102 Fun Christmas Activities for Kids

Jan 19, 2022 Are you looking for fun and entertaining activities to do with your children this Christmas season? Then look no further! Speech Blubs has you covered with 100+ activities for kids to boost their development and make new Christmas traditions! While kids play, try to take some time to yourself, relax, and enjoy the holiday spirit. You are important too!

In This Article

14 Christmas Traditions for Kids
12 Outdoor Activities for Kids
21 Classic Games for Toddlers
21 Physical Activities for Toddlers
29 Fine Motor Activities for Toddlers
Christmas Stories for Kids

14 Christmas Traditions for Kids

Holidays are not just the time to reconnect with family and friends, but also an opportunity to pass on traditions that you enjoyed as a child. Here are 14 fun activities you can do with your toddler to show them what the Christmas spirit is all about.

1. Write to Santa

Sometimes when children write out their thoughts on paper you get to see what they want for Christmas along with how they feel about the holiday season and life in general. Encourage your children to write a letter to Santa.

2. Create ‘Wish Lists’ for Each Person in the Family

Instead of your children making a wish list for themselves, have them make a wish list for each member of the family. Fun activities for kids like making wish lists for others allow them to be creative while helping them focus on other people’s needs and wants.

3. Support a Charity Organization

Around the holidays there are many organizations and charities to help those in need. Why not teach your children how to give to those in need by gathering clothes, food, and more to give to those less fortunate?

4. Secret Kindness

“Secret kindness” are kindness acts your kids can do each day around the house for other members of the family. They can run a vacuum. Sweep the floor. Share their favorite toy with a sibling and more.

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5. Christmas Stocking Gift Bags

Ever struggle with what to get for stocking stuffers? Have your children help you with this task by making Santa sacks filled with small toys, cards, pictures, and more in seasonal bags.

6. Gift Tags

When Christmas gift tags are laminated your children can then use a dry erase marker to label them differently. This creates a fun Christmas game for the whole family.

7. An Advent Calendar

Instead of traditional hidden small candies each day, you can replace the candy with small language or picture cards to teach your children new words or new facts about common Christmas elements like facts about reindeer or the north pole.

8. Sing Holiday Songs

Teach your children the Christmas songs you loved as a child by singing songs throughout the holiday season.

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9. Decorate the Christmas Tree

An easy yet, festive Christmas moment for children to create family bonding time during the holiday season! Let your children get creative with decorations, tinsel, garland, and ribbon!

10. Make an Advent Wreath

While most people buy or make advent calendars, you and your children can make an advent wreath. All you need to do is get a few supplies like a plain Christmas wreath, small boxes (like jewelry boxes), or tiny envelopes to label with numbers and fill with small candies or Christmas-themed words to help your children learn new concepts.

11. Gift Wrapping

If you hate gift wrapping presents, have your children wrap everyone’s presents (except their own). While the gifts may not look the best, this is one of the fun Christmas activities for kids you learn to love!

12. Make Holiday Gift Cards

This Christmas activity allows your kids to display gratitude and creativity. Simply supply them with markers, glitter, glue, crayons, and more to custom make holiday cards with special messages for their loved ones.

13. Write a Letter to Distant Relatives

Writing a letter to grandma, grandpa, and other distant relatives are essential in times where we need to social distance. Although you may have to help your child with this writing activity, loved ones will appreciate the sentiment from your children!

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14. Make a Dream Board for 2021

We can all agree 2020’s been a terrible year! What better way to end this terrible year, then by looking toward the future in a positive light? Kids will love coming together to create a vision board filled with positive affirmations, quotes, images, dreams, hopes, and goals for the year 2021!

12 Outdoor Activities for Kids

While it may be cold outside, spending time in nature is still crucial for kids’ development. A research study from the Pennsylvania Health Department found outdoor winter activities for kids offered the following benefits:

• Boost the immune system by escaping built-up indoor germs and bacteria. The cold air helps children build a stronger immune system to resist allergies, cold, and flu,
• Provide a change in the environment and work large muscle groups.
• Stimulate a child’s imagination by unplugging from technology and getting creative with snow.

Try some of these fun outdoor activities for kids:

1. Build a Snowman

Building a snowman is an essential Christmas activity that kids and families have to do! This activity helps your children work large muscle groups while learning the names of body parts. Instead of building a snowman, your kids can try building their favorite animals out of snow like dogs and cats.

2. View Christmas Lights

One of the best fun activities for kids is viewing Christmas lights and décor. Pack up your family in the car and drive around your town to see all of the decorations! For some exercise, take your kids for a walk around the neighborhood to view lights instead.

