We've rounded up some of our favourite Christmas activities for kids to keep little hands and little minds busy. The list includes everything from sensory activities, such as holiday-themed playdough, slime, and sensory bags, to fine motor and gross motor activities to develop essential skills.
With 23 activities listed, you'll have enough to keep the kids busy until Christmas!
You might also like these lists of fun Christmas crafts and activities:
Fun Christmas Activities for Kids from Messy Little Monster
Edible Christmas Playdough
Your toddlers and preschoolers will absolutely love our Christmas Edible Playdough Recipe made with Marshmallow Peeps! You can keep it in an airtight container for up to a week. If it hardens, pop it into the microwave to soften it back up again. Decorate your playdough Christmas trees with candies to look like ornaments!
Fingerprint Counting Christmas Tree
Practice counting numbers 1-9 with our fun and festive Christmas Tree Fingerprint Counting Activity. If you don't want the messiness of fingerprints in paint, you can also do this activity with buttons, beads, sequins, or even cereal pieces.
Nativity Activity Pack
Our Nativity Activity Pack has all sorts of Christmas-themed activities for practicing fine motor skills. You'll find cutting practice printables, puzzles, tracing worksheets, and so much more! It's a great way to brush up on skills during the Christmas holiday or to have a bit of educational fun and quiet time together.
Christmas Countdown Calendar
Make a Christmas Countdown Calendar to keep track of the days until Christmas. This little project is a great way to keep Christ at the centre of your celebrations. Baby Jesus moves from the Star of Bethlehem, closer and closer to the manger as Christmas Day approaches. Kids will love it!
Grinch Playdough
Mr. Grinch is a mean one, but our Grinch Playdough Recipe is oh-so-nice! Make our homemade green and red playdough (or use store-bought), and provide a tray of accessories to decorate with, such as googly eyes, feathers, pipe cleaners, and more. You'll also want to provide some cookie cutters, a mini rolling pin, and other sensory play items to make the most of this squishy material.
Christmas Tic Tac Toe
Our Christmas Tic Tac Toe makes a wonderful and frugal homemade gift idea, but it's a terrific activity for a cold winter's day as well. Make a tic-tac-toe board with a wooden circle or wood slice, some rocks, paint, and glitter.
Free Christmas Worksheets
Have you seen our pack of Free Christmas Worksheets? They're perfect for use in the classroom or at home. The pack includes puzzles, word searches, tracing, memory games, colouring sheets, and loads more to keep those little minds sharp during the winter holidays.
Printable Paper Chains
Our Printable Christmas Paper Chains can be used to make some pretty decor for the holidays. You could also write an activity on the back of each paper strip to create an advent calendar of sorts.
Christmas Playdough Mats
Another idea for our homemade playdough recipes is these wonderful Christmas Playdough Mats that encourage kids to use their imaginations to decorate each mat. Make presents to fill up Santa's sleigh; build a snowman for the snow globe; make some ornaments to go on the tree. With six different mats to choose from, they'll keep your kids busy for hours. You can also check out more printable Christmas playdough mats in the Messy Little Monster shop.
Christmas Activity Placemats
Give little ones something to keep them entertained while you're finishing up Christmas dinner! These Christmas Activity Placemats include a word search, a maze, some tic-tac-toe boards, and a colouring activity. Don't forget to include a pack of crayons with each placemat.
Christmas Sensory Bottle
We can't leave out the babies! This Christmas Sensory Bottle is perfect for babies and toddlers. It has a nice calming effect and the Christmas colours used will fit right into the Christmas theme.
Christmas Countdown
Have fun everyday of advent with this collection of fun Christmas activities for kids. Our Christmas Countdown includes everything from easy crafts, to fun activities, printables and even some fun apps.
More Festive Christmas Activities for Toddlers, Preschoolers and Big Kids!
Contact Paper Christmas Tree
Won't your toddler love this Sticky Christmas Tree activity from Laughing Kids Learn? It's a fun way to use up some of your scrap ribbon, bows, pom poms, etc. Kids will love sticking their "ornaments" to the tree again and again.
Christmas Movement Activities
Help kids work their wiggles out with this fun list of Christmas Movement Activities from Natural Beach Living. With commands like march like a toy soldier, reach for the stars, and make a snow angel on the floor, they'll be giggling and wiggling in no time.
Christmas Tree Sensory Bottle
Sensory bottles are a fun way to calm down and relax after a busy day, especially during the holiday season. This Deconstructed Christmas Tree Sensory Bottle from The Chaos and The Clutter is absolutely gorgeous. It's full of green pom poms, plastic bulbs, beads, and stars, and really does look like pieces of a tree floating through the clear gel.
Christmas Scavenger Hunt
Kids of all ages will love going on a Christmas Scavenger Hunt. Play, Party, Plan has free printable kid-friendly clues that should work for most households. It's a terrific activity for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, or during the days leading up to the holiday. Lead the kids to a big present, their Christmas jammies, or a warm plate of cookies. It's up to you!
Reindeer Marble Run
Little ones will love this Christmas-themed version of a classic STEM activity! The Reindeer Marble Run from Happy Toddler Playtime will provide hours of fun, and it's so easy to set up. Save some paper towel tubs to make huge antlers for the marbles to roll through.
Edible Candy Cane Slime
Nothing says Christmas quite like the delicious smell and taste of peppermint. This Edible Candy Cane Slime from Soccer Mom Blog will be a big hit with the kids, and you'll love it, too. Make marshmallow slime, add peppermint extract and a little food colouring, and you're all set for some stretchy, smell-good fun.
Painting with Pine Boughs
Enjoy the sensory experience of pine branches with this creative activity from Stay at Home Educator. Painting with Pine Boughs lets kids explore the texture, scent, etc., of pine boughs while making a fun piece of art. You could also try this process with pine cones.
Peppermint Water Play
Kids will love playing in this Peppermint Water Christmas Bin from Fantastic Fun and Learning. Add peppermint candies and candy canes to water, mix, pour, splash, etc., and see what happens! The red water and peppermint smell are fun to explore. Will the candies still taste like peppermint after they've been in the water? Find out!
Christmas Tree Sensory Bag
Sensory bags are a fun way for babies, toddlers, and preschoolers to explore mess-free! This Christmas Sensory Bag from My Bored Toddler is simple. Babies and toddlers can touch and squish the bag, while older children will be able to move the elements around with their fingertips to decorate the tree.
Decorate a Tree Sensory Play
Fantastic Fun and Learning has come up with a fun holiday activity using split peas. The split peas are the perfect shade for a Christmas tree for this Decorate a Tree Sensory Play Activity. Then all you need are some buttons, pom poms, and holiday confetti to finish the decorating. You could also use green lentils in place of the split peas if you have those on hand.
Gingerbread Slime
What kid wouldn't love this stretchy, sticky Gingerbread Slime by Crayons and Cravings? It's borax-free, smells like Christmas, and is sure to get kids excited for the holiday. Put some in cute little jars for a fun homemade gift idea for kids.
Lego Christmas Tree
Build a Lego Christmas Tree! This is a fun project from Powerful Mothering for kids to do individually, in groups, or as a family. Build it on a baseplate, or build your Christmas tree in 3-D form from the ground up. You'll need lots of green blocks as well as several of each in different colours to make the ornaments. Lego fans will love this!
Yarn-Wrapped Christmas Tree
Practice fine motor skills and improve hand strength with these fun and festive Yarn-Wrapped Christmas Trees from I Heart Crafty Things. Make the tree frame with twigs or popsicle sticks. You could also make some yarn-wrapped ornaments, snowmen, etc., to keep up the fine motor practice.
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