24 Christmas Activities for Kids With Free Printables for the Long December Days

These christmas kids activities are built for the two weeks when school is out, someone needs to keep working, and the glitter has already been spilled once. Sixteen printable sheets cover the mornings, one a day if you like.

Eight no-prep ideas fill the gaps when the printer is out of ink or the mood calls for something messier. Print what you need, stack the sheets on the kitchen table, and let them get on with it.

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1. Colour by Number Christmas Tree

Each child gets their own sheet showing a large outlined Christmas tree divided into numbered sections. A colour key at the top tells them which crayon or felt-tip matches each number, and they work through the sections to reveal the finished tree. The image builds gradually, so the reward feels earned rather than obvious.

Print one sheet per child on plain paper. Standard crayons or markers work fine. A younger child who cannot yet read the numbers can match the numeral shapes, making this accessible from age three upward. Allow twenty to thirty minutes.

The most common snag is a child who colours over the section lines, which blurs the picture. Remind them beforehand to stay inside the lines, or simply let it go, the tree will still be recognisable and perfectly theirs.

2. The Craft Box With Card, Glue and Glitter

No printing needed for this one. Pull out a box of offcuts: card, tissue paper, foil scraps, stickers, ribbon ends, and let each child make a Christmas card or a small scene entirely from what is in front of them. The constraint forces creativity in a way that a blank sheet of white paper does not.

Set up a shallow tray under the work area to catch glitter and punched shapes. PVA glue in a small pot with a brush gives more control than a glue stick for layering materials. One session typically runs forty-five minutes before attention drifts.

If a child stalls at a blank card, suggest a category: make a card for someone who lives far away, or make a scene with at least one animal in it. A prompt beats a nudge every time.

3. Cut and Glue the Snowman

The sheet prints with all the snowman’s parts pre-drawn and labelled: three circles of different sizes, a hat, a scarf strip, two stick arms, carrot nose, and button shapes.

Children cut out each piece and glue them onto a second plain sheet or the reverse side of the printable to assemble a complete snowman. The cutting is the skill practice, the gluing is the payoff.

Print one sheet per child. A second plain sheet for the finished snowman background is useful but optional. Child-safe scissors and a glue stick are all that is needed. Realistic time is twenty to thirty-five minutes depending on age and cutting confidence.

Young children often struggle with the small button circles. Pre-cut those for under-fives and let them focus on the larger shapes. Older children can add their own pencil details to the finished snowman once it is stuck down.

4. Count the Baubles

A busy illustrated scene fills the sheet: strings of baubles draped across a fireplace, hanging from a tree, piled in a bowl. Children count each group of baubles and write their totals in the numbered boxes provided. Numbers go high enough to be a genuine challenge for five to seven year olds.

Print one sheet per child or use a single shared copy and have children record answers on a separate scrap of paper. A pencil is enough. This works well as a quiet independent task while a parent is on a call, since no explanation is needed once a child has seen the sheet.

If the totals feel too easy for an older child, ask them to add two groups together for a bonus total at the bottom of their paper. The sheet itself does not change, just the instruction.

5. Salt Dough Ornaments

No printing needed. Mix two cups of plain flour, one cup of salt, and roughly three-quarters of a cup of water into a dough, and children roll, cut and shape their own tree ornaments. Star cutters, round cutters, or freehand shapes all work. A drinking straw poked through the top makes the hanging hole before baking.

Bake at 120 degrees Celsius for two to three hours until fully hard. The actual hands-on time for the children is thirty to forty minutes. Once cooled, they can paint the ornaments with poster paint and finish with a clear varnish spray if they will hang on the tree.

Salt dough shrinks and distorts slightly in the oven if rolled too thick. Aim for about half a centimetre. Thicker pieces take longer and may crack. Write each child’s name on the back with a toothpick before baking so nobody argues about whose star is whose.

6. Trace the Candy Cane Lines

Each candy cane on the sheet is drawn as an outline only, with its curved stripes shown as dotted lines inside the shape. Children trace the curved stripes from top to bottom, practising pencil control on a curve. The candy cane shape keeps the task festive while the curved lines make it genuinely harder than straight tracing.

Print one per child. A standard pencil works best. Younger children can use a chunky crayon. The page holds six to eight candy canes in different orientations, so the child must rotate their pencil grip slightly for each one, which is the real fine-motor challenge. Allow fifteen to twenty-five minutes.

If a child finishes quickly, invite them to colour each candy cane in the classic red and white pattern. The outlines are already there, so it becomes a mini colouring page as a bonus round.