3. Make an Igloo

Making an igloo outdoors will help build your children’s imagination and problem-solving skills. Plus, this winter activity provides your children with hours of fun.

4. Sing Christmas Carols to Neighbors

Singing Christmas carols never goes out of style and has a way of lifting people’s spirits. Go for a walk while still observing social distancing at nearby homes to sing your favorite carols.

5. Have a Snowball Fight

What better way to relieve pent-up stress about the quarantine than to start a fun snowball fight?

6. Make Snow Angels

There’s something angelic about laying in the snow looking at the sky and making a snow angel! Everybody knows how. Just lie in the snow with your kids and wave your arms and legs to push the snow around.

7. Attend a Live Nativity Scene

Many churches across the country host events called “live nativity” scenes.  It tells the story of Jesus’ birth with real actors to represent Mary, Joseph, and Jesus along with narration. You may even see live animals like donkeys too!

8. Go Sledding!

Sledding is an experience every adult remembers doing as a child. This Christmas activity only requires three things: snow, a sled, and a hill. Oh and lots of courage!

9. Winter Obstacle Course

Challenge your kids to use their imagination and build a snow maze. This activity will need to be created on untouched snow by shuffling their feet or shoveling the snow. Along with creating a maze, your kids can add obstacles like dead ends and snow tunnels.

10. Snow Shoveling

Snow shoveling is a heavy work activity that burns energy and works large muscle groups. Plus, your kids can pile the shoveled snow to build a snow igloo or a small hill for sledding.

11. Decorate the House

Give your children complete control over the design of your house’s Christmas decorations. Kids will release creative energy and get into the spirit of Christmas.

12. Have a Christmas Picnic

A Christmas picnic is just like a regular picnic except it’s in the middle of winter and filled with traditional holiday dishes. Have your kids help you make Christmas cookies, turkey sandwiches, stuffing, and more. A picnic is a great way to give yourself and your children a break from work and school.

21 Classic Games for Toddlers (with a Christmas Twist)

Who doesn’t love puzzles, the floor is lava or the freeze dance! Show your child all the games you played in your childhood, pass on the knowledge, and enjoy a bit of nostalgia feeling.

1. “Simon Says” – Christmas Edition

Have your children play “Simon Says – The Christmas Edition.” Challenge your kids to give commands related to the holidays. Example: “Simon says, slide on your belly like a penguin.”

Or you can go the traditional route of Simon says with command ideas like “Simon says . . .”

• Jump on one foot
• Bark like a dog
• Touch your toes
• Sing the alphabet

2. The Christmas Animal Challenge

Have your kids choose an animal commonly associated with Christmas (reindeer, penguins, polar bears) and have fun imitating the animals.

Speech Blubs can help with this Christmas activity for kids! You can find fun activities with animal sounds and words in the Speech Blubs app.

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3. Christmas Dance Party

You guessed it, a Christmas themed dance party! Pick a playlist of only Christmas music and gather up your jingle bells and twinkly lights to add to the dance party theme.

4. Ring around the Rosy

A classic game that kids still love! Ring around the rosy can be played by your children anytime you need a break from homeschooling to answer work emails.

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5. Hide and Seek in the Dark

Playing hide and seek in the dark is by far one of the best activities! Simply wait until nighttime and supply your kids with flashlights to help them find each other. Or you can increase the difficulty by having them look for specific objects in the dark.

6. The Floor is Lava

There’s one simple rule: Your kids can’t touch the floor! (Because it’s hot lava). Now have your children make their way through the house by stepping on furniture and other objects, as long as they don’t touch the floor.

7. Christmas Scavenger Hunt

Create a list of Christmas objects like different types of ornaments around the house and have your children search for them. A scavenger hunt will keep them occupied for hours, while working on problem-solving and language skills!

8. Christmas Freeze Dance

Freeze dance is exactly what it implies: Your kids dance until you stop the music in the middle of the song and they have to freeze. Play some Christmas songs to make it holiday-themed. You can even get more creative with it by telling your kids to freeze into Christmas ornaments, animal poses, or letters of the alphabet.

9. Santa Cup Stack-Em-Ups

Red Solo cups can be used for indoor winter activities for kids by stacking them and knocking them down with a Styrofoam or another white ball to represent a “snowball.”

10. Christmas Bingo

Instead of traditional bingo squares, replace the square spaces with pictures of holiday wreaths, cookies, Santa, and more Christmas-themed objects.

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11. Christmas Puzzles

A variety of puzzles are available for children of any age. Although young children may need large pieces, puzzles help them gain patience, coordination, and concentration. Don’t forget to pick up a Christmas puzzle for the holiday season!

