Christmas with children really is magical, but I don't think that magic has to come from expensive days out, elaborate activities or buying a new gift every day in December. The countdown to Christmas with children can be full of joy, but it doesn't need to be full of expense.
Some of the Christmas moments children enjoy most are actually the simplest ones: making something together at the kitchen table, going for a walk to look at Christmas lights, decorating a batch of cookies or turning an ordinary afternoon at home into something a little more festive.
If you're looking for easy Christmas activities for kids that are budget-friendly yet still magical, I've put together lots of ideas that are fun, affordable and, most importantly, realistic for busy families.
You'll find Christmas crafts, sensory play, outdoor activities, games and simple family traditions here. Many use things you probably already have at home, so you certainly don't need a huge Christmas activity budget to make December feel special.
Easy Christmas Activities for Kids
1. Make Christmas Playdough
Christmas play dough is one of those activities that can entertain children again and again throughout December.
Make a simple batch of homemade playdough and add cinnamon or ginger for a lovely festive scent. Put it out with cookie cutters, a rolling pin and a few child-safe Christmas decorations.
Children can make Christmas trees, snowmen, gingerbread people, presents or whatever else they can imagine.
Budget tip: You don't need a special Christmas playdough kit. Cookie cutters, buttons, ribbon scraps and things from your kitchen drawers work perfectly.
2. Go on a Christmas Lights Walk
This is completely free and has become one of my favorite types of Christmas activity.
Wrap everyone up, head outside after dark and walk around your neighborhood looking for Christmas lights.
You could make it into a Christmas lights scavenger hunt by seeing who can spot:
• Santa
• a reindeer
• a snowman
• candy canes
• a Christmas tree
• stars
• presents
• colorful lights
• an inflatable decoration
Add hot chocolate when you get home and you've turned an ordinary evening walk into a lovely little Christmas tradition.
3. Make Paper Snowflakes
Sometimes the old activities really are the best.
All you need is paper and scissors to make an entire collection of snowflakes for the windows. Older children can experiment with more complicated patterns while younger children can enjoy seeing what happens when their folded paper is opened.
Use ordinary printer paper, old paper bags or any spare paper you have rather than buying special craft supplies.
4. Create a Christmas Sensory Bin
Christmas sensory play doesn't need to be complicated.
Fill a shallow container with a base suitable for your child's age and add festive objects for scooping, sorting, filling and imaginative play.
You could use pom-poms, large bells, ribbon, pinecones, wooden decorations, scoops, cups and Christmas cookie cutters.
For toddlers and younger children, always choose materials that are age-appropriate and supervise closely, particularly where small objects are involved.
5. Make Salt Dough Christmas Ornaments
Salt dough ornaments are inexpensive to make and become lovely little keepsakes.
Make a basic salt dough using flour, salt and water. Roll it out and let the children cut out stars, Christmas trees, gingerbread people or other festive shapes.
Once they're completely dry, decorate them with paint or markers and add ribbon for hanging.
Write the child's name and year on the back before hanging them on the Christmas tree. Years from now, those imperfect little homemade ornaments may be the ones you treasure most.
6. Have a Christmas Movie Night at Home
You don't need to go anywhere for this one.
Let the kids choose a favorite Christmas movie, turn off the main lights, switch on the Christmas tree and bring blankets and pillows into the living room.
Popcorn and homemade hot chocolate make it feel like an occasion without costing much at all.
You could even make simple paper movie tickets beforehand and let the children "buy" their snacks with pretend money.
7. Make a Christmas Nature Tray
Head into the yard or go for a walk and collect interesting natural materials such as pinecones, fallen evergreen sprigs, twigs and leaves.
Arrange everything on a tray with magnifying glasses and let the children explore.
Older children could identify different plants, sketch what they've collected or use the materials to create Christmas decorations.
It's a lovely way to bring a little nature into your Christmas activities.
8. Make Your Own Christmas Wrapping Paper
Instead of buying another roll of wrapping paper, let the kids create their own.
Use brown packing paper, plain paper or even the inside of paper grocery bags.
Children can decorate it with paint, crayons, stamps, fingerprints, Christmas trees, stars and festive messages.
Grandparents especially tend to appreciate receiving a present wrapped in paper their grandchildren made themselves.
9. Have a Christmas Scavenger Hunt
Create a simple list of Christmas things for the children to find around the house, yard or neighborhood.
Try things such as:
• something red
• something sparkly
• something that smells like Christmas
• a star
• something green
• something beginning with S
• something that jingles
• something cozy
• something shaped like a circle
• something that reminds you of Christmas
For younger children, use pictures instead of written clues.
10. Build Santa's Workshop
Blocks suddenly become far more exciting when they're given a Christmas theme.
Challenge the children to build Santa's workshop using LEGO, DUPLO, wooden blocks, magnetic tiles or whatever construction toys you already own.