7. The Sensory Bin of Rice and Small Bells

No printing needed. Fill a deep plastic box or wide mixing bowl with uncooked white rice and bury ten to fifteen small jingle bells, a few wrapped sweets, some plastic holly shapes, and a handful of miniature ornaments under the surface. The task is to find every hidden object using only fingers, no scooping allowed.

Set the bin on a baking tray to catch spillage. One child at a time works best for younger children, though siblings can race with a timer. The rice itself is the sensory draw, and most children will stay engaged for twenty to thirty minutes even after finding everything, simply running their hands through the texture.

Small bells can be a swallowing risk for children under three. For toddlers, substitute larger pom-poms, jumbo buttons, or soft felt shapes that are impossible to miss in the mouth and easy to spot in the rice.

8. Follow the Line, Sleigh to Chimney

The sheet shows Santa’s sleigh on one side and a row of rooftop chimneys on the other, connected by several tangled, winding paths.

Children trace each path with a finger first, then draw along the correct one with a pencil to lead the sleigh to the right chimney. There is exactly one correct path that does not dead-end or loop back.

Print one sheet per child. A pencil is ideal so mistakes can be erased. This format works for ages four and up, and the tracing-before-drawing step means even younger children can participate with a finger trace alone. Expect five to fifteen minutes depending on how tangled the paths are drawn.

If a child solves it quickly, challenge them to trace every wrong path and mark where each one dead-ends. That turns a two-minute task into a five-minute investigation.

9. Paper Chain Making for the Tree

No printing needed. Cut strips of red and green paper roughly two centimetres wide and fifteen centimetres long, as many as patience allows. Each strip loops through the previous one and is stuck at the overlap with a glue stick or a staple. The chain grows visibly and quickly, which keeps motivation high even for young children.

Pre-cut the strips in advance for children under five, or give older children a ruler and safety scissors and let them cut their own. A ten-minute session produces enough chain to decorate a mantelpiece. An hour produces something long enough to drape the whole staircase.

Mix in strips of gold or silver foil paper every fifth link for a more interesting pattern. A child who is making their first chain will pick that up from looking at the growing result and start placing colours deliberately without being told.

10. I Spy and Count the Decorations

A dense, illustrated scene fills the sheet, packed with Christmas objects: stars, bells, candy canes, snowflakes, holly sprigs, mittens, and more. Below the scene, a list names each object with a small picture and an empty box.

Children hunt for each one, count how many appear, and write the total in the box. Finding and counting are two separate cognitive steps, which makes this more demanding than a standard I-spy.

Print one sheet per child or use one shared sheet and have children record on a notepad. Works for ages four and up. A younger child may need a finger to point while a grown-up confirms the count. Allow twenty to thirty minutes for a thorough search.

Children who disagree on a total will want to recount together, which is the whole point. Let the argument happen, then check the key after everyone has committed to their answers.

11. Baking and Decorating Biscuits

No printing needed. A simple shortbread or sugar-cookie recipe takes about ten minutes to mix, twenty minutes to chill, and twelve minutes to bake. Children do the measuring, the mixing, the cutting with Christmas cutters, and most importantly the decorating with royal icing and sprinkles once the biscuits are fully cool.

Set up the decorating station separately from the baking station. Small squeeze bottles of pre-made icing in two or three colours give children far more control than a spoon, and the results look better with almost no extra effort. Plan ninety minutes from first measurement to first bite.

The cooling step trips most people up: biscuits decorated while warm will bleed their icing into a puddle. Cool them on a rack for at least twenty minutes before the icing comes out. If children cannot wait, have a colouring sheet ready to fill the gap.

12. Spot the Difference, Living Room Scene

Two nearly identical illustrated living room scenes sit side by side on the sheet. Exactly eight small differences are hidden between them: a missing bauble, a changed stocking colour, an extra present, a candle flame that has gone out, and four more. Children circle each difference they find directly on the sheet.

Print one sheet per child so each child can mark their own findings without one fast reader spoiling it for another. A pencil or coloured pen both work. Ages five and up can work independently. Allow fifteen to thirty minutes, longer if the differences are well hidden.

A child stuck after finding five or six differences benefits from being told the category of what is still missing: look for something to do with colour, or something to do with numbers. That narrows the search without giving the answer away.

13. Match the Shadow to the Ornament

One column shows eight coloured Christmas ornaments in distinct shapes: a star, a round bauble, a bell, a candy cane, a snowflake, a mitten, a stocking, and a gift box. The opposite column shows the same eight ornaments as solid black silhouettes, scrambled out of order. Children draw a line from each ornament to its matching shadow.