12. Memory Games

Simple games like memory matching Christmas cards and “I Spy Christmas” edition games are perfect for preschoolers to do with a sibling.

13. Matching Pairs

This is one of the best indoor activities for kids to teach matching pairs. Here are three ways to do it:

1. Place Kraft paper on the floor with a list of words associated with Christmas (ornament, tinsel, Santa, and more). Then, gather an ornament, tinsel, a stuffed Santa or Santa ornament, and more to have them match the word with the item.
2. Fill a storage container with rice and hide pairs of Christmas objects like bells and other plastic ornaments to match together.
3. Take pom poms and plastic alphabet letters and have your child match colors.

14. I Spy Games

I Spy games are perfect for helping your child learn new words and recognize the difference between objects. Play I spy games while going for a drive to the store or for a walk around the neighborhood.

15. This or That

This or that is an activity you can use to further your child’s speech and language development. All you need to do is offer choices. If you’re decorating the Christmas tree, ask your child if they would like the red or green ornament. Just make sure to leave space for your child to think and reply to an answer.

16. Telephone Time

Telephone time is simply that, pretend play conversations with a toy telephone. Grab an old non-working phone or a kid’s toy phone and start a pretend conversation with your child. This will help your child develop the concept of back and forth communication.

17. Mystery Box

Fill a small box with different household items. Let your child pick an item at random to give you or a sibling hints about the object while looking away. This activity builds your kid’s vocabulary with descriptive words.

18. Supermarket Day

Supermarket day is an activity to help your children understand the context of an item you purchase and its use in daily life. Every time you pick up an object to place in the shopping cart state what the object is and what you will use it for.

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19. Play Board Games

Any board game is great for providing technology-free entertainment for children. Many board games are played with 2 to 3 people, making it perfect for children to play together while you work from home!

20. Pretend Play Going to a Restaurant

Imaginative play is great for childhood development! Use a pretend kitchen, plastic toy food items, plates, and silverware to pretend you and your children are preparing and eating Christmas dinner.

21. Treasure Hunt

This is one of the indoor activities for kids that can keep them busy for hours! Simply create a list of items you hid around the house and send your kids on a treasure hunt.

21 Physical Activities for Toddlers

Kids are bursting with energy all year round. But when it is cold outside and the nights are long, you need to find indoor physical activity to get them moving. We came up with this list to help you get the energy out! Let’s get moving to boost those gross motor skills!

1. Yoga with Kids

Yoga is a calming activity for kids that teaches coordination and balance. This is an activity your children can do independently while you work from home.

2. Balloon Tennis

This is one of the many outdoor activities that can be modified for the indoors. Instead of using a tennis ball, blow up a balloon for your kids to hit with a tennis racket or ping-pong paddle. Balloon tennis is perfect for increasing coordination and focus.

3. Indoor Laser Maze

Use an indoor space like a hallway to create “laser beams” with strands of toilet paper. Just use painter’s tape to attach the toilet paper against the walls in a zigzag pattern. Now have your kids try and get through the laser beam maze without touching the toilet paper.

4. Long Jump

Place painter’s tape one foot apart on the floor and challenge your kids to a long jump competition! This will get the energy out while providing hours of fun and laughter!

5. Indoors Obstacle Course

Create a complicated obstacle course around the house with everyday objects. Pillows become stepping stones. Chairs become crawl spaces or tunnels. Prearrange the obstacle course ahead of time, that way you can devote time to your own work schedule while your kids make their way through the obstacle course.

6. Silly String

Use streamers to create indoor activities for kids by attaching streamers from wall to wall to create an obstacle course. To be extra festive for Christmas, use red and green streamers.

7. Army Crawl

The same streamers can be used for army crawling. Just attach streamers horizontally low to the floor for your kids to belly crawl under. You can also use icicle Christmas lights in place of streamers.

8. Gymnastics

Gather pillows and couch cushions for your kids to fall into while practicing handstands, cartwheels, and somersaults. Your kids can even use a broomstick to jump over into the pillows.

9. Pillowcase Race

Grab some pillowcases and create a start and finish line to create a friendly indoor competition between siblings. This is one of those indoor activities for kids to play on the carpet!

10. Hula Hoop Jump

Have your kids use a hula hoop like a jump rope instead!

11. Miniature Golf

Take plastic cups to use as golf holes and plastic toy golf clubs with plastic golf balls to make an 18-hole golf course in your living room.

12. Mouse Hunt

Place intersecting lines on the floor with painter’s tape to create a maze like design. Now have one child be the ‘mouse’ and another be the ‘cat.’ Have the cat chase the mouse, but they can only walk or chase each other on the designated lines. And no jumping from line to line!

