Christmas Activities for Kids at Home: Simple Holiday Fun

Christmas activities for kids at home can be simple: a few printed pages, crayons and a clear spot at the table. Here are a few ways to make room for Christmas creativity while you get ready for the holidays.

Christmas preparations tend to arrive all at once. There are presents to wrap, food to organize and small people who would quite reasonably like to know when the fun starts.

If the grown-up lists need a home, too, our Christmas Planning System brings seasonal planning together. A little activity station can help make room for both. It does not need a craft-store haul or an elaborate schedule. A few printed pages, crayons and a clear spot at the table are enough to get started.

Set up a small Christmas coloring station

1. Choose two or three pages.
2. Put them in a shallow tray with crayons or colored pencils.
3. Bring out a new page later when everyone is ready for something different.

Offering a smaller selection makes it easier to begin.

Use a surface where you can keep an eye on younger children while you work. If markers are the favorite choice, put a spare sheet underneath to protect the table. Keep messy supplies for a time when you can join in.

Let children choose their own colors. Santa's coat can be purple, the snowman can have a rainbow scarf and the gingerbread house can be every color in the box. The point is to enjoy making something.

Mix coloring with a small puzzle

Some children want to color a whole scene. Others would rather solve something first. A simple maze, picture-matching activity or counting page gives them a different way into the same festive theme.

For younger children, read the instruction aloud and try the first step together. They do not need to complete every page, work in order or treat the answer key as a scorecard. It is there to help a grown-up when someone asks whether two mittens match.

Give the kids' table a festive job

A printable activity placemat makes a Christmas place setting feel welcoming before the food arrives. Put one at each child's seat with a few crayons, and leave enough table space for plates and drinks.

Our Christmas Table Fun placemat combines coloring, a mini maze, counting, tic-tac-toe and a drawing space. Christmas Eve Color & Create leaves room to decorate an ornament, design a stocking and create a festive wreath. Both print on ordinary Letter or A4 paper.

Placemats can also be useful during a quiet afternoon at home. They do not need to wait for a big gathering. For another small creative activity, try the color-your-own edition of our printable Christmas gift tags.

Print what you need, when you need it

Before printing a whole pack, choose the correct paper-size file and try one page. Use single-sided printing and automatic orientation if the file contains both portrait pages and landscape placemats. If your printer clips an edge, use its Fit to printable area setting.

Keep the PDF so you can print a favorite page again for your household or classroom within the product's permitted use. You can skip the cover, save the answer key for yourself and build a smaller collection for a particular afternoon.

Make a merry moment for yourself

You can join in, too. The separate Grown-up Guides include three more detailed coloring scenes after the puzzle solutions: The Nutcracker Dreamland, Poinsettias & Pinecones and Cozy Nights by the Fire. Pick a scene, put out your favorite pencils and enjoy a little companion coloring while the children work on their own pages. Each grown-up scene has more detailed patterns and smaller areas than the children's versions.

Simple Christmas activities for kids at home

Merry Little Christmas includes 12 whimsical coloring scenes, six activities and two landscape placemats, with matching Letter and A4 books, grown-up answer keys and a Quick Start. The children's pages are suggested for ages 4-8, with adult help as needed. The three bonus grown-up coloring scenes are included in the separate guides.

The cover and support pages are extras; the pack's 20-page activity count refers to the usable coloring, puzzle and placemat pages. All files are printable PDFs, and physical supplies are not included.

Some days, that is all the plan needs to be: pick a page, put out the crayons and let everyone make a little Christmas of their own.