Christmas Traditions, Crafts, and Activities
There are a ton of fun things to do during this holiday in addition to the religious observances. Write letters to Santa and take them to him. A lot of places that let you take a picture with Santa also have North Pole mailboxes you can put your letter into (Bass Pro does this for example, and the Santa pics are free). I'd be remiss if I didn't mention Christmas lights ... considering the namesake of this website! Like Clark, I believe in going all out with the lights. It's a lot of work, but the excitement it gets out of your kids makes it all worth it...you know, unless you fall off the house while putting them up (which I've done). There's Christmas tree decorating which can involve many family traditions like holding the kids up to add the topper, special ornaments collected through the years (we get one everywhere we go on vacation, plus there's the "baby's first Christmas" ornaments, etc).
Christmas music and caroling, Christmas cartoon specials and movies, Christmas plays at church (where usually your kids get to sing), gingerbread houses, and exchanging gifts, Christmas is fun for everyone. It's a good time of year to spread joy. Like Bill Murray says in "Scrooged," "it's the one night of the year when we all act a little nicer, we smile a little easier, we cheer a little more. For a couple of hours out of the whole year, we are the people that we always hoped we would be! " As he pointed out, wouldn't it be nice if that feeling spread a little further throughout the year?
Christmas Trees
A tree is a Christmas given, of course. Let the kids help decorate. They'll love it, especially putting the star on top of the tree. We decorate a family tree, yearly, with all the creations our children have made, ornaments with their handprints and pictures on them, and ornaments from all of our vacations. We take time to look and reminisce about each while hanging them up.
Santa Visits
What more fun way to celebrate Christmas than taking your kids to visit the big man in red? You can get your obligatory picture, and they can tell him what they're hoping to get for Christmas.
Letters to Santa
Kids love writing their Christmas wishes down and mailing them to the North Pole. You get to find out what they want, but also sending a letter off to Santa adds to the magic and wonder of the holiday. As a good teaching moment, you can teach them the kindness of asking for things for other people, not just themselves.
Gingerbread Houses
Building a gingerbread house with your kids can be a lot of fun and let everyone's creative side come out. It can also be a tad frustrating when the house doesn't stand up on its own, but apply enough frosting, and everything will stick together as it should. Once your house is built, it's time to decorate! These days, they've even started selling kits with popular characters like Charlie Brown and Minions as part of the decorative supplies.
Christmas Lights
Decorating your own home fits the bill, of course, but you can also go see others' lights. It's fun to drive around listening to Christmas music and looking at people's decorations, and it makes for a great family tradition. Many places have professionally setup lights that you can drive through and see moving lights, animatronic elves, and so on.
Fingerprint Ornament
This craft doubles as a keepsake that can be revisited yearly whenever you decorate your tree. Paint your kid's finger white and have them press it onto an ornament. Once dry, add the snowman accessories, like the hat and buttons. So that the memory is retained forever, have your child sign and date the ornament as well.
Christmas Light Reindeer
To turn an ordinary Christmas light into a reindeer craft, glue googly eyes onto the light and a red pompom on as its nose. Use a brown pipe cleaner to wrap around the top of the light as the reindeer's antlers.
Felt Wreath
Cut out red and green wreath shapes from felt pieces, keeping the green wreath slightly smaller. Paste the green wreath onto the red one. Finally, add buttons around the green wreath as decorations. Add a string to your wreath creation to convert it into an ornament.
Popsicle Stick Snowman
Paint a Popsicle stick white. Then, decorate the stick with pieces of felt as the snowman's hat and scarf. Add buttons as the snowman's chest buttons. Finally, draw on a face and carrot nose.
Stocking Sewing
A printable stocking can be colored in, but also you can help with your child's dexterity by having them thread yarn around the stocking.
Flower Pot Reindeer
Using a small terracotta flower pot, glue eyes and a red pompom nose on as its face. Then, glue a brown pipe cleaner onto the top as your reindeer's antlers.
Hand Print Snowmen
Have your child press their painted-white hand onto a piece of construction paper. Once dry, decorate each finger as a separate snowman. Draw in snowflakes around your snowmen to make it look like they're all standing in a winter wonderland.
Paper Plate Santa
Cut a large triangle out of red construction paper as the base of this craft. Cut a paper plate in half and color in only the inner part of the plate as Santa's face. Add eyes and a red nose and mustache, but the outside part of the plate will act as the beard. Then add a brim to the hat using a piece of white construction paper cut into a rectangle shape. Finally add the ball for the top of the hat by cutting a circle shape out of white paper. To review, you have a triangle, half circle, circle, and rectangle, so the craft can also help teach some shapes.
Puzzle Piece Christmas Tree
Paint puzzle pieces green and glue to a triangle shape of cardboard, also painted green. Leave a brown, unpainted puzzle piece at the bottom of your creation as the trunk of the tree. Add different color beads as the trees decoration. Finally, like many crafts in this list, you can add a loop of yarn to turn your craft into an ornament.
Advent Calendars
Whether you have an advent calendar you've purchased somewhere or one you've handmade like the one in this image, you and your children will enjoy counting down the days 'til Christmas. Some you open a door each day to see a figurine, picture, or treat behind the door. This homemade one? You glue 25 pieces of candy to a large poster board and, each day you take off a piece of candy and eat it! Kids can color and decorate the poster board using Christmas themes.
Hand Print Reindeer
Paint your child's hand with brown finger paint and have them stamp their hand onto a piece of construction paper. Use the same color paint to branch off from the fingers, creating "antlers". Once dry, decorate the reindeer with eyes and a nose.
Pinky Print Snowman
Paint one of your kid's pinkies white and the other black. Give them some paint to dip into as their pinkies run out of paint. Then, have them dot away at a piece of construction paper to form a snowman made out of only dots. It's preschool pointilism! Don't forget the orange carrot nose.
Character Ornaments
Creating a homemade ornaments based on your kid's favorite characters, like the TMNT ornaments in this picture, will be something your kids will cherish them for years to come each time they put them on the tree.
Paper Plate Wreaths
Cut a hole out of the center of a plate and color the rest in with green crayon. Finally, add a construction paper bow to the bottom of the wreath.
Cottonball Santa
Use a paper plate to make Santa's face, adding construction paper eyes and a big red nose. Cut out a hat shape from red construction paper and glue to the top of the plate. Finally, glue cotton balls onto the face as the beard. Add more as the brim of the hat and a final one at the tip of the hat for the full Santa effect.
Reindeer Hats
With brown construction paper, trace your children's hands and cut them out. Staple/Tape them to a red loop of construction paper, sized to your children's heads. Instant reindeer hat!
Construction Paper Gingerbread Man
Cut out a gingerbread man shape from brown construction paper. Then, use different color pompoms to decorate the gingerbread man as his gumdrop buttons.
Hand Print Wreaths
Paint your kid's hands green this time and have them stamp white construction paper over and over. Cut out about 8 hands and glue them together in a circle. Add a bow at the bottom, and hang the craft up as the most special wreath you'll ever have.
Lollipop Christmas Tree
Paint a Styrofoam cone green. The, shove lollipops in all around the cone to act as your tree's branches. It's a really easy craft, and, when the holidays are over, your kids have a treat waiting on them!
These Christmas crafts should keep you busy through the holidays, spending time with your kids, having fun, and getting into the spirit of Christmas. Let us know how it goes by sending in some pictures of your creations. For more fun that isn't Christmas-themed, be sure to check out our other craft ideas.