of an advent calendar can feel like a lot of pressure. Even if you have all the ideas, trying to prep them and fit them in with all the regular stuff like school, homework, extra-curriculars… it’s enough to make a mama lose all of her Christmas joy.
That’s why I think a bucket list is the perfect solution.
YOU get to pick and choose not just what you want to do together as a family, but when and how-often.
No pressure. No schedule. Just a list of ideas that can be as pre-planned or last-minute as you like.
And once you land on your favorites, you can do them year after year as your special family holiday traditions.
Disclaimer: The one advent activity that I think is worth doing every day (and we do it every day as a family) is an Advent Bible Reading. These are short Scriptures that take you through the Christmas story.
There’s no pre-planning, so it’s as easy as can be, but it causes you to make room in your heart for the coming of the Savior. And this is one yearly Christmas tradition I think is work creating.
{Fun fact: Advent actually means “coming” or “arrival.” A Scripture reading helps us build anticipation as we look to the birth of Christ and His coming.}
30 Cheap, Budget-Friendly (or Free) Christmas Activities to Do with the Kids (+ Free Printable PDF)
To make this easy on you, I’ve created a 2- page free printable PDF download with all of these activities on it.
You can just pick one from the sheet on any random given day. You can pre-plan a few and write them on the calendar. You can print out the 2nd sheet, cut out the options you like, put them in a jar, choose one and roll with it.
Whatever works for your family! Just fill out the box at the end of the post to get yours!
1|Christmas Crafts
Christmas crafts can sometimes feel like a headache, so I encourage you to go with your kids’ interests and your tolerance level. Pinterest always has great ideas, but there’s no need to be complicated.
It’s not cheating to buy Christmas crafts very inexpensively at Hobby Lobby or even Dollar Tree.
Here are a few ideas to get you started:
- Paper snowflakes
- Pinecone Christmas Tree
- Yarn Christmas Tree
- Popsicle Stick Gingerbread House
- Toilet Paper Roll Reindeer
- Decorate a Christmas stocking (you can get these cheap at Dollar Tree!)
2| Christmas Cookies
Make this activity as complex or as simple as you like. Use cookie cutters and decorate or just slice-and-bake. You can also bake cookies to give as gifts for friends, neighbors, teachers, and family.
3| Weekly Advent Candles
This is a beautiful family activity to keep the focus of Christmas on Jesus. Advent candles are lit on the 4 Sundays prior to Christmas, and each week has a special focus and Bible verse. It’s even better when, as a family, you can create your own DIY advent wreath and candle set.
This is something you can do in addition to advent reading, and it becomes a very special ritual and tradition each year. You can learn more about Advent and get resources and Scripture Readings right here.
(You can also grab printable Christmas Bible studies with several family-friendly options to do with the kids!)
4| Christmas Lights Drive
Grab some hot cocoa, put Christmas music on the radio, and load up the car. You can take a random drive, play left/right (letting your kids choose which way to go), or many local Facebook groups can give you the best areas to drive through to see lights.
Some towns even have their own drive-thru Christmas lights events.
5| Design Your Own Ugly Christmas Sweaters
This is a fun family activity. Pull out the old sweaters (or get some at a thrift store), get some cheap craft supplies (pompoms, pipe cleaners, etc.), ornaments, and anything thing else you can think of to create the ugliest and most festive sweaters imaginable.
You can even vote and give a prize to the winner.
6| Make Your Own Christmas Cards
Most kids love to draw and color, and this is a great way to put some of that to good use. Coloring book pictures can be cut out and glued to cardstock. You can create your own DIY Christmas cards, or you can print out some fun coloring page Christmas cards.
You can even repurpose old Christmas cards!
These are great to send out to grandparents, military service members, kids in a children’s hospital, and seniors in an adult home.
7| Christmas Karaoke Night | Dance Party
If your family loves to sing, this idea is a blast! Christmas music is all you need – no karaoke machine necessary! You can find playlists on Spotify, Pandora – and even YouTube offers all kinds of Christmas music playlists with lyrics.
Make this a little extra fun and have a dance party along with it!
No microphone? A wooden spoon, hairbrush, or paper towel roll is a perfect stand-in.
8| Attend Local Christmas Festivities
Most towns have some kind of festival, parade, or tree lighting. Plan to attend one of these and make a night of it while spending time with your local community.
