Fun Ideas To Make Christmas Special For Young Children

For young children, Christmas is a magical time of year. We all remember some of our Christmases from when we were little, and the festive season can be a great time to make some wonderful family memories. If you want to make Christmas extra special for your children, try some of these fun ideas for activities and magical fun and make Christmas exciting for more reasons than just presents. 

Ideas With Santa

For children, Santa is one of the most exciting people around. What could be more exciting than a magical man with a flying sleigh who brings presents? There are lots of fun ways to bring in Santa for more than just dropping off their presents. 

In the run-up to Christmas, perhaps you and your child could spend some time together learning about different traditions around Santa in different countries. This could be interesting and fun for both of you and a good way to start your children thinking about different cultures and different ways of life. 

Letters to Santa are a classic Christmas activity. Get your children to sit down and write a letter about what they want for Christmas, and explaining some ways that they have been good this year. This could be a good way to get them to think about their own behavior and some ways they could improve it. If they’re struggling, try this Am I On The Nice List quiz to help them understand where they could improve. When the letters are written, decorate them and send them off. 

For Christmas Eve, find an online tracker where can you see where Santa is in the world. These are hypnotizing for small children who will be amazed to see Santa traveling across the world. When he gets near to you, remind your children that Santa won’t come if they aren’t asleep, and send them off to bed. Layout a drink and some food for Santa and the reindeer together and hopefully, they’ll be ready to sleep so Santa will visit. 

Christmas Crafts

Craft projects can be great fun. Teach your children some simple, festive crafts like cutting out paper snowflakes or making paper chains are easy enough for young children, although they may need help with the scissors. Thread popcorn onto string to make garlands to hand around the house or string around the Christmas tree. If they make these decorations, help them to choose somewhere to put them up in the house so they can show off their handiwork to the rest of the family. 

Buy some craft supplies like nice card, pens, glitter and other fun things and get the children to make some Christmas cards for the family. Grandparents, in particular, will love a handmade card made by the children, and other family members are sure to love them too.

If you’re short on money for gifts this year, you could have the children make gifts for some members of the family. They could draw pictures, or decorate a picture frame for someone, or make some Christmas decorations to give as gifts. 

Christmas Traditions

Christmas traditions that you follow as a family are the things that your children will remember when they grow up and may even continue with their own children. There are lots of ways to bring in some fun traditions that would suit all budgets. 

On Christmas Eve, perhaps you could gift the family with new, cozy pajamas for them all to wear that night. Put on your pajamas and make some over the top, luxurious hot chocolates. Buy a good quality chocolate and pile them high with cream, marshmallows and sprinkles. Get cozy in the living room and choose a nice Christmas film to watch together. For the night, perhaps you could have a family slumber party. Bring the children into your bedroom and build a comfortable fort of pillows and sleeping bags for the kids to sleep in. You can still sleep in your bed, but the novelty will be exciting for the children and make Christmas Eve just as special as the big day itself. They’ll enjoy getting to spend more time with you, and sleeping somewhere that isn’t their own bed is always exciting for small children. 

For lots of people, the food is one of the most exciting parts of Christmas. Get the children involved in preparing some festive treats. You could bake cookies for Santa together, or make candy to give as gifts. Bake and build a gingerbread house for a cute challenge that your children will love and feel proud of. 

Encourage your children to think about other children who may be less fortunate than themselves. Find out if your children’s school or your local church is collecting gifts to donate and help your children to wrap and fill a shoebox with gifts for a child in need. You can do something good for someone else together and start teaching your children about charity. 

If your family is religious, go to a Christmas Eve candlelight service together. Your children can hear the Christmas story and learn more about the religious significance of a holiday that can seem to be all about gifts when you’re young. The candlelight is beautiful too, and the service can be a nice moment of quiet in the chaos of the festive season. 

Setting The Mood

When you’re ready to decorate the house, get the children involved, especially if they have made decorations like paper chains to put up. Decorate the house together. You could allow the kids to choose one new decoration each to put on the tree each year. 

Make a playlist of Christmas songs to listen to while you decorate. Sing along together, or take the time to tell your children about traditional decorations in other cultures, or the history of classic decorations like the Christmas tree. They can learn where some of their favorite traditions comes from and maybe even get ideas for other decorations you could put up at home. 

Early on in December, sit down as a family and talk out some Christmas activities you would all like to do. Let everyone pick something, including both parents. You could do things together like going ice skating, going to visit Santa somewhere local or taking a drive around the neighborhood to check out the Christmas lights on other people’s houses. 

Make a list of Christmas movies and watch a different one every night. The children can choose some, and so can you. You can use this to show your kids your favorite classic Christmas films, and they can pick the ones they love too to really get the whole family in the mood for the festive season. If everyone takes turns to choose, you can minimize arguments between family members about whether Christmas viewing should be something like Elf or an old classic like Meet Me In St Louis. 

Family Fun

Many of us get some time off work around Christmas, making it an ideal time to spend some time together as a family. Family activities are great fun, and a good way to make some precious memories. 

Have a family game night. Get out the board games and get competitive. For small children, choose one of their own games to play together but as they get older, you can try some more complicated board games like Monopoly or some fun tabletop games like Settlers of Catan. You could try Uno or Scrabble for some letter-based games or look out for festive themed board games in the shops. 

Christmas Morning

Forget a healthy breakfast on Christmas Day. Get up and make something that you wouldn’t allow too often the rest of the year, like chocolate chip pancakes, french toast or hot chocolate for breakfast. The adults can enjoy a glass of fizz to kick off the festivities. Put on some Christmas music and dance around the kitchen together before you head to open gifts. 

Think about how you want to manage gifts. Can everyone just tear in all at once? Do you want to open a few and then save the rest to open at intervals throughout the day? Perhaps the youngest child could play Santa and choose gifts from under the tree to hand out to different members of the family. 

Christmas time can be a wonderful excuse to spend some quality family time together and build some memories together that you and your children will treasure for years to come. The traditions you build while they’re young can be carried on as they age, and some may even survive until they’re adults and coming home to you for Christmas. When they grow up and have families of their own, you can start to share these special traditions with your grandchildren too, whether it’s writing a letter to Santa or the traditional Christmas family game night. Make Christmas special for the whole family, and make the festive season everyone’s favorite time of the year.