Follow our Christmas to do list to make sure that your Christmas and the entire month of December are fun.
December can be such an exciting month, especially if you celebrate Christmas. Consequently it can also be a crazy hectic month so hopefully you can take the time to enjoy the little things with your family. And really focus on what is most important. That of course is your family.
There are so many things that you can do to celebrate the upcoming holiday of Christmas as we will share on our Christmas to do list.
So many people ask or try to find ideas on what to do for the Christmas holidays. What activities or things can I do with my kids/family? What can I do at home to get into the Christmas spirit? Don’t worry we have you covered.
To begin with I will give you a list of ideas to do at home and then a list of ideas to do outside your house in surrounding areas. Furthermore we want you and your family to have the best time together and create wonderful memories.
Christmas to do list: Items to do at home.
- Take a family photo (for your Christmas card) – It’s fun to take a family photo every December whether it will be used for a card to send out or not. Good excuse for a family photo. Try unique poses or make the photo funny.
- Wrap the Christmas books you have. I started this when my kids were very little so when they were school age, we had 25 Christmas books to wrap. Let your kids help wrap them or you do it to surprise them. Each morning in December or however many days you have per book, let your kids unwrap one book each day. Start off your day by reading that book then you can read it again at bedtime.
- Decorate the outside of your house with Christmas decorations and lights. Let the kids help out.
- Set up Christmas trees in your home. For added fun buy a small tree to go in your kids’ rooms too. My kids absolutely loved the trees in their own room.
- Create homemade ornaments to put on the trees. You can use items around your house to make these if trying to budget too.
- Make a homemade garland to put on the trees or decorate your house with. I have a few blogs with different ideas on making homemade garland that you can adapt to make them into Christmas ones. Some are with recycle items that you can easily upcycle into fun decorations.
- Decorate your Christmas trees together. Let your kids decorate their trees however they want. And only help them decorate those if they want you to. Whereas, On the big tree in your living room, you may not want your little ones to help with it till they get older. With this in mind you can have a few ornaments that they can put on your tree near the bottom that can’t be broken.
- Make Christmas crafts to use for decoration around the house. Let your kids help decorate the house with you. To emphasize as I said before you can upcycle materials you have at home to save money.
- Put out a Nativity scene. It’s great to have a kid nativity set as well so kids can play with it without getting in trouble or breaking your nice set. Kids can have fun playing with it and reenacting Mary and Joseph’s journey and the birth of Jesus.
- Make Christmas cards to send out. If doing photo cards or store-bought cards let your kids help in putting on the stamps, putting cards in envelopes, and sealing them. If they can write, then let them help address the envelopes.
- Decorate aprons to use when making yummy items.
- Create yummy dessert items. Test out some fun candy, cookie, or other yummy items to make for Christmas Day. You can do this several times during the month as the kids will enjoy helping you make and eat them.
- Make eggnog or spiced cider to enjoy.
- Christmas Movie night each week. Let your family take turns choosing a Christmas movie to watch. Have yummy hot cocoa and popcorn as an additional treat.
- Make homemade gifts for family members or friends. If you are trying to stay on a budget, then make some of your gifts. Maybe have a rule that siblings must make a gift for each other and for their parents. No spending money at the store for bought gifts.
- Wrapping party with family or friends. Everyone can bring over some rolls of wrapping paper, bags, tissues, ribbons, and bows. You can listen to Christmas songs and enjoy time spent with family/friends while getting your gifts wrapped. This is fun to do with kids or without if you are wrapping their gifts. Combine it with some wine for adults or make some of your cider or eggnog for the wrapping party. Have others bring a snack to share.
- Have a Christmas karaoke night. Put together a playlist of Christmas songs and take turns singing them. Or sing them all as a family. Dance around and have fun together.
- Hot Cocoa night – by the fire inside the house or in the backyard at a fire pit. Could also roast marshmallows that you eat on your own or put into your hot cocoa. Making smores is always a big hit and goes well with a cup of hot cocoa.
- Make a family Christmas wreath.
