Christmas Activities for Kids + FREE Printable

Before I get into this information packed post, I want to let you know 2 things:

-I’m offering a discount today in my shop for Cyber Monday (25% off everything), so make sure to check it out.  There are some cute Christmas printables and gift ideas.

-Make sure to check the blog this week for some FREE Christmas tags and how I “do” Christmas season and stay organized.  I’m even providing my Excel template that I use each year to track gift purchases and budget it all!

This weekend I did a lot of research for different activities we could do with the kids (ages 2.5 and 5) here in our area and at our home.  Some are super simple and some are more elaborate. I thought I’d share our list and some links with you so you could gather more information if you’re interested.  Some of these ideas are simple and can be done at home and others are specific to our area.

I’ve also included a free printable for you to jot down different ideas and plan ahead.

General Activities for Kids:
1. Ice skating
2. Decorate cookies – here is a sugar cookie recipe for cutout cookies

3. Drive around and look at Christmas lights

4. Pull kids in wagon (with hot cocoa) and look at lights in the neighborhood.

5. Visit Santa

6. Make Christmas crafts – I’ve pinned several to my Christmas board on Pinterest

7. Decorate a gingerbread house

8. Color Christmas pictures (I just Google Christmas pictures and print them out)

9. Grow a candy cane (insert a peppermint into fake snow and the next day a candy cane pops out…of course, you create the “growing” overnight when they’re asleep)

10. Go to a Christmas show/musical

11. Make Christmas rice krispy treats (put green food dye in the marshmallow mixture and top with red candies or holiday sprinkles)

12. Sponsor a child for Christmas and let children pick out the items – we did Operation Christmas Child this year through our church

13. Leave goodies/treats for the trash collector and the mailman.

14. Elf on the Shelf – my 5 year old is extremely happy about this and I bought this book to take the thought out of it for me

15. We are doing Truth in the Tinsel this year – a daily craft/ornament for the kids to make that tells the story of Christmas

16. Roast marshmallows outside.

17. Make a “Santa bag” for a homeless person.  One time we saw a homeless man outside of Walmart, so the boys and I went inside and bought a ton of food and other necessities for him.  Beckham still talks about it, so I know it made an impression.  The Santa bag will include dry food snacks, wipes, chapstick, socks, water, blanket, and more.

18. Watch Christmas movies.

 

Here are some of the things I found in our city and neighboring cities that we might do:

-1. ICE exhibit at Gaylord Texan Resort – there are a ton of fun things to do here, but we are going to wait till the kids are a bit older (it’s kind of pricey)

2. Galleria Mall in Dallas – every Saturday they light up their tree.  This mall is beautiful during the holidays.

3. Trains at Northpark Mall in Dallas – An amazing train exhibit across 1600 feet of track – The boys are going to love this

4. Tons of other Holiday attractions at Northpark Mall – There are so many different activities like Scrooge’s puppet shows, Storytime with Santa, and performances…we will do as many as we can when we’re there for the trains.

5. Six Flags Holiday in the Park – This looks so fun

6. Vitruvian Park in Addison – By far, the most magical light display I’ve seen.  They have concerts every Saturday also.  My parents live 2 minutes from this park so we will do this with my parents.

7. Frisco Square (Ice Skating and Light/Music show) – They have a nightly light show and music at 6:00pm.  They also have an outdoor ice skating rink.  Beckham wanted to do this, so we will definitely hit this up.  We will try to do it on Wednesday evening because kids eat free at Mattito’s Mexican restaurant which is nearby.

8. McKinney Parade of Lights – Our town has a parade of lights in December that we might check out this year.

9. Top Fun Ranch Christmas Safari – This is a must-do for us.  This will be our “big” activity for the month.  It’s $15 a person (2+), but the activities and fun seem worth it.

10. Dallas Arboretum – This place is beautiful and each season never disappoints.  The plants and gardens are always amazing, but Christmas time is done up even more.  We got my parents season passes last Christmas and they get to bring us for free.  So we’ll go with them some time in December.

I needed a way to organize all of this so I created a cute printable to keep track of everything.  I used the blank one to jot down all the ideas.  Then I’ll plug them into the numbered one so I know what I’m doing each day.  You could also just fill the blank one out and color in the box when you’ve done it.  Some of these activities are on certain dates, so I plug those in first.

Click here to download the blank template

Click here to get the numbered template

This one is our activity calendars filled out, but you can click here if you want to print it out

I hope you were able to get some good ideas to do with your little ones this time of year and find the printable helpful.  What are you planning on doing with your family this season?