13. Cotton Ball Run

This is similar to balancing an egg on a spoon and racing. Instead of eggs though use cotton balls. They are much harder to keep on a spoon when running!

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14. Balloon Balance

Blow up some balloons and instruct your children not to let the balloon touch the floor. This is one of those Christmas activities that can be played with red and green balloons.

15. Climb Mountains

Remove your couch cushions and build “mountains” for your kids to climb.

16. Christmas Workout

Any physical activity is better than none! Pick an exercise routine your kids can do and pair it with your favorite Christmas tunes.

17. Different Variations of Tag

Instead of running during a game of tag, have your kids try skipping or hopping on one leg to tag each other.

18. Bed Sheet Parachute

Have your kids toss stuffed animals into the air with a bed sheet.

19. Hockey

Get creative with cardboard and tape to make hockey sticks and a small plastic or rubber ball. Don’t forget about a makeshift goal net.

20. DIY Bowling

All you need for indoor bowling is empty or filled plastic water bottles and a ball. That’s it!

21. Hopscotch

Another indoor activity created with painter’s tape. Simply make squares and tape down a piece of paper with instructions for each square. 

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29 Christmas Fine Motor Activities for Toddlers

Fine motor development is crucial to get kids ready for learning to write. Besides that, they are a fun creative outlet for your little one! This list of activities will help you get their imagination run wild, and give them ideas to create thoughtful Christmas gifts for the whole family.

1. Arts and Crafts Paint Party

Instead of painting with paintbrushes, why not have your kids do a full body paint party? Yes, it will be messy, so keep some paper towels on hand to clean up messes and do this activity with water-based paints on hardwood or tile flooring.

2. Bake Christmas Ornaments

Help your child mix and roll out dough to cut into different Christmas shapes with cookie cutters, then bake. If you add a hole at the top of the ornaments they can be hung on a wreath or Christmas tree with ribbon.

3. Easy crafts with Play-Doh

While you can always go and buy Play-Doh, help your kids make Play-Doh from scratch with this recipe!

4. Puffy Paint

Puffy paint is another fun activity you can make from scratch to give a 3D effect for their artwork! You can make a fun thoughtful gift for grandparents or other family members!

5. Pasta Necklaces

Have your kids decorate penne pasta with glitter, markers, and paints and thread onto string to create necklaces. You can use what they create to decorate the Christmas tree, too.

6. Christmas Cookie Molds

This is one of the Christmas activities for kids that involves Play-Doh! Take Play-Doh and Christmas cookie cutters to create fun and festive seasonal shapes.

7. Plush Elves

Use plush elves to create a Christmas themed speech and language development activity. One way to do this is by interviewing the plush elves with your children. This can help your children learn back and forth communication and even foster creativity by asking the elves interesting questions about Christmas and the north pole.

8. Learn Winter Words with Speech Blubs

Yes, Speech Blubs can help your children explore and learn new words related to winter and Christmas. Just simply download the app and click on the section “Outdoor Wonders.”

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9. Christmas Crafts

Simple craft objects like pipe cleaners and red and white beads create holiday candy canes to decorate a Christmas tree.

10. Same and Different Reindeer Shapes

Use small and large pictures of reindeer to teach your children the idea of same and different.

11. Make a Christmas Sensory Bin

Sensory bins let your children explore multiple senses at once while scooping, stirring, and pouring. To make it a Christmas-themed- bin, add in green- and red-dyed rice or pasta, pom poms, small toy figurine reindeer, penguins, and so much more!

12. Toilet Paper Reindeer

Have your children squish and mold toilet paper rolls to make antlers for the reindeer and a third toilet paper roll for the head. Then dip the toilet paper rolls in paint to make a Christmas scene.

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13. Handprint Crafts

Handprint crafts are sentimental crafts used primarily with your child’s hands. All you need to do is supply the paint and dip their hands in paint and press them on paper and draw the rest of the Christmas object. A handprint can be used to make:

• Santa (the handprint is his beard)
• Two handprints for reindeer antlers
• Many handprints for a Christmas tree

14. Play-Doh Activities

Although your children can always use cookie cutters for Christmas shapes, they can make Play-Doh Christmas cookies and candies as well as gingerbread houses. These indoor activities for kids foster imagination while allowing you to get some work done in the meantime.

15. Dot Paint for Christmas

Buy some dot paint markers instead of paintbrushes to have your children dot paint a winter wonderland scene!

