With so much going on over the festive period, it’s hard to imagine you’ll need any extra inspiration for Christmas activities for kids.

However, it’s a time when children can get over-excited and impatient, leaving busy parents searching for ways to generate some festive fun in between the milestone Christmas events.

To provide a little inspiration, here are our top Christmas activities for kids.

Christmas craft-ideas

Reindeer crafts

Famous for pulling Santa’s sleigh, reindeer are iconic at Christmas time. They’re also super-easy to make and can be made from anything from toilet rolls and clothes pegs to cardboard and wool!

Make a cute herd of your own by creating your own reindeer figures from cardboard or paper plates.

Create your chosen reindeer shape then adorn it with twig antlers, red pom pom noses and googly eyes. Draw or paint on a jazzy festive jumper or embellish with tinsel and glitter for extra sparkle.

Attach a ribbon loop to the top and kids can hang them on the Christmas tree!

Make a festive wreath

Festive wreath-making surged in popularity during lockdown and it continues to be a brilliant way to get creative and make use of natural materials at your disposal.

While it can be a little fiddly (and grown-ups may need to help with using scissors!) it’s one of the most creative Christmas activities for kids – plus it’s excellent for the development of fine motor skills!

To make your own traditional festive wreath decoration you’ll need:

• Sturdy, attractive ribbon
• A ring base
• A variety of foliage
• Binding wire
• Sharp scissors
• Other decorations such as baubles, stars, twinkling Christmas lights, feathers or dried fruit

Start by gathering your materials. Scour the garden or local park and cut medium-sized lengths of materials such as holly, pine, yew branches, bay, ivy, pine cones or rosemary.

Next, you’ll need a ring to form the base. These can be shop-bought in the form of a wire ring, a moss-padded ring or a foam wreath ring. Alternatively, you can form your own base by winding branches of cedar, willow or birch to form a circle, and securing them in place.

Start by covering the ring with the evergreen foliage and tie it in place with binding wire. You’ll need to continuously layer the ring with the different foliage, building it up as you go. Keep going until the ring is totally hidden from sight.

Next, begin to attach decorations of your choice. These can be bound to the frame with the binding wire or slotted in amongst the base foliage.

Ensure that all decorations are securely attached then finish with an attractive festive ribbon. Finally, attach it to your front door and enjoy it throughout the holiday season!

A festive wreath’s not only fun to make but kids enjoy an enormous sense of achievement having made their own traditional festive decorations.

Make Christmas decorations from holiday cards

Put last year’s holiday cards to good use by making some attractive decorations to put up around the house. Cut out your favourite designs and thread them onto a line of string to make festive garlands or bunting.

You can make your own gift tags in a similar way – select your favourite pictures from each holiday card, cut them out and punch a hole in one corner. Thread ribbon through the hole and you’ve made your own homemade tags! Perfect for those who like to recycle or make home-crafted personalised touches.

Giving or helping others

Local toy drive

With the cost of living crisis, many families face a scaled-back Christmas. This will have a huge impact on kids who may wake up on Christmas morning with no or very few gifts.

Charities such as The Salvation Army and Family Action welcome toy donations from the general public and make sure all gifts are given to children and families in need. Set a budget (it doesn’t need to be extravagant) then head out Christmas shopping with your kids to let them select some gifts to donate.

Doing thoughtful Christmas activities like this will teach your children an important lesson about kindness, sharing and helping those in need.

Donate to your local food bank

Some food banks organise a festive initiative called a reverse advent calendar – the idea being that in the run-up to Christmas each day you pop a different food item into a box until you have a box full of donations to give to your local food back at the end of the month.

Tinned and non-perishable goods are generally preferred but contact your local food bank for more details of items in need.

Money-saving Christmas activities for kids

Decorate your own Christmas jumper

Christmas jumpers have exploded in popularity in recent years but it can be an expensive commitment having to buy new jumpers as your kids outgrow the old ones!

A cheaper alternative is to have a family competition to decorate your own plain jumpers (which are often a fraction of the price). Or, better still, give old garments a new lease of life by recycling unwanted tops or jumpers.

Using basic sewing or glueing techniques, family members can adorn their jumper with any Christmas craft accessories they can find! Ribbons, tinsel, stars, pom poms, pine cones, a popcorn garland or mini candy canes all make great accessories.

Award a trophy for the most creative jumper!

Walk in a winter wonderland

You don’t have to buy expensive tickets to festive events to feel the Christmas spirit.

Our own neighbourhoods and local communities are usually transformed into a winter wonderland with decorations, Christmas trees and Christmas lights in abundance.

