Christmas activities for the whole family: 75 ideas and a free bucket list

The short answer: the best christmas activities are the ones your family actually gets to. This guide has 75 ideas sorted by type, plus a free printable bucket list.

• At home, out and about, giving back, and free and cheap
• By age: toddlers, kids 4–10, teens and adults
• Trim it to 15–20, put dates on it and leave empty nights
• Budget for the paid ones
• Next step: Get the free Christmas bucket list + December planner (we email it to you); want more? The Holiday Season Bundle is $15.99.

The best christmas activities are the ones your family actually gets to, not the 40 you meant to do. This guide has 75 ideas sorted by type: cozy at-home activities, outings, ways to give back, free and cheap ideas, and ideas for toddlers, teens and adults. There's also a free printable Christmas bucket list and a week-by-week planner, so you can pick your favorites and spread them across December.

Skip straight to the free bucket list if you want to print it now.

Christmas activities at home

1. Decorate the tree together, with one ornament chosen by each person.
2. Bake and decorate sugar cookies.
3. Build a gingerbread house (or a graham cracker one).
4. Christmas movie night in matching pajamas.
5. Make paper snowflakes for the windows.
6. Write letters to Santa.
7. Read a Christmas story by the tree each night.
8. Have a holiday PJ breakfast with pancakes.
9. Craft salt-dough ornaments. Our DIY ornaments guide has the salt dough steps.
10. Wrap gifts together while listening to carols.
11. Christmas carol karaoke.
12. Build a blanket fort and read holiday books inside.
13. Start a family Christmas puzzle.
14. Make a hot cocoa bar.
15. Write a family year-in-review letter.
16. Make homemade gift tags and cards.
17. String popcorn or paper chains.
18. Have a holiday board game night.
19. Do a Christmas-themed science experiment, like a baking soda "snow" volcano.
20. Make a family kindness calendar for December.

Christmas activities out and about

1. Drive or walk to see Christmas lights.
2. Visit a Christmas tree farm.
3. Go to a holiday concert, play or Nutcracker.
4. Go ice skating.
5. Go sledding or build a snowman.
6. Visit a Christmas market.
7. Ride a holiday train.
8. See a holiday parade.
9. Visit Santa.
10. Go to a tree lighting.
11. Tour a botanical garden or zoo light show.
12. Attend a candlelight or Christmas Eve service.
13. Go caroling in your neighborhood.
14. Take holiday photos somewhere festive.
15. Have hot chocolate at a local café.

Christmas activities that give back

1. Donate toys, coats or books.
2. Bake treats for neighbors.
3. Write cards for seniors, hospital patients or troops.
4. Volunteer as a family at a food pantry.
5. Leave snacks for delivery drivers.
6. Shovel a neighbor's driveway.
7. Adopt a family through a local giving program.
8. Collect food for a food drive.
9. Thank teachers, coaches and bus drivers.
10. Fill a stocking for someone in need.

Free and cheap Christmas activities

Rainy-day ideas that cost only printer ink: our free Christmas coloring pages, a free Christmas word search and a family round of Christmas trivia with 50 questions and answers. For a laugh, fill in a few Christmas Mad Libs together.

Add a printable Christmas crossword to the list: three free puzzles with answer keys, from an easy grid to one on Christmas movies and stories.

Many of these pair well with cheap family Christmas traditions that you can repeat every year.

Christmas activities by age

Toddlers: sticker ornaments, a soft unbreakable ornament set, short stroller light walks, holiday songs with shakers, and ripping practice wrapping paper.

Kids 4–10: cookie decorating, a gingerbread house, a scavenger hunt, letters to Santa, advent calendar ideas and nightly elf on the shelf ideas. For more on this topic, see our Christmas traditions and activities.

Teens: a holiday baking challenge, a movie marathon they pick, volunteering, ice skating with friends, and planning one family outing themselves.

Adults: a cookie or ornament swap, a Christmas market, a holiday concert, a white elephant exchange, and a quiet night with cocoa and a good book.

How to plan your Christmas bucket list

1. Brainstorm together. Let every family member add two ideas to the list.
2. Trim it to 15–20. A shorter Christmas bucket list feels doable instead of like homework.
3. Put dates on it. One or two activities per week is plenty; big outings go on weekends.
4. Count the countdown. Our holiday countdown planner shows how many weekends you really have left. It also shows how many days until Christmas and lists the Mondays left.
5. Budget for the paid ones. Tickets, skating and tree farms add up. Add them to the Christmas budget calculator with gifts and food.
6. Leave empty nights. Rest is part of a good December too.

When the decorations come down, keep going with a winter bucket list for January and February. If you want to bundle an evening activity with a small gift, use these Christmas Eve box ideas to set a limit before buying supplies.

Keep holiday activities safe

A few simple habits keep festive activities safe. The Consumer Product Safety Commission's holiday safety center says to water live Christmas trees, never leave candles unattended and keep burning candles away from flammable items. The NFPA's winter holiday safety page adds that a heat source too close to the tree causes nearly one in four home Christmas tree fires. For sledding, skating and light walks in the cold, dress in layers and check conditions using Ready.gov's winter weather guidance.

Make Christmas activities into traditions

The activities kids remember are usually the ones that repeat. After December, look back at your bucket list and circle the two or three everyone loved most. Those become next year's traditions, so the list gets easier to plan each year. Write down a favorite memory or two on the planner page and keep it with your holiday decorations; reading old lists aloud is a lovely activity in itself. If something felt stressful or too expensive, drop it without guilt and replace it with a free idea from this page.

Plan the whole season in one place

The Holiday Season Bundle ($15.99) includes the Christmas budget and gift planner, a sinking funds tracker so next December is already covered, a meal planner for hosting, the 100 envelope savings challenge and a bill tracker. If you just need gifts and spending, the Christmas Budget & Gift Planner ($4.99) keeps your gift list, spending limits and holiday calendar together. Planning the big meal too? See our Christmas dinner menu planner.

For hands-on projects, see our Christmas crafts for kids, sorted by age with a supply list.

For a quieter December activity, mark the shortest day with these winter solstice traditions, and borrow a custom from our Christmas traditions around the world.