9| Christmas Movie Marathon
Once your kids are on Christmas break, plan to stay in the PJs and have a Christmas movie marathon. Make a list of all your family favorites, and spend the day lounging around, getting into the Christmas spirit. Or better yet- use this free printable list of my 21 favorite family-friendly Christmas movies!
If this doesn’t feel right for your family, choose several to watch over the course of a month, or watch Christmas movies during your regular family movie night.
10| Family Christmas Game Night
Many families enjoy game night on the regular. In December, put a Christmas spin on it. There are lots of Christmas games for kids that you can find that you can create for free, with materials you have at home!
Here are a few to get you started:
- Christmas Pictionary
- Christmas Bingo
- Find the Candy Canes
- Guess that Christmas Tune (You can find lots of YouTube!)
- Holiday Trivia Games (This free printable has lots of options that are kid-friendly!)
- Christmas Riddles and Brain Teasers
Christmas puzzles are also great options for game nights, if any of the above feels a little too hectic. Choose one for each child or do one together as a family.
This one can be done in one night or over the course of several nights, depending on how difficult it is. This is a perfect even to have a Christmas movie or music playing in the background.
11|Christmas Activity Books
You can get Christmas coloring books and activity books at Dollar Tree, and these are perfect for some quiet activities you can do together.
Coloring, mazes, word searches – these are all great options for a casual evening activity around the table. You can grab amazing Christmas game and activity printables here for kids of all ages – free!
I even love this activity for bigger kids, too. There’s something very therapeutic about coloring, even for teens (and parents. 😉 )
12 |Have a Hot Cocoa Bar
Adding a little fun and formality can really take hot cocoa up a few notches. Set up a simple station with Christmas mugs, different flavors of hot chocolate, marshmallows, whipped cream, and maybe even a few chocolate spoons.
If you want to go extra simple, you can make hot cocoa in a crockpot or just use packets and water and serve in a disposable to-go cup or fun mug.
If you want something different than hot cocoa, you can try this Dutch Bros. copycat Christmas Morning Chai! It’s not just for Christmas morning – trust me!
13| Christmas Tree Sleepover
Pick a night and have the kids camp out and sleep under the Christmas tree lights. This is easy but oh-so-magical. Not on Christmas Eve, though. 😉
14| Acts of Kindness
All through December, it’s ideal to help kids get into the spirit of giving, not just adding to a growing Christmas list. You can do a type of “12 Days of Kindness” theme, or just pick a few simple acts of kindness to do throughout the month.
You also can adjust this to the ages of your children and keep them super-simple, things that don’t require much (or any) prep at all.
Here are just a few (for even more ideas, take a look here.):
- Give hot cocoa to the Salvation Army Bell Ringer
- Give cookies to the mailman
- Tape change and a note to the a vending machine
- Donate clothes and toys to a shelter
- Candy cane bomb neighborhood
- Fill an Operation Christmas Child Shoebox
- Send cards or care package to a military service member
- Give at least 5 compliments today
- Do a favor or chore for a sibling
- Let someone else go first today.
15| Sidewalk Chalk Christmas Drawings & Messages
This is super fun to do in the neighborhood or in an area that gets holiday foot traffic. It will definitely brighten people’s day to see these festive Christmas wishes.
16| Make Christmas Tree Decorations
There are lots of kid-friendly Christmas ornaments that kids can make, all kinds of garland (popcorn, paper chain, snowflake). Kids will love seeing their handiwork on the tree, and making the decorations together is part of the fun!
You can even start a tradition where you make an ornament every year to hang on the tree. Here are 35 ideas to get you started!
17| Build a Gingerbread House
This is an activity that my sons look forward to every year. There are all kinds of levels to this. You can start from scratch (be sure to assemble the house a few days before decorating so it can set). You can buy a pre-assembled house and just decorate it.
Or, you can go old-school and use frosting and graham crackers on top of a cardboard milk carton.
18| Enjoy Outdoor Winter Wonderland
Bundle up and get outside! You can do this a few ways and make it really fun.
You can walk through the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights. You can do a Christmas Scavenger Hunt. You can go on a stroll and collect pine cones, branches, and other items to use for crafts and décor.
Your community might have a Christmas lights walk-through or maybe your downtown area is lit up for Christmas.
If you prefer to stay home, you can roast marshmallows in your own backyard under the stars – invite the neighbors for a little extra community.
