Family Christmas Activities: 20 Ideas by Age, Time and Cost
The family Christmas activities that work for every age and cost almost nothing are decorating the tree together, decorating cookies, making an Advent calendar, cooking Christmas Eve dinner as a team, a game night and camping out in the living room on Christmas Eve. Pick 5 to 8 and do one or two a week, from the start of Advent (Sunday, November 29, 2026) through Christmas Eve dinner on Thursday, December 24.
Nobody has to get through all 20. Anyone who has tried to squeeze everything into December knows the kids remember the afternoon of cookies with flour all over the floor far more than a perfect schedule. So treat the table below as a menu, not a to-do list.
Below are the 20 activities, each with a minimum age, how long it takes and what it costs. You’ll also find ideas for a warm-weather Christmas, a schedule built on the December 2026 calendar and a guide to adapting everything for babies, teens and grandparents.
20 family Christmas activities: minimum age, time and cost for each
The 20 family Christmas activities below work in any home. The table shows the age each one works from, how long it takes and roughly what it costs.
| Activity | Ages | Time | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Put up and decorate the tree together | 2+ | 2 hours | Free |
| 2. Decorate Christmas cookies | 3+ | 1.5 hours | Low |
| 3. Make an Advent calendar | 4+ | 2 hours | Low |
| 4. Movie marathon with a family vote | 4+ | 3 to 4 hours | Free |
| 5. Play dough or clay nativity scene | 4+ | 1.5 hours | Low |
| 6. Letters to Santa and to the family | 5+ | 40 minutes | Free |
| 7. At-home photo shoot | All ages | 1 hour | Free |
| 8. Secret Santa with a creative twist | 7+ | 1 hour for the exchange | Low |
| 9. Christmas Eve dinner made as a team | 6+ | The afternoon of the 24th | Medium |
| 10. Shared family playlist | 8+ | 30 minutes | Free |
| 11. Homemade treats to give away | 5+ | 2 hours | Low |
| 12. Cardboard box village | 6+ | 2 hours | Low |
| 13. Game night | 5+ | 2 hours | Free |
| 14. Charity project or senior center visit | 6+ | 2 hours | Low |
| 15. Christmas memory book | 4+ | 30 minutes per person | Low |
| 16. Homemade Christmas play | 5+ | 4 rehearsals of 20 minutes | Free |
| 17. Wreath and handmade ornaments | 5+ | 45 minutes | Low |
| 18. Living room campout on Christmas Eve | 3+ | One night | Free |
| 19. December photo challenge | 8+ | 5 minutes a day | Free |
| 20. Start a tradition all your own | All ages | A 20-minute chat | Free |
Free means you use what’s already at home. Low cost calls for simple ingredients or basic craft supplies. Medium cost is the holiday dinner, which is already part of your Christmas budget.
7 family Christmas activities that cost nothing
Free Christmas activities are often the ones that create the best memories, because all they take is time and attention. Seven of them work in any home:
- Letters to the family: besides the letter to Santa, everyone writes to another relative about what they admire in them and what they wish for them next year. Read them after dinner and keep them in a box to reread in years to come. For the Santa letter, see our letter to Santa ideas.
- Shared playlist: everyone adds 5 favorite Christmas songs, no judgment allowed. The list plays all through the holidays.
- Christmas play: the kids pick a story, use clothes from around the house as costumes and rehearse four times for 20 minutes. The show goes on the night of the 24th.
- Living room campout: on the night of the 24th, blankets and pillows become a fort by the tree. Turn off the Christmas lights before everyone falls asleep.
- Memory book: a hardcover notebook where each person fills in one page every Christmas, with the best moment of the year, a drawing or photo and a wish.
- Photo challenge: a list of 20 prompts (something red, a twinkling light, someone doing an impression of a character) and one photo a day in the family group chat.
- Grandparents’ stories: a family circle where the grandparents talk about Christmases long ago, with questions the kids prepare in advance.
Crafts and kitchen activities: give every age its own job
Christmas crafts give every age a different job and leave something real behind for the house. The trick is to divide up the steps before you start.
Tree, wreath and ornaments
Decorating the tree as a family takes about 2 hours. Hang the lights first and save the ornaments for the kids to hang last. For children under 3, use only plastic or felt ornaments. An idea that carries across the years is to buy or make one new ornament every Christmas, with the year written on it. If you’re still deciding on timing, here’s when to put up and take down the Christmas tree. For the front door, spend an afternoon on a homemade wreath, at about 45 minutes per wreath.
Cookies and treats
When decorating cookies, the little ones handle the cookie cutters and sprinkles, the older kids make the icing and the adults take care of the oven. Butter cookie dough needs 30 minutes in the fridge before you roll it out. Truffles and other homemade candies make great gifts for neighbors, packed in little boxes the kids decorate.
Play dough nativity scene
Homemade play dough takes 1 cup of all-purpose flour, 1/2 cup of salt, 1/2 cup of water and a few drops of food coloring. Each person shapes one figure, and the pieces air-dry over a few days, depending on how thick they are. The dough isn’t edible and is very salty, so keep it away from babies, dogs and cats. For placing the figures, see our guide on how to set up a nativity scene.
