A Parents Guide for Simple and Magical Christmas Traditions and Activities with Kids
December can be such a magical and fun time for families with young kids. It can also be stressful and bring on extra stress and mom guilt. This guide is here to help you!
This guide will include:
I will include simple activities to do with your kids that focus on togetherness, bonding, and the real meaning of Christmas. I will also include some simple elf ideas for your home, with all included printables for free!
But before we get started...
First and foremost, what you are already doing is enough. Kids won't remember the presents they got, they will remember the traditions and the love and magic you already bring to your home. My favorite memories are decorating the Christmas tree together as a family, listening to Christmas music during the day, and taking drives to look at decorated houses. These activities were simple and didn't cost any money. And those are the things that left lasting impressions on me. I hope this guide is here to give you ideas (if you want them), but not make you feel you need to go above and beyond.
If you haven't already read about our family tradition, The 25 Days of Christmas, I would read that blog post first.
Every day this month, I'll be updating this blog post with what we do each day for our 25 Days of Christmas. I will also share our Elf ideas (and include any printables needed). Full transparency- our elves don't do elaborate set-ups and some days just move locations. But when I'm feeling adventurous, I'll add in some extra fun and magic! So mark this page and check back frequently this month!
December 1
Elf Idea: Our elves come and bring a Countdown to Christmas Craft Activity. This printable activity is where my kids glue a cotton ball on Santa's beard every day until Christmas. This is a fun visual for my younger kids who don't grasp time quite yet.
Grab your free Countdown to Christmas Craft Activity here!
25 Days of Christmas: Decorate the Christmas tree. We always play Christmas music and decorate our family tree together. Simple and Magical!
If you want our 25 Days of Christmas labels, download them for free on our 25 Days of Christmas blog post. I've included many activities we do every year and some blank labels as well.
December 2
Elf Idea: Our elves were walking our toy dog figures this morning! All you need for this idea is some pipe cleaners and animal figures. I wrapped one end of the pipe cleaner around the neck of each dog toy, and had the elves hold the other end of the pipe cleaner. For extra fun, I laid out some extra pipe cleaners and small toys for my kids to do this themselves. They loved it. My 7 year old daughter brought out her Barbies and had the Barbies walking the animals and my 4 year old son just had a blast wrapping and "trapping" the animals, then rescuing them.
25 Days of Christmas: Today's activity was setting up a snack station on our front porch for the delivery drivers. Our family talked about how hard delivery drivers work all year, but especially during this busy time of year. We picked out yummy snacks and drinks together and set up a little station with my printable. My kids are in charge of checking the station daily and refilling as necessary, and they always take this job really seriously.
Here's what the sign looks like:
You can grab the free printable for delivery drivers here.
December 3
Elf Idea: Our elves left out a fun game of Christmas memory. It was set up like they were playing. After the kids see the set-up, they can play with a sibling (or you can play together as a family). If your kid is too little to play Memory, you can have them try to find matches or hide the cards around the room and let them search for them.
Download your Christmas memory game here.
25 Days of Christmas: Today's activity is making our Christmas lists. I created this simple template that the kids can fill out (I write it out for my 4 year old).
Here's the Christmas list template if you want it!
December 4
Elf Idea: Our elves took the fun outside today. They were taped on a window from outside looking inside with painters tape. Inside, one of the elves had a drawing around the face and some dry erase markers were left for my kids to decorate the windows and the other elf with.
25 Days of Christmas: Today's activity was to pick out a new ornament. You can do this online or in the store. I remember when I became an adult and got my first Christmas tree and had basically no ornaments. I want to make sure my kids have a little collection. Each year, they get to pick one new ornament and it's fun to see what they choose every year.
December 5
Elf Idea: Our elves brought a giant coloring banner today from Friends Art Lab. Kristian's banners are the absolute best- we've been using them since 2020!
25 Days of Christmas: Family game night! This is a simple one that is always a favorite.
Here's the link again for the daily activity cards (including some blank ones).
December 6
Elf Idea: Our elves hid in a Magna-Tiles tower that I made. Magnetic tiles are our most played with toy in our home and have been for years, so it made sense to incorporate them into our elf shenanigans. While the kids can't touch the elves or their tower, they can create and build right next to them!