Can they make a workshop, sleigh, toy factory, reindeer stable or house for an elf?
There's no additional purchase required, and it's a brilliant screen-free Christmas activity for a rainy afternoon.
Christmas Crafts Using Things You Already Have
11. Make a Paper Christmas Chain
Cut old magazines, leftover wrapping paper or colored paper into strips and make a traditional paper chain.
Hang it across a window, doorway, child's bedroom or Christmas tree.
You can also turn it into a Christmas countdown by removing one link each day.
12. Make Pinecone Christmas Trees
Collect pinecones on a walk and turn them into tiny Christmas trees.
Children can paint them green or leave them natural before decorating them with tiny paper shapes, pom-poms or whatever craft supplies you already have.
A small cardboard star on top finishes them beautifully.
13. Create Cardboard Christmas Trees
Before putting cardboard boxes in the recycling, save a few pieces.
Cut simple Christmas tree shapes from the cardboard and let the kids decorate them using paint, crayons, stickers, yarn, paper scraps or natural materials.
14. Make Christmas Cards
Homemade Christmas cards are an easy way to turn craft time into something genuinely useful.
Use folded cardstock, recycled packaging or plain paper and let the children make cards for grandparents, teachers, neighbors and friends.
Don't worry about making them Pinterest-perfect. Children's own drawings and handwriting are what make them special.
15. Make Twig Christmas Trees
Collect several fallen twigs in different lengths and arrange them from shortest to longest to form a Christmas tree shape.
Tie or glue them together, then decorate with string, ribbon or tiny homemade ornaments.
This makes a particularly lovely natural Christmas decoration.
16. Create a Christmas Collage
Put out old Christmas cards, scraps of wrapping paper, ribbons, catalogs and other materials that would otherwise be thrown away.
Add paper, child-safe scissors and glue and let the children create their own Christmas collage.
It's inexpensive, open-ended and a good way of using up Christmas odds and ends.
17. Make Toilet Paper Roll Christmas Characters
Save a few cardboard tubes and transform them into Santas, snowmen, reindeer, elves or Christmas trees.
Use whatever you have available: paint, markers, scrap paper, yarn or fabric offcuts.
18. Make a Handprint Christmas Keepsake
Use paint to create a handprint Christmas tree, reindeer or Santa picture.
Add the child's name, age and year.
It's a simple activity now, but it's also the sort of thing you'll love finding in the Christmas decoration box years later.
Fun Christmas Activities at Home
19. Have a Christmas Dance Party
Put on your favorite Christmas music and dance.
That's it.
No preparation, no supplies and no money required.
This is particularly useful when everyone has been stuck indoors and the kids need to burn off some energy.
20. Bake Christmas Cookies Together
You don't need complicated recipes or immaculate icing.
Use your favorite simple cookie recipe and let children help measure, stir, roll or decorate according to their age.
The activity is the important part, not whether the finished cookies would win a baking competition.
21. Have an Indoor Snowball Fight
Crumple sheets of scrap paper into "snowballs," divide the room in half and have a Christmas snowball fight.
When you're finished, challenge everyone to see who can collect the most snowballs.
Simple, slightly chaotic and usually hilarious.
22. Decorate a Cardboard Gingerbread House
If you don't fancy dealing with collapsing gingerbread and icing everywhere, make a pretend gingerbread house from a cardboard box.
Cut out doors and windows and let the children decorate it with paint, paper, crayons and homemade "candy."
A large box can even become a child-sized gingerbread house.
23. Set Up a Christmas Book Advent Calendar
Gather all your Christmas books and put them into a basket beside the tree to create your own Christmas book advent calendar.
Don't have many? Check your local thrift stores rather than buying 24 new books for December.
Number them (if you want to make it extra special you can wrap them with Christmas wrapping paper) and enjoy a Christmas story with your kids each night in the run up to Christmas.
24. Have a Christmas Picnic by the Tree
Dinner doesn't always have to happen at the table.
Lay a blanket beside the Christmas tree, make simple sandwiches and snacks, switch on the lights and have an indoor Christmas picnic.
Children often find a tiny change to the normal routine incredibly exciting.
25. Play Christmas Charades
Write simple Christmas words or characters on scraps of paper and take turns acting them out.
Ideas include Santa, reindeer, snowman, elf, Christmas tree, present, gingerbread man and decorating the tree.
For younger children, draw pictures on the cards.
26. Make a Christmas Obstacle Course
Use pillows, chairs, painter's tape and things you already own to create a festive indoor obstacle course.
Children might have to crawl through the "North Pole tunnel," jump over "snowdrifts," balance a present and deliver it to Santa.
It's a great way to add movement to an indoor December day.
Outdoor Christmas Activities for Kids
27. Go on a Winter Nature Hunt
Christmas activities don't all have to happen indoors.