Advent calendar and cardboard village
Put the calendar together over the weekend of November 28 and 29 so the first window opens on December 1; you’ll find filler ideas in our DIY Advent calendar guide. The village uses milk cartons with cut-out windows and tracing paper inside. To light it up, choose LED string lights, which barely get warm, with a recognized safety certification such as UL or ETL. Our guide to choosing and using Christmas lights safely has the details.
Christmas activities for warm weather and a summer Christmas
If you spend Christmas somewhere warm, or in the Southern Hemisphere (Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and much of South America), where it falls in summer, many family activities work best outdoors, early in the morning or late in the afternoon. Six ideas for hot days:
- Christmas picnic in the backyard or a park, with seasonal fruit and cold sandwiches.
- Backyard movie night, with a white sheet stretched out as a screen or the TV on the porch.
- Homemade fruit popsicles with mango, watermelon or grapes blended and frozen in molds, made by the kids.
- An evening walk to see the lights around the neighborhood, once it has cooled down.
- Sprinkler or kiddie pool time in Santa hats, for the afternoon of the 25th.
- Christmas scavenger hunt with rhyming clues hidden around the house or yard.
On hot days, save the oven recipes for the coolest part of the day and keep water and sunscreen handy for outdoor activities.
4 Christmas activities that teach kids to think of others
Giving-back activities show kids that Christmas is also about caring for the people around us. They work best from age 6 up:
- Toy donation: each child picks out toys in good condition to donate and helps drop them off.
- Senior center visit: call at least 2 weeks ahead and ask what you’re allowed to bring, such as treats, cards or music.
- Cards for neighbors and building staff: hand-drawn and delivered the week of Christmas.
- Secret Santa with a creative twist: a gift that includes something handmade, an experience gift, or a gift of service, like cooking the favorite dinner of the person you drew. Our list of Secret Santa games has more ideas.
December 2026 schedule: one or two activities a week
Spreading your Christmas activities across the month keeps the last week from turning into a rush. This schedule uses the 2026 calendar, with Christmas on a Friday:
| Period | Dates | Suggested activities |
|---|---|---|
| Start of Advent | Sat, Nov 28 and Sun, Nov 29 | Decorate the tree and put together the Advent calendar |
| Week 1 | Nov 30 to Dec 6 | Playlist, letters to Santa, photo challenge starts on Dec 1 |
| Week 2 | Dec 7 to Dec 13 | Movie marathon on Friday, Dec 11; cookies and nativity scene over the weekend |
| Week 3 | Dec 14 to Dec 20 | Charity project, wreath, treats to give away, play rehearsals; Secret Santa on Saturday, Dec 19 |
| Home stretch | Dec 21 to Dec 23 | Photo shoot, cardboard village, dividing up the dinner tasks |
| Christmas Eve | Thu, Dec 24 | Team-made dinner, the play, reading the letters, living room campout |
| Christmas Day | Fri, Dec 25 | Memory book, picnic or sprinkler time |
| Epiphany | Wed, Jan 6, 2027 | Take down the tree together and store the letters in the box |
If you can, set aside a small amount early in the season for supplies for the low-cost activities, like flour, sprinkles, paper and glue.
From babies to grandparents: what each age can actually do
Family Christmas activities work when every generation has a role it can actually handle. A quick guide by age:
- Babies (0 to 2): lights, soft music and felt ornaments to touch. Nothing small or made of glass within reach.
- Kids ages 3 to 6: cookies, the play dough nativity, plastic ornaments on the tree and a letter to Santa dictated to an adult.
- Kids ages 7 to 12: the play, game night, the wreath, the cardboard village and simple dinner tasks, like the fruit salad.
- Teens: photos, the playlist, the photo challenge and picking the movies for the marathon.
- Adults and grandparents: running the kitchen, family recipes taught to the grandkids, stories of Christmases past and tasks that can be done sitting at the table.
One more idea: for the night of the 24th, have a few simple party games ready for the whole family to play after dinner.
The most common mistake is planning the activities around the kids and forgetting the person running the kitchen. If one adult ends up doing all the prep, swap a craft for something that needs no setup at all, like the playlist or the grandparents’ stories. Done is better than perfect.
May your December have fewer plans than last year and more of those afternoons nobody wants to end.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a Christmas activity last with young kids?
For kids ages 2 to 3, 20 to 30 minutes at a time. Longer activities, like decorating cookies, can be split into two parts on the same day.
How do you get teens involved in Christmas activities?
Put them in charge: let your teen pick the movies, build the playlist, photograph the family or referee the Secret Santa. Tasks with real responsibility work better than generic invitations.
How can you do Christmas activities with relatives who live far away?
Use video calls to decorate cookies at the same time, read the family letters or play charades. The photo challenge in the family group chat also includes anyone in another city.
How many Christmas activities should you do in December?
Five to eight activities are plenty, with one or two a week. A few activities done at a relaxed pace create more memories than a packed schedule that wears everyone out.