5 Christmas Family Activities That Aren’t Opening Presents or Eating Food

Have fun this holiday season with these five Christmas family activities that are not just opening presents or eating food! These are fun things to do with your family this Christmas!

---

Hi, I’m Carly!

When I was a kid, Christmas morning started at around 8 AM because my parents wouldn’t let us wake them up before then. My three sisters and I would run downstairs all at the same time to see what Santa brought us.

Then we would take turns opening the wrapped presents under the Christmas tree adorned in string lights and with Christmas lights. After that, we ate breakfast with the whole family.

Check out this awesome breakfast recipe for egg casserole!

Then…we all split up to look at our gifts and play with our new toys by ourselves.

We got together again for Christmas dinner, but the majority of the day was actually spent alone.

As we got older, and our gifts became clothes and makeup rather than toys, we got bored on Christmas Day.

Bored!

The best day of the year, and we didn’t know what to do during the holiday season. It was only a few years ago that we decided to remedy this.

Whether your family has big kids or little kids, Christmas (and other holidays) should be spent together! Not separate in the same room. So we came up with a few Christmas activities for kids that we could do as a whole family, like this Christmas treasure hunt or this list of G-rated Christmas movies for some good old holiday fun!

And if you’re looking for non-food Christmas ideas, check out this list of 50+ holiday cards and stocking stuffer ideas that aren’t candy.

---

5 Family Christmas Activities That Aren’t Opening Presents or Eating Food

Each team chooses a box or bag of goodies (don’t use something transparent) without looking inside to see the ingredients. The bags are full of two types of ingredients: shared, and unique.

The shared ingredients are general gingerbread house-making ingredients that every gingerbread house traditionally has (e.g. pretzels, candy canes, gum drops, etc.). The unique ingredients are different in each bag and could be challenging to use on a gingerbread house (e.g. lifesavers, M&M’s, chocolate syrup, gummy bears, etc.).

The catch is that you have to use some of each item in your bag. So once each team has their essential ingredients and their bag of ingredients, a theme is selected. Whatever the team builds has to pertain to this theme.

We have done Disney and living spaces. With Disney, one team made Pride Rock out of graham crackers. One made Rapunzel’s tower. When the theme was living spaces, one team made a cottage, and another a hotel.

Get creative! There are a million ways to adapt this fun activity to your family, like having your littles play with this gingerbread playdough recipe while the older kids and adults are building the gingerbread houses. And it’s SO MUCH FUN!

---

Treasure Hunt/Amazing Race

---

Make Packages/Kits to Give to Others

Christmas spirit is often about receiving, but it should be about giving to others.

If there is a family in need that you know of, get the kids in your family involved in making their Christmas awesome! Get presents for that family, or make them food and Christmas cookies to deliver. Let the kids get creative in deciding how best to serve that family as fun Christmas activities for kids.

If you don’t know of anyone who requires help, there are various programs that assign your family a child in need that you can buy presents for. This one can get really personalized; you could even work together to make a present for that child.

Another route is to get toys, toiletries, and clothing for various sizes and genders, and make a few gift boxes for children in need to donate to a charity. Some charities have Christmas programs that guide you in what to buy for children and families in need.

Your other family members can have a lot of fun building these packages together and making sure each one is equipped with all it requires. Take your family to deliver the packages as fun Christmas activities for kids so they can see the joy they bring to the receiver of these gifts.

Even if you just drop them off at the front desk of a charity, I’m sure someone will be grateful for the packages.

You can also make these blessings bags for the homeless and include hand warmers and blankets for cold winter nights.

---

Candy Cane Hunt

Easter traditions really got something right with the Easter Egg Hunt. Why not make it year-round with a Christmas Candy Cane Hunt for your holiday family activity?

Hide candy canes around your house, the soup kitchen, the backyard, the neighborhood, wherever! Then send all the participants off to find them.

You could even make it a competition: whoever finds the most wins a prize. This one is geared toward smaller kids, although I’d have fun hunting candy canes as a grown-up as well.

---

Act Out the Nativity

This is a great one no matter how many people are with you! All you really need is a Mary, a doll to play Baby Jesus, and a wise man bringing gifts.

If you have more people, add Joseph, more wise men, animals, and an innkeeper. You could even put an Angel Gabriel in there to tell Mary she is pregnant.

Let the kids choose their characters and put whatever twist on it, they want. It’s the most fun when the parents are the audience, and the kids tell the story as they know it.

Acting out the nativity is one of the favorite family fun Christmas activities for kids to do again and again.

After it’s been acted out, you can sit around and get to know one another better by asking these winter Would You Rather questions.

---

---