Top 10 Christmas Activities
Things to do as a family on Christmas day.
The Day is finally here. After nearly 6 weeks of non-stop Christmas activities, holiday shopping, multiple cookie exchanges and Elf on the Shelf, December 25th has arrived, Santa has come and left his presents and now you’re over the hump and starting to slowly come back down.
Here are some Christmas day activities that can be enjoyed as a family and help you to decompress from the Holiday rush.
Bake a yummy treat
I like to keep things fairly simple and will often stick to baking and decorating cookies with my kids. I have a delicious sugar cookie recipe I use and also like to make buttercream frosting for the icing. But there are so many other yummy desserts to bake with your kids: pies, brownies, cheesecake… I’m getting hungry now just thinking about it!
Build and decorate a Gingerbread House
Grab a few Gingerbread House kits from the store, or if you’re feeling ambitious, make your own kit from scratch! You can even make it a competition amongst each other and have someone be the judge.
Set up arts & crafts
Be that Pinterest Parent and set up some fun arts & crafts activities for your kids! I’ll be honest, I’m not one to have the patience for this kind of stuff, but during the height of the pandemic, I came up with some great ideas for my kids while we were stuck celebrating by ourselves at home and they truly loved it! Some of their favorites were a creating a Christmas tree and ornaments out of paper plates, making a snowflake out of popsicle sticks, or probably the easiest of all: downloading free Holiday coloring sheets off the internet!
Check out my Holiday Arts & Crafts Pinterest board for more ideas.
Write Thank You cards
As an extension of doing arts & crafts, make writing Thank You cards fun! Get out construction paper, paints, glitter, you name it – and have your kids go all out in creating those thank yous for the people they received gifts from.
Play games
Pull out the classic board and card games, or you can even come up with some more unique ideas: Christmas Bingo, Christmas Scavenger Hunt, Build a Mummy Snowman, Snow Shovel Race, or just a simple Candy Cane Hunt around the house.
Check out my Holiday Games Pinterest board for more ideas.
Drive around looking at Christmas lights
Get out of the house for a bit but stay warm in your car as you drive through nearby neighborhoods, enjoying all the festive décor. You can even bring along some cookies and hot chocolate for your journey.
Not sure where to start? Take a look at which driving route will be best for you here:
Your Guide to Residential Light Shows
Go caroling
Bring back the classic tradition of going caroling from home to home. You might be pleasantly surprised how welcoming each home will be to listening to your beautiful songs! Too shy to sing in front of strangers? Stay home and just sing carols amongst yourselves….. or even better, do karaoke!
Eat your Christmas meal at a restaurant
How great would it be to not have to spend hours in the kitchen cooking? Visit a restaurant open on Christmas Day and just sit back and relax while you can enjoy someone else’s cooking for once.
Not sure which restaurants are open on Christmas? Check out this list of decked-out restaurants to get you started [restaurants open on Christmas Day are underlined in gold].
Watch Holiday movies
What better way to decompress from the past weeks’ stress than to sit back and relax on your comfortable couch, watching wholesome holiday movies. Make some popcorn and warm up with a mug of hot cocoa and snuggle up together under a cozy blanket.
Work on New Year’s Resolutions together
It’s never too early to teach your kids how to set goals and to learn how to be responsible for their own self-care and growth. Help them come up with a list of at least 5 resolutions they can focus on after the New Year.
All photos via vecteezy.com or owned by Kristel