- Put together a Christmas puzzle as a family. Listen to Christmas music as you do it.
- Buy Christmas coloring books or print off Christmas pages to color. Sit and color together while singing Christmas songs.
- Write letters to Santa.
- Take a walk around your house and look at the lights outside.
- Have a turn-on-the-lights party at your house with your kids. Don’t turn on the outside lights or tree lights till you have this party. The kids will have fun and be excited.
- Make and decorate gingerbread houses. Have a competition if you want. Or just gather some friends/family for a fun time to decorate and make the houses together.
- Buy or Make advent calendars. Kids have fun opening a door each day. It also helps kids to understand and see how many more days till Christmas. I found a wooden house at the store where I could buy my own candy and stuff inside each door. That way I could change items for each day.
- Make and decorate Christmas sugar cookies. I don’t think my kids could have missed a year without doing those till they became teenagers, that is.
- Play Christmas games together. You can play Christmas trivia, Christmas bingo, Christmas pictionary, Christmas saran wrap game, pin the nose on Rudolph, or any other you come up with.
As you can see the Christmas to do list can be endless. I’m sure you can come up with some of your own ideas or expand on the ones I’ve listed also. Additionally you and your family can have a great bonding experience doing all those fun activities.
Christmas to do list: Items to do in the community/outside of your house.
- Go to your town/city’s Annual lighting of the Christmas tree. Most places have this but if yours doesn’t go to a nearby city that does.
- Parade of Lights. Look into your area and find a parade of lights to go to. My kids always had fun at those and enjoyed experiencing a parade at night. Moreover seeing Santa on a float is a big plus.
- Shopping. Go to a city’s square or downtown area where they usually have it all lit up and festive for the holiday season. In addition they may have other fun activities there for kids.
- Train ride. Watch the polar express at home and then take your kids on a train ride. Especially if you have a train near you that offers a Polar Express experience, then that would most definitely be fun.
- Ice skating. Find an outdoor or indoor ice-skating rink and have fun as a family.
- Tree farm. Take your family to a tree farm. It can be fun to just look around and enjoy the fun atmosphere or buy a real tree there.
- Sleigh ride or horse-drawn buggy ride. This is fun especially on a chilly night with a blanket to keep warm.
- PJ and hot cocoa drive in neighborhoods around you to look at lights. This was a family tradition of ours as we all loved to do this together. As the kids got older it wasn’t as exciting, so it became a game of ours. To demonstrate we would take turns calling out a Christmas decoration like a nutcracker, angel, Santa, penguin, or other items to find. When that item was found it was the next person’s turn. In addition if your family likes matching Christmas pajamas you can all wear those out.
- Drive through a big light display. Usually, these types of displays cost money. With this in mind, plan to budget money for it or just do neighborhoods if you don’t want to pay. Additionally you can find lists of neighborhoods in the area that do lots of decorations. Just look online and see where the closest place is.
- Visit Santa and get pictures taken. At a local mall or other place.
- Do volunteer work as a family. Teach your kids about giving and helping others.
- Take your kids shopping for a toy to donate for a toy drive.
- Go to a choir or band concert playing Christmas music.
- The Nutcracker or a symphony is always a nice opportunity. Although those will cost you so plan ahead and budget for it.
- Go see a live Nativity scene. Those are fun for kids. Not to mention if they have live animals.
There are so many great opportunities to celebrate Christmas and get into the festive spirit that is free. Check your local city for the activities they offer. Look into other surrounding cities or towns as well.
I hope you use some of these Christmas to do list ideas and have a very festive and wonderful December as you and your kids are looking forward to Christmas.
Part of the Christmas magic is building up that intensity of fun and ways to celebrate Christmas. With this in mind make this Christmas extra special by spending a lot of quality time with your kids and doing these activities together as a family.
Last but not least if you don’t know what to do on Christmas day, then use some of these items. Some of these items on the list would be great to do on Christmas Day too. So, plan out your month and realize that many of these would be fun to do multiple times throughout the month.
Most important have a very merry Christmas with your loved ones!