25 Days of Christmas: Read Christmas books. We do this all month long, but it's usually not together as a family. This is a dedicated time to sit together as a family and read a few favorite Christmas children's books. You can let each of your kids pick their favorite to read, or you can surprise them with a new book to read.
December 7
Elf Idea: Mom was out of town this night so Dad just had the elves riding reindeer decorations that we have.
25 Days of Christmas: Hot chocolate for the boys and Brooklyn and I got to go to a Christmas ballet show to see one of her friends.
December 8
Elf Idea: Full disclosure- we forgot to move our elves before this morning. It usually happens once a year (oops), but I need to keep it real with you all! We had a bunch of family visiting so we told the kids that the elves probably didn't move because there were too many people over and they seemed to buy it. Luckily, I had just purchased a baby elf that had been delivered and mid-day I snuck the baby to them. Once the baby was spotted, there was no more talk of the elves forgetting to move. HAHA. I forgot to take a picture this day, so I'll link the baby elf after tomorrow's picture.
25 Days of Christmas: Christmas music dance party. This is always a hit every year. All you do is turn on Christmas music and dance! It's so simple but it's definitely an activity that you know is creating core memories.
December 9
Elf Idea: We set up the elves like they were grocery shopping (thanks to my little elf supply kit I purchased via Amazon). Then the kids wanted to bring their play food out and play grocery store too! Here's a link to some of our favorite elf accessories, including the baby elf and the shopping card with play food seen here!
25 Days of Christmas: Drive around and look at Christmas lights. This is another favorite year after year. Sometimes we even do it twice a year! You can get in Christmas pajamas (optional) and/or bring hot cocoa for the road (optional), but always play Christmas music in the car while you drive around some neighborhoods and look at the lights!
December 10
Elf Idea: We set the elves out with a few little duck figures with Santa hats on. The elves also brought this little scavenger hunt activity: "Can You Find 30 Ducks?" My kids went crazy with this activity- it was such a hit! If you want to recreate this, you can grab the little ducks with Santa hats here, and you can download the printable below.
I've also included a blank printable that just asks if you can find 30 (so you can use whatever you have around the house). Ideas: Cheerios, pom poms, M & M's.
25 Days of Christmas: Picnic dinner by the Christmas tree. Kids think this is so fun. Pro tip- make something that is pretty easy to eat on the floor. Finger foods work the best!
December 11
Elf Idea: Our elves decided not to come today after all three of my kids had an extremely tough time with behavior. The elves wrote a note encouraging positive behavior. I honestly had never done this before but I was exhausted and tired and to be honest didn't want to put in the effort late at night after watching all three kids struggle with behavior. We had an early night to bed instead which was a nice reset!
25 Days of Christmas: Today's activity was for each child to shop for gifts for their siblings. Each kid picks one gift for each sibling. Yes- it's extra money and work for me, but it's so sweet and really powerful. My kids spend a decent amount of time really thinking about what their brother/sister would want, and I love to see what they each come up with. We do this online (I bring each kid to me for about 10 minutes). I prefer doing this in the store but it's hard logistically to find the time to take all 3 of my kids individually during the month.
December 12
Elf Idea: Our elves were riding Santa's sleigh (a home decoration we have). Nothing fancy- I wanted to keep it simple since they were returning after 1 day off.
25 Days of Christmas: Today's activity was to do a Christmas craft or activity. My kids convinced me that the activity should be to watch a Christmas movie, and since it was a cold and rainy day, it was the perfect thing to do! We made a little popcorn bar (popcorn, pretzels, gummy bears, mini marshmallows, and Unreal m & ms) and snuggled on the couch after school with the movie.
December 13
Elf Idea: The elves were sitting out with a plate full of toothpicks and mini marshmallows. On the plate it said, "Let's Build!" My kids made creations with the toothpicks and mini marshmallows. This fun STEM activity was simple and a hit!
25 Days of Christmas: Today's activity was to try a new restaurant. We went to fondue. It was fun trying something different as a family. We invited my parents to join us and it ended up being a 3 hour meal HAHA.
December 14
Elf Idea: The elves were taped up on the wall with a sign that said "Draw us a picture please!" They left paper and markers on the table below them, and my kids each took time to draw a picture to leave out for the elves to take that night.
25 Days of Christmas: Today's activity was to celebrate Christmas with my parents. They are spending Christmas with my sister in North Carolina, so we exchanged gifts and had dinner together.
December 15
Elf Idea: The elves and a bunch of toys were laying on the ground, each inside a sock (like a sleeping bag). I put a Post-It up that said "sleepover", then I left out some extra socks. My kids had so much fun playing with the socks and random other toy figures during the day.
25 Days of Christmas: We went to a Christmas brunch at our country club this morning. The kids got dressed up fancy and got to take pictures with elves and Santa.
December 16
Elf Idea: The elves were lazy today and just moved locations. It's all about balance! LOL.
25 Days of Christmas: We shared our yearly highs and lows as a family. We also talked about goals we had for the upcoming year.
December 17
Elf Idea: The elves made an outline of a tree with green painters tape on the ground and put out some toys. They were nearby with a sign saying "Let's line up the toys!"
25 Days of Christmas: We chose a few toys around the house to donate today.
December 18
Elf Idea: The elves brought a game today! Pin the Nose on the Reindeer! We taped up the printable (download here) on the wall. We gave our kids red pom poms with a glue dot attached to it (you could also use tape or you could place a sheet of clear contact paper on top of the printable to make the entire thing sticky). We put a mask on our kids and let them one at a time try to pin the nose on the reindeer! They loved this game.
25 Days of Christmas: We made Christmas bark as a fun and yummy dessert today. Here's the recipe (Halloween Bark)- we just changed out the Halloween toppings for Christmas-y ones! We used white chocolate chips, Christmas colored sprinkles, and candy cane small crushed pieces. YUM!
December 19
Elf Idea: The elves were each in different spots today. The first elf was easy to find with a sign saying "Let's play hide and seek". The other 2 elves were in trickier spots. This then prompted my kids to play hide and seek together.
25 Days of Christmas: We are doing a family painting night tonight. Here's a link to supplies we used! We first put all of our names in a hat and then picked names out one at a time. When your name was called you got to pick which canvas you wanted to paint. Then we played Christmas music and painted away. I used wrapping paper on the table as a placemat which actually worked great!
December 20
Elf Idea: The elves brought balloon tennis today! This is so simple and it gets the kids playing and moving. We blew up a few balloons and then made rackets by taping a craft stick to the back of a paper plate. It would have been better if I used thicker craft sticks, but I couldn't find them.
25 Days of Christmas: Today's activity was decorating a gingerbread house. We ended up doing this at a friend's house and it was so much fun. When I do this at home, I usually just hot glue graham crackers together for our house, but our friends bought adorable pre-made houses that were so cute and sturdy!
December 21
Elf Idea: The elves brought Wikki Stix and left a sign out saying "Help rescue the animals. Next to the elves were a handful of animal figurines, all wrapped in a Wikki Stix piece. If you haven't played with Wikki Stix before, they are essentially a non-toxic wax piece that looks like yarn- the perfect STEM sensory toy that you can reuse again and again.
25 Days of Christmas: Today's activity was to FaceTime or write a letter to a family member we wouldn't see on Christmas. My kids Face-Timed their cousin in North Carolina.
December 22
Elf Idea: The elves left out some chocolate Hanukkah coins with a sign saying "Let's learn about Hanukkah" today!
25 Days of Christmas: We went to a friend's Hanukkah party today where the kids tried latkes. We then went to our country club and had a Hanukkah dinner there with some family and friends. It was fun and special to learn more about a holiday that my kids don't celebrate.
December 23
Elf Idea: The elves had out some supplies for cookies (chocolate chips, flour, a whisk, etc.)
25 Days of Christmas: Bake cookies for Santa!
December 24
Elf Idea: Our elves don't do anything elaborate on the last day. I do have them leave this goodbye letter. You can download a copy of the hello/goodbye letters for your elf here.
25 Days of Christmas: Christmas Eve fun! We have family come over on Christmas Eve and we have a big family dinner.
I hope this blog post is helpful and gives you some ideas and resources for your home in the future. December sure feels like a lot of work for parents (because it is)- and I just want to tell you that you're doing amazing and you are making your child(ren)'s childhood so beautiful and magical! Keep up the great work. And most importantly, if you aren't doing all of this, that's okay too! Whatever you are doing is enough and you're a great parent!
XOXO,
Brittany
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