Head outside and look for pinecones, evergreen leaves, interesting bark, animal tracks, berries, birds and different shaped twigs.
You can bring suitable fallen materials home for another nature craft afterwards.
28. Make Christmas Decorations for the Birds
Make your outdoor space festive for the birds too.
Depending on the wildlife in your area, children can help make simple bird-friendly hanging treats or help refill your usual bird feeders.
Then spend some time watching to see who visits.
29. Decorate an Outdoor Tree
Choose a small tree or shrub in your yard, or visit a local woodland area, and let the children decorate it.
Use weather-safe decorations you already own or make simple outdoor decorations together. Or, if you're visiting a woodland area, make sure to take your decorations home with you. It's still a lovely tradition to decorate a Christmas tree outdoors. We love decorating a woodland Christmas tree each year, it's become one of our favorite family Christmas traditions.
It gives children their own tree to be responsible for and brings some Christmas magic outside.
30. Have a Flashlight Christmas Hunt
Hide a few Christmas pictures or safe decorations around the yard and head outside with flashlights after dark to find them.
It's amazing how much more exciting an ordinary backyard becomes when children are allowed outside with flashlights at night.
Simple Christmas Activities for the Whole Family
31. Make a Family Christmas Bucket List
Sit down together and ask everyone to choose something they'd like to do before Christmas.
Keep it realistic.
Your list might include seeing Christmas lights, watching a favorite movie, baking cookies, making ornaments, having hot chocolate and going on a winter walk.
The goal isn't to cram December with activities. It's to choose a handful of Christmas bucket list activities that your family will genuinely enjoy.
32. Look Through Old Christmas Photos
Spend an evening looking through photos from previous Christmases.
Children love seeing themselves when they were younger, and it's a lovely opportunity to talk about family memories and traditions.
33. Make a Christmas Time Capsule
Ask each family member to draw or write down some of their favorite things from the year.
Include children's drawings, funny sayings, a family photo or a note about what everyone hopes to do next year.
Put everything in an envelope or box and open it next Christmas.
34. Start a Christmas Gratitude Chain
Cut scrap paper into strips.
Each day, everyone writes or draws something they're thankful for. Join the strips together to create a paper chain that grows throughout December.
By Christmas, you'll have both a decoration and a lovely record of little things that made your family happy.
35. Have a Family Christmas Games Night
Pull out games you already own and have a Christmas games night.
You can also play completely free games such as charades, Christmas I Spy, 20 Questions or "Would You Rather?"
Add Christmas music and snacks and it suddenly feels much more special than an ordinary games night.
36. Make a Hot Chocolate Station
You absolutely don't need to buy an elaborate hot chocolate bar setup.
Put out mugs, hot chocolate and whatever toppings you already have — marshmallows, whipped cream, chocolate chips or sprinkles.
Let everyone make their own creation.
37. Have a Christmas Pajama Morning
Choose a weekend morning when nobody needs to rush anywhere.
Stay in pajamas, make a favorite breakfast, put on Christmas music and simply enjoy being at home.
Christmas magic doesn't always need an itinerary.
How to Make Christmas Magical for Kids on a Budget
One of the easiest traps to fall into at Christmas is feeling as though we should constantly be doing more.
More presents. More outings. More elaborate activities. More decorations. More everything.
But creating a magical Christmas for children doesn't require doing an activity every day of December and it certainly doesn't require spending a fortune. Here are a few ideas on how to do Christmas as a budget, without missing the magic.
Choose a few things that fit naturally into your family's life.
Reuse craft materials. Borrow Christmas books from the library. Save cardboard and wrapping paper for activities. Make a Christmas Eve box. Go outside and enjoy the wintry nature. Bake something you were going to eat anyway. Look at neighborhood Christmas lights. Bring out toys your children already own and give their play a festive twist.
Most importantly, don't feel that every Christmas activity needs to produce something beautiful at the end.
Sometimes the activity can simply be playing together.
What Are the Best Christmas Activities for Kids?
The best Christmas activities are the ones your children actually enjoy and that don't leave you exhausted trying to create them.
For toddlers and preschoolers, simple sensory play, play dough, movement activities, Christmas books and open-ended crafts can work wonderfully.
Older children may enjoy baking, building challenges, scavenger hunts, Christmas games, nature activities and making decorations they can genuinely use.
And affordable Christmas activities such as Christmas lights walks, movie nights, baking, games and family traditions can work across a wide range of ages.
You don't need to do all 37 ideas on this list.
Pick five.
Or three.
Or just one that makes an otherwise ordinary December afternoon feel a little bit special.
Because when children look back on Christmas, I don't think they'll remember whether we managed to create the perfect December.
They'll remember the Christmas tree glowing in the dark room. The cookies that came out a little wonky. Running around outside with flashlights. Their handmade ornament hanging on the tree.
Those little moments are Christmas magic too.