A Christmas eve or Christmas day walk is a family tradition for lots of people, so make it a magical journey, wrap up warm and enjoy the festive spirit. You might like to sing a Christmas carol or two along the way!

Make holiday cards

Holiday cards can be expensive to buy and some look rather generic.

To save money and create something beautifully bespoke, why not task your kids with making their own Christmas cards? All you need is a selection of coloured card, paint and pens. Festive decorations can be added, along with glitter and stickers to make them especially eye-catching.

They might take slightly longer to produce but they’ll be cherished by all who receive them!

Keeping active!

Join a fun and festive Christmas holiday camp

Excited children can burn off some energy at a Christmas holiday camp.

Camps usually run for selected days of the Christmas break (closed Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day), and guarantee festive fun!

At Premier Education, our Christmas camps are packed with exciting festive-themed activities such as Christmas pudding netball, fly the sleigh volleyball and warm and toasty tennis!

In attending a holiday camp, children participate in social activities and stay physically active which improves physical health, enhances communication skills and has a positive impact on mental health.

Holiday camps are especially helpful for working parents, offering an active and fun alternative to childcare during the holiday season.

Go ice skating

Kids love ice skating. It’s a great way to get into the Christmas spirit as well as being brilliant for physical literacy.

Ice skating improves posture, flexibility and balance plus enhances muscle strength and boosts coordination.

It’s a tricky skill to master so it can take some practice and perseverance. But it also teaches resilience to hop back up if you fall over or lose balance, which, let’s face it, happens rather a lot in the beginning!

Follow your skating session with a steaming cup of hot cocoa or hot chocolate for an added festive treat.

Have a Christmas party

Make good use of the Christmas decorations when they are up and have a dance party with your family. Turn up the music and get moving to your favourite festive tunes!

Festive Food

Make (or simply decorate!) a gingerbread house

Making a gingerbread house is one of the most quintessentially festive Christmas activities!

It requires creativity and promotes family togetherness, especially if it becomes an annual Christmas tradition. Plus gingerbread houses make for beautiful (and delicious!) Christmas ornaments or gifts.

If you’re making your own house from scratch there are lots of recipes and tutorials online. You’ll be baking, constructing and decorating it yourself – just ensure you have a good edible glue mixture to stick the walls together (here’s a handy caramel gingerbread glue recipe) and allow plenty of time. The entire process can be a little time-consuming but is a lot of fun!

If you’re daunted by the prospect of making a gingerbread house from scratch there are excellent shop-bought kits which you decorate yourself. There are no rules – get creative and customise your design with all manner of festive paraphernalia from jelly tots and edible snow to a snowman, Santa or a candy cane!

Bake Christmas cookies

Whether in the shape of Christmas trees, stars or a snowman, Christmas cookies are a fun and creative way to make some tasty festive treats.

You don’t need especially fancy ingredients – simple vanilla cookies can be made from eggs, butter, plain flour, vanilla extract and icing sugar. Top with red, green and gold icing, glitter or sprinkle with crushed candy canes.

And, don’t forget some festive ribbon as they make beautiful edible Christmas tree decorations. Hang them up on your Christmas tree with pride!

Family traditions

Watch Christmas movies

From It’s a Wonderful Life to Elf, there are a host of popular Christmas movies which form firm family favourites at Christmas time.

For many, the Christmas season truly kicks off when the festive films appear on the tv!

Curl up in front of the Christmas tree and enjoy favourites such as:

• Santa Claus the Movie
• Home Alone
• The Snowman
• Miracle on 34th Street
• The Polar Express
• White Christmas

It’s one of those magical Christmas activities which the whole family can enjoy! Curl up with a bowl of popcorn or a hot chocolate and embrace the festive spirit!

Write letters to FATHER Christmas

Compiling festive ‘wish lists’ can be one of the early highlights of the festive season as kids excitedly browse toy shops and catalogues in search of their must-have gift ideas.

The next step? Tell Santa!

Sit down with the kids and help them to write their letters to Santa. It’s a great Christmas activity, especially if kids take the time to decorate their letters with festive doodles and designs.

Remember, if you’re sending via Royal Mail make sure letters reach Santa by 9th December to guarantee a reply!

Christmas activities for kids this holiday season

There’s so much fun to be had at Christmas time but it can be a stressful period for busy parents as they juggle work, Christmas preparations and planning.

Remember, if you want to arrange some festive fun for your kids – which keeps them active, gets them mixing with other children and gives them an opportunity to try new sports and activities – look no further than a Premier Education holiday camp. Camps are safe, exciting and run by specialists – plus they’re held at over 300 venues across the country, meaning that exhilarating and engaging active sessions are closer than you think.

Whatever you get up to this festive season we hope you have a very Merry Christmas!