Getting outside in the brisk weather for fresh air is always a great thing during the winter; bonus if it’s at night with sparkly lights!
19| Paper Chain Christmas Countdown
This is a super-fun way to do a Christmas countdown without the commitment of all the activities. Make a chain with 24 loops and just pull one off each day. This even works if you start later in December.
20| Homemade Christmas Video
Have your kids make a music video to a favorite Christmas song, or write their own Christmas movie and film it! They can even just recreate a favorite Christmas movie that’s already out there and put their own spin on it.
21| Nativity Puppet Show
I love that this idea is fun but also really helps them learn the people and events of the Christmas story. To create a puppet show, the kids can use printable cut outs and popsicle sticks, paper bags or socks – anything that is easily accessible and fun for all.
22| Christmas Photo Shoot
Have the kids create a Christmas scene, and then get the family to dress up to take your own Christmas photos. You can even make it silly with some fun free printable Christmas photo booth props. I promise this will be one of your favorite memories.
If you’re looking to do something more ‘official’, here are sometips for a winter family photoshoot!
23|Read Christmas Stories Together
This is a fun way to pass through the month of December. You can read a chapter book throughout the month, or you can get some shorter Christmas books from the library or thrift store and read a different one each night.
You also can just gather together as a family one just one night and read the Christmas story from the Bible or “’Twas the Night Before Christmas” in one sitting.
24| Go Ice Skating or Sledding
If the weather is snowy by you, brave the cold and go sledding together as a family. If not, see if there is ice skating rink nearby to recreate the event.
25| Make Reindeer Food
The anticipation of Santa is so fun for many kids. Reindeer food really heightens the experience of waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve. You can even make cookies for Santa, too. For extra fun, keep an eye on the Santa Tracker.
26| Create Custom Wrapping Paper and Wrap Gifts
Buy some rolls of Kraft paper at Dollar Tree and allow the kids to make their own Christmas designs on it. This paper will be something special for the recipient to receive, and it can be a fun family project as mom or the older kids wrap gifts.
(If you want to try some special ways to wrap gifts, here are some beautiful ideas for Christmas!)
27| Visit a Live Nativity
This is a great way to really bring home the meaning of the season. When kids actually see up close animals and stables and real people in the Christmas story, it truly starts to take shape.
28| Go Christmas Caroling
This was a big thing when I was young – I don’t see this too much anymore, but I know there are many people who would love kids to show up at their door, singing Christmas caroling.
This is even better if you can somehow arrange to sing at a hospital or adult home or for elderly people who may not get out much and may be feeling lonely.
If you prefer to keep it simple, stay home, turn off the lights, light some candles, turn on the Christmas lights, and sing Christmas carols and other Christmas favorites around your own Christmas tree.
29|Christmas Song Worship Night
There are so many beautiful Christmas songs that are worshipful and automatically inspire praise.
More than just Christmas carols or Christmas songs, this is truly a gift from us to God’s heart. Christmas Worship Pandora stations and playlists are my personal favorite!
30| Birthday Cake for Jesus
This is one of our favorite traditions. On Christmas Eve, we bake a cake or cupcakes for Jesus, and on Christmas Day, we sing happy birthday to Jesus. It’s a great way to remember what the day is all about.
Meaningful Christmas Traditions for the Whole Family
I hope this sparked some fun ideas for you! The whole point of this is the make it fun for the kids – AND for you. To bond. To make memories. These truly will be the things the kids look back on with such fondness and nostalgia. You’re creating this for your family right now.
Well done, mama.
The years go fast, my friends. Put your energy in the right place = surrounded by family, eyes on Jesus. To get your free printable of all of these activities, just fill out the box below!
Merry Christmas!
More Activities for Kids and Families
If you’re looking for more fun things to do with kids throughout the year, take a look here, many with free printables as well!
25+ Meaningful & Fun New Year’s Family Traditions You’ll Love
Activities for Kids You Can Do At Home
50 Staycation Ideas {Social Distancing Options Included!} {Family & Budget Friendly!}
100 Super-Fun Family-Friendly Fall Activities
Life-Saving Summer Schedule for Kids Printable Templates
75 Fun Summer Bucket List Ideas for 2020 (+ free printable with all the boredom busters!)
Thoughts? I’d love to hear them! Leave a comment below! If you try any of the above activities, I’d love to hear about it! Tag me on Instagram @100affections or leave a comment on Pinterest!
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