16. Snow Ice Cream

Grab your coats, mittens, and snow boots and have your children find a patch of untouched snow to gather up to make ice cream out of snow. You can find the recipe here!

17. Christmas Wall Art

Take Kraft paper and tape it on a wall. Then have your children use watercolors and brushes to create a North Pole scene.

18. Trace Shapes

Look around the house for common items with shapes and have your child trace around the object. For instance, a soup can (circle) can be traced and three circles in a row then become a picture of a snowman!

19. Sponge Painting

Pre-cut kitchen sponges into Christmas shapes and have your children dip the shapes into the paint to stamp the designs on paper. The easiest Christmas shapes to cut out of sponges are carol bells, trees, and candy canes.

20. Mold Shapes

Supply your children with Playdough to roll out into a line to mold a basic outline of common shapes like stars, circles, and triangles. This activity helps your children become familiar with common shapes.

21. Shape Sorting

Shape buttons can be purchased to help your children sort different shapes. Simply have your kids sort through shape buttons and make piles of each shape.

22. Dot it Out

Dot it out helps your children learn basic shapes along with counting skills. Gather some pom poms and a piece of paper with basic shapes printed on them. All your children need to do is place the pom poms on the shape outlines. They can learn the shape and count the pom poms out loud as they go along.

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23. Playing with Cars

Use toy cars to teach social skills and play sequences! Plus, adding in fun activities like washing cars and racing can help your child learn new vocabulary like:

• Car wash
• Wheels
• Beep
• Seat belt

24. Q-Tip painting

Q-Tips can help your kids hone their fine motor skills by practicing their pincer grip. All they need is Q-Tips and paint to practice painting letters, numbers, and words.

25. Lacing Sheets

Simply take foam sheets and hole punch holes through it. Then have your children thread a shoelace through the holes. This is a calming activity that can be used anytime you need some quiet time in the house to finish your work for the day.

26. Beads and Pipe Cleaners

Another one of the winter activities to develop fine motor skills. Just have your children string beads onto pipe cleaners. That’s it!

27. Cutting Practice

With safety scissors have your child practice cutting simple designs out of paper.

28. Writing in Cornmeal

Dump cornmeal onto a baking sheet and have your kids use their fingers to trace numbers, letters, and even words if they are able.

29. Clothespins

Clothespins are hard to open. It requires a great deal of pincer strength! Have your children practice placing clothespins on cards with numbers on them. For instance, if the card has a number three with three dots, they attach three clothespins to the card.

Christmas Stories for Kids

After all these activities, and running around, it is time to snuggle up in front of the TV, a good book, or an awesome app. Enjoy the classics and find new favorites on our list of Christmas stories and movies!

1. Christmas Storybooks

Jump on YouTube and view their vast library of read-through Christmas themed storybooks!

Here are some ideas for you:

• How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Dr. Seuss
• The Night Before Christmas, Clement C. Moore
• The Elves and the Shoemaker, Brother Grimm
• The Little Match Girl, Hans Christian Andersen
• The Snowman, Raymond Briggs
• Father Christmas, J.R.R. Tolkien
• Pete the Cat Saves Christmas, James Dean
• A Very Fiona Christmas, Zondervan
• Santa Mouse, Michael Brown
• How to Catch an Elf, Adam Wallace
• Polar Express, Chris Van Allsburg
• Merry Christmas Mom and Dad, Mercer Mayer
• Little Blue Truck’s Christmas, Alice Schertle

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2. Christmas Movie Night

From the classic Christmas movie, It’s A Wonderful Life, to How The Grinch Stole Christmas . . . nothing brings a family together more and keeps children engaged than watching a heartfelt Christmas movie!

Have you seen all the movives from this list?

• Home Alone
• Elf
• A Christmas Story
• It’s Wonderful Life
• Miracle on 34th Street
• Curious George – A Very Monkey Christmas
• Trolls Holiday
• Bob’s Broken Sleigh
• Mickey’s Once Upon a Christmas
• A Charlie Brown Christmas
• Arthur Christmas
• The Muppet Christmas Carol
• The Santa Clause

4. Facetime with Grandma and Grandpa

Keeping connected with family you cannot see in person is vital during the holidays! Take some time away from work and homeschooling to help your children facetime far-away loved ones like Grandma and Grandpa.

5. Speech Blubs and the Reading Blubs apps

Both apps from Speech Blubs help increase speech, language, and reading skills. Instead of watching TV, have your children open up the Speech Blubs app or Reading Blubs app to increase development!

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Many families become stir crazy during the winter months. But there’s no need to get trapped in the same routine! Instead, try one of the many outdoor and indoor fun activities from the list above and Christmas for kids can be a blast!

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