12 Festive Christmas Activities for Preschoolers you can do at Ho-Ho-Home
Christmas is a special time of year for families. It’s a chance to spend quality time together.
While Christmas for adults might be spent at the dining table having a few laughs and drinks, for the little ones, there needs to be something a bit more child-friendly.
Kids don’t want to get stuck in boring conversations, they want to have fun! That means you need to think of some fun activities to keep them engaged.
To help you, we’ve listed 12 festive Christmas activities for preschoolers – and you can do them all at home!
What are Festive Christmas Activities?
Festive Christmas activities are fun little exercises that you can do with your kids to get them in the Christmas spirit. Part of the magic of having children is times like Christmas where you get to be creative. Every little part of the Christmas mythology will excite and surprise them, and you shape what Christmas means to them.
1. Lego Ornaments
Most kids are going to have lego laying around the place; just ask your bare feet when you get up for a glass of water at night!
But other than being little booby traps, lego can also be a great DIY tree ornament idea. Help your child use red and green pieces of lego to build shapes like trees, presents or a sleigh. Then, when they are done all you need to do is tie some string around them and hang them on a tree.
2. Star Ornaments
In the same vein as lego ornaments, another super easy ornament to create is Christmas stars. Get some paddlepop sticks, some glue, and some paint, and get creative. Your child will love making a mess, just make sure to keep their red and green hands off the carpet!
If your child is particularly artsy, try adding some sequins or glitter. They’ll shimmer when you turn the Christmas lights on and your child will be thrilled.
3. ‘Help’ Decorate the Christmas Tree
Putting up the Christmas tree is more of a whole family ritual, but it doubles as a great festive Christmas activity as well. Just don’t expect too much ‘help’. You’ll find kids will have more fun getting wrapped in tinsel or doing their best to kick the baubles all over the living room.
The thing is, the best part of decorating the Christmas tree isn’t how it looks, it’s spending time having fun with your family and creating memories. While your child might not understand everything that you’re doing, they will remember Christmas as a special time, and that’s the point.
4. Gingerbread House Kit
Gingerbread house kits are a great way to make your festive Christmas activities delicious without needing to actually cook.
These Big W ones are only $10, and they are incredibly easy to make. They come with premade icing and even have instructions! We don’t know how much use instructions will be though… Once your kids start putting the pieces together, things might not go according to plan!
5. Christmas Cards
One of the festive Christmas activities with the most mileage is making Christmas cards. Whether you send them to your friends and family or hang them around the house, they are easy to make in bulk and your kids will love them.
Simply get some blank cards, or even just cut a large sheet of paper or cardboard into squares. Then, get some paint and decorations and let your child go wild. Sure, they probably won’t look much like Santa or Rudolph, but as long as your kids have fun that’s all that matters.
6. Elf-on-the-Shelf
If you’re looking for an activity that is extremely low effort, but also really fun for you too, look no further than an elf-on-the-shelf! Elf-on-the-shelf toys are fast becoming a staple in family homes during the Christmas season.
The fun is that each night when your kids go to bed, you can move the elf to a new spot in the house. Your kids will think the cheeky elf comes alive at night and moves on its own, and you’ll have a lot of fun figuring out new places to put it and waiting for their reaction.
7. Letter to Santa
Ol’ faithful – the letter to santa. This has been a fun festive Christmas activity forever… and it’s obvious why. Nothing is more special to your child than thinking that they have a direct line of communication to Santa Claus himself!
Sit down at the start of December and ask your child what they’d like from Santa this year. Make a show of writing it down and even take them to your mailbox and ‘post it’ together. There’s no better feeling than watching your kids excitedly open their ‘Santa’ presents and find exactly what they wanted.
8. Get the Grinch!
If your children are slightly older and have seen the 1999 Christmas classic ‘The Grinch’, this game is perfect. Blow up a green balloon and carefully draw a grinch face on it. Then tell your kids to…get the grinch!
They’ll have a great time throwing and kicking the balloon around, and if they do accidentally pop it, no big deal. That’s one grinch down, and since balloons are cheap, there can be many more where he came from if they still want to play.
9. Playdough Shapes
Playdough is incredible for fine motor skill development, but it also doubles as a great festive Christmas activity. It’s also really easy to make your own playdough at home.
Try getting your child to make reindeer, Christmas trees or even Santa himself using playdough. Bonus points if you get red and green coloured playdough to be extra festive. Another perk of this activity is how easy it is to clean up. All you have to do is take it out of the box and pack it up when they’re done!
10. Candy Cane Fishing
Candy cane fishing sounds like a weird thing to do, but it makes sense when you think about it – trust us!
Candy canes are naturally hook shaped, so if you tie some string to the long end of a candy cane, your child can use the string and candy cane hook to ‘fish’ for other candy canes on the ground or in a container. You can even give them a Santa hat or a stocking to stash their hard earned haul.
11. Santa’s Little Helper
If you’ve got a large family, wrapping all the presents for Christmas can take ages. So you might want to include your child as a little helper. Disclaimer – they might make you laugh, but they probably won’t be much ‘help.’
Whether they help you hold the paper or they simply delight in tearing it, one thing’s for certain; it will be a lot more entertaining than wrapping presents by yourself.
12. Christmas Ice Poles
If every Christmas of your childhood was spent in sweltering heat while you had to eat a traditional English lunch – you’re definitely Australian! But the good news is, you can turn eating some weather appropriate treats into a fun festive Christmas activity.
On Christmas Eve, using food colouring, or different coloured soft drinks, get your kids to help you make Christmas coloured ice poles. Moulds for setting them are cheap, like these $2.25 ones from Kmart. Not only will it be a fun activity for them to complete, but it will also be a nice, cool surprise on Christmas day.
Have You Considered a Childcare Centre
At Little Miracles, we specialise in creating all different kinds of activities and games to keep your children engaged.
We frequently try different themes, including festive Christmas activities, to keep kids interested and their minds challenged.
If you’d like to learn more about Little Miracles childcare centres, visit our website.
We have preschool centres throughout NSW, explore our centres below:
To enquire about child care centre vacancies, visit our contact page.
