Are you looking for some fun Christmas activities at home for the whole family? We’ve started new traditions in the past couple of years with plenty of Christmas activities at home to get our kids and ourselves into the holiday spirit and keep us busy!
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Table of Contents
Christmas Activities at Home: Baking
Christmas Sugar Cookies
Making Christmas cutout sugar cookies are always a fun activity to do this time of year!
Ok, so honestly…I have a love hate with this. I do like eating the cookies but rolling out the dough isn’t always the most fun, especially when I have my 3 little boys just wanting to get to the decorating and eating!!
Really though, I do know this is something my kids enjoy doing every year and (eventually) I enjoy it too. My husband has actually been taking this task on lately which is super duper awesome as he’s more patient when it comes to baking with them (probably because he’s not around them 24/7 like I am as a SAHM).
Click the button below to see our favorite Gluten Free and Dairy Free cutout cookie recipe from Alexa of ‘Key to my Lime’. We especially love it because it doesn’t require any chilling before cutting the cookies out of the dough.
Honestly, these aren’t my cookies. I made this image on Canva. Apparently, I don’t have a good picture of us making Christmas cookies in the past so, here is the closest I can get. Ha! Just showing things The Way it Really Is 🙂
Frosting for Sugar Cookies
Within the recipe above she does have an icing recipe but we really like to make a frosting recipe instead. Below I’ve linked the one my husband created! It only has 4 ingredients and is super easy to make.
Homemade Gingerbread House
Sure, you can get Gingerbread House kits at the store but if you or your kids have food allergies or sensitivities, it’s better to make your own if you’re actually planning on eating it.
This is where my husband and I differ. He thinks that gingerbread houses aren’t meant for eating, so in the past we’ve just bought the ones at the store that our kids put together then we throw away later.
I really wanted to make our own though and eat it because…why not?! Granted, I won’t want it to be out for weeks like ours was last year, but I’m hoping the kids will be ok with it since they get to eat it. We’ll see.
Here is a gluten free gingerbread house recipe that you can easily make dairy free as well.
You could also use the frosting recipe above to decorate the gingerbread house!
Christmas Activities at Home: Crafts
Cardboard Gingerbread House
This HUGE gingerbread house is a hit! Your kids can help put it up, decorate it by coloring it or painting it, and enjoy it for years!
Felt Christmas Tree
Our kids help decorate our family Christmas tree with the ornaments they’ve made over the years, but they love this one too. We got this when they were younger as we wanted to distract them from breaking the ornaments on our family Christmas tree. They still love it even now that they get to help decorate our family tree as well.
They were super excited when I brought it out again this year. They split up the ornaments between themselves and took to decorating it right away.
I hang it up with a large command strip hook that I take down every year and replace the following year as I haven’t found anything else to hang there but maybe I should…lol
DIY Paper Cardstock Cookies
This all started with my boys playing in their play kitchen and pretending to bake cookies. Then I remembered that I saw that the company Melissa and Doug had some cut out cookies I could buy for my kids to use in their play kitchen.
As I was adding the cookies to my cart online I thought…hum…wonder if I could make something with my Cricut?!
I decided to take some graphics I found in Cricut Design Space and make them my own, including adding more stars, hearts, and adding in some additional layers for the kids to be able to decorate tree and cookies with.
I cut them out of 65lb cardstock. I glued the gingerbread men together myself as they were a bit complex for my 6 and 4 year olds. I also glued the backs onto main part of the cookies before giving them to them to decorate so the cookies would be stronger overall.
I’ve also linked the Melissa and Doug cookie set if you don’t have a Cricut or don’t want to cut them out.
They had a lot of fun decorating them as you can see in photos below. To make it extra cookie-esque I put all of their pieces they got to decorate with in their own cookie sheet. They even added some rhinestones that we had from another art project. The ones that didn’t have rhinestones on them I laminated to make them extra durable, something I should have thought of ahead of time so they could all be laminated but that’s alright. I can always cut more if the non-laminated ones don’t hold up.
If you have a Cricut to cut this out, click below for the file I’ve made available for free on Design Space.
Printable Activities
Just like for Thanksgiving, I’ve created a FREE downloadable printable that you can download then print off and have your children complete as part of your holiday festivities!
Christmas Activity Pack
Looking for more engaging Christmas activities for kids? Our 86-page Christmas activity pack is full of word scrambles, mazes, dot-to-dot, and more! Keep children entertained and learning this holiday season. Even better? A second pdf with the answers is also included!
Christmas Advent Activity Cards
Are you looking for activities to do with the kids this holiday season? Introducing the Christmas Advent Activity Cards – the perfect solution for families looking for fun and engaging activities to celebrate the holiday season and keep their kids entertained during winter break.
Christmas Bingo
Christmas Bingo is a great way to add some fun and togetherness to your celebration. My in-laws have been playing Christmas Bingo for years and it’s so much fun!! I wanted to make my own Christmas Bingo to share with others, complete with cards and tokens that can be cut out.
There are 12 unique Bingo cards, 24 calling cards, and 75 tokens. You can always print more as needed!
Our Favorite Christmas Books
There are so many great Christmas books out there but I wanted to share some of our favorites with you! Click on the books below to be taken to the Amazon page to learn more about them and purchase them. Many are on sale right now!!
Christmas Lights
Another thing we love to do is drive around and look at Christmas lights. It’s fun to walk around our own neighborhood and admire the lights as well as drive around town.
We also really love the lights that are in tune with music using programmable LED lights. There is one a town about 15 minutes away from us where they have the lights set up with the music, including a talking Christmas tree and light bulbs!
You can find some great Christmas light displays in your community by using Google or going to your local Facebook group. There is a website that has many Christmas light displays listed that you can search by zipcode and desired radius. It’s up to the owner of the light display to update it so it might not be fully updated but it’s a starting point at least.
Gift Opening & Food
We’ve started to open presents from my husband’s side of the family on Christmas Eve since that is when we’d be meeting with them if we weren’t staying home due to not only COVID but RSV and Influenza.
On Christmas morning we open presents from Santa and then from each other in our immediate family/household.
Christmas afternoon we tend to have a video call with my parents and open our presents from them and they open the presents we gave them.
On Christmas we have eggs in a nest for breakfast then ham and potatoes for dinner.
Christmas Coupon Books
Discover the perfect gift for kids to give to parents or adults to exchange heartwarming gestures. Our Christmas Coupon Books feature 5 cover designs with a total of 230 coupons, offering endless ways to spread joy this holiday season.
Introducing the Christmas Coupon Book for Kids and Adults – a delightful way to spread joy and create lasting memories this holiday season. With its 5 charming cover designs and 15 unique ideas each for kids, for parents, and for parents to give kids, this coupon book is the perfect gift for all ages. This is a thoughtful and meaningful gift that will bring smiles and laughter to your loved ones.
‘Tis The Season: Gift Idea Posts
Need gift ideas? Here are some of my blog posts that’ll help!
As a mom of identical twins and a son two years older, I have gained invaluable experience in the realm, and chaos, of parenting. With a Master's Degree and Education Specialist Degree in School Psychology, I spent years as a school psychologist, helping children navigate through their educational and emotional challenges. Now as a stay at home mom and professional blogger, I combine my areas of expertise to help you in your parenting journey.