15 Christmas Activities for Kids at Home (Screen-Free and Mostly Free)
December with kids is magical and also, somewhere around the second week of the school holidays, very long. The trick is having a handful of calm, low-mess activities ready to pull out when energy is high and patience is low.
These fifteen Christmas activities work at the kitchen table, need little more than paper and pencils, and suit kids from about four to ten. Most are free; a few use printables you can make yourself or download.
Quiet table activities
1. Christmas word search. Hunt for words like reindeer, snowman and stocking. Younger kids can search for just the first five; older ones can race a sibling.
2. Mazes. Help the reindeer find Santa's sleigh. Mazes are perfect for building patience and fine motor skills, and they keep a child busy for a surprisingly long time.
3. Dot-to-dot. Number by number, a Christmas tree or a gingerbread house appears. Great for counting practice with younger kids.
4. Colouring pages. A snowflake mandala is calming for older kids; simple ornaments and snowmen suit little ones. Put on Christmas music and you have half an hour of peace.
5. Secret code puzzles. Give each letter a symbol and let kids decode a festive message. They feel like spies, and they're practising reading at the same time.
6. Mini sudoku. A 4×4 grid with Christmas pictures instead of numbers is a gentle introduction to logic puzzles. Move up to 6×6 when they're ready.
Activities with a bit of magic
7. A letter to Santa. Write it, decorate it and "post" it. It doubles as a peek at what's on their mind this year.
8. A Christmas wish list. A simple list page helps kids think about what they really want, and gives relatives a useful answer.
9. Countdown to Christmas. A paper countdown where kids colour one box every day builds anticipation without the sugar of a chocolate calendar.
10. Draw your Christmas. A blank frame with "My Christmas" at the top. Ask them to draw their favourite part of the day afterwards. It makes a lovely keepsake to date and keep.
Games for the whole family
11. Christmas bingo. Call out pictures (a candy cane, a star, a present) and the first to fill a row wins. Works for mixed ages because nobody needs to read.
12. Games for two. Christmas tic-tac-toe or dots-and-boxes keeps two siblings busy at the same time.
13. Festive charades. Act out "building a snowman" or "wrapping a present that's the wrong shape."
Getting out of the house (or not)
14. A Christmas scavenger hunt. Hide paper stars around the house, each with a clue to the next one. The last clue leads to a small treat.
15. A winter walk tally. Spot decorated doors, lights, a robin or a snowman on a short walk and tick them off a list.
A ready-made pack for busy parents
If you want all of the table activities above in one place, the Christmas Activity Pack for Kids has 37 printable pages: five word searches and a word scramble, four mazes, three dot-to-dots, four colouring pages, secret code and elf code puzzles, 4×4 and 6×6 sudoku, a countdown, a letter to Santa, a wish list, Christmas bingo with calling cards, games for two, a certificate, and an answer key for grown-ups. It comes in both US Letter and A4.
A few tips:
- Print a few pages at a time rather than the whole pack, so there's always something "new" to bring out.
- Slip the pages into plastic sleeves and use whiteboard pens to make them reusable.
- Keep a few pages in your bag for restaurants, travel days and waiting rooms.
And for the grown-ups, our free set of 25 holiday phone wallpapers includes a December calendar so you can see the countdown every time you unlock your phone.
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