Print one sheet per child. A pencil or felt-tip works equally well. The task is satisfying because the shapes look similar at a glance but reward careful attention to detail: the star has six points, not five, the bell has a specific handle shape. Ages four and up manage this independently.

For a more competitive version with siblings, time each child separately and see who finishes fastest with the most correct matches. The answer key on the sheet means they can self-check without an adult referee.

14. The Torchlight Story Under a Blanket

No printing needed. After lunch or at the tail end of an afternoon, drape a large blanket over a table or arrange sofa cushions into a tunnel shape and hand each child a small torch.

Read a Christmas picture book or short story aloud from outside the fort while the children lie inside listening with their torchlight on. The context transforms a familiar book into something they ask to repeat.

Choose a book short enough to finish in one sitting, ten to fifteen minutes is ideal. Classic options: any picture-book version of ‘The Night Before Christmas’, or a short original. If a child is old enough to read independently, let them be the reader while a younger sibling listens.

This needs no preparation beyond finding the blanket and the book. The torch is the key prop, because it gives children something to hold and control, which settles wriggly energy faster than being asked to sit still on a sofa.

15. Roll and Cover the Reindeer

The game board shows nine reindeer faces, each one labelled with a number from two to twelve. Children take turns rolling two standard dice, add the numbers together, and place a counter (or draw an X) on the reindeer with that total.

The first player to cover all their reindeer wins, or the player with the most covered when time is called.

Print one board per child. Each child needs two standard dice and something to use as counters: dried beans, small sweets, pennies, or pencil marks all work. Two to four players work well. A single game runs about ten to fifteen minutes.

This is one of the few sheets on the list that works better as a group activity than a solo one.

Children quickly notice that seven comes up most often and start racing to cover it first. That observation is an informal lesson in probability that does not need to be named as such. Let them figure it out without comment.

16. Dot Marker Baubles

The sheet shows a large outlined Christmas tree hung with twelve to fifteen plain round baubles of different sizes, each bauble left completely blank inside. Children fill every bauble using dot markers, dabbing colour to fill the circle.

The scale of the baubles is sized to match standard dot-marker tips, so the dabbing motion is accurate and satisfying rather than sloppy.

Print one sheet per child. Dot markers (sometimes called bingo daubers) are the intended tool, but a chunky felt-tip or a finger dipped in paint works equally well. This suits ages two to six especially, since the task is open-ended enough for a toddler but detailed enough to hold a five-year-old for twenty minutes.

If only one or two dot-marker colours are available, suggest a pattern: alternate red and green, or make every large bauble one colour and every small bauble another. A constraint like that extends the task and the focus time.

17. Snowball Sock Toss Indoors

No printing needed. Roll six to ten white socks into tight balls. Set up three targets across the kitchen floor: a basket, a mixing bowl, and a laundry bin at different distances.

Each target has a point value (1, 2, and 3) marked with a small piece of masking tape and a written number. Children take turns throwing their snowballs from a fixed line and tally their scores.

Masking tape on the floor marks the throwing line and keeps the competition fair without anyone arguing about who stepped over. Three rounds of three throws each makes a complete game in about ten minutes. Works for one child alone or as a competition between siblings.

A child who is clearly winning every round gets a handicap: they must throw with their non-dominant hand or from one step further back. Frame it as the harder level rather than a penalty, and they will accept it as a compliment.

18. The Eight Piece Paper Puzzle

A cheerful Christmas illustration (Santa in his sleigh, or a snow scene) fills the sheet, printed as a single image divided by dotted cut lines into exactly eight irregular interlocking jigsaw-style pieces. Children cut along the dotted lines, mix up the pieces, and reassemble the image. Making and solving in the same session is the hook.

Print on cardstock rather than plain paper so the pieces hold their shape after cutting. One sheet per child. Child-safe scissors, five to ten minutes to cut, then five to ten minutes to reassemble. Sliding the finished puzzle into a small ziplock bag means a child can repeat it or give it as a gift.

A child who finds reassembly too easy can flip all the pieces face-down and try to rebuild it from shape alone. That doubles the difficulty without printing a second sheet.

19. Finish the Pattern, Lights Row

Rows of Christmas fairy lights stretch across the sheet, each bulb drawn as a small teardrop shape. Every row follows a repeating colour pattern, but the last three or four bulbs in each row are left blank for the child to complete. The patterns start simple (red, green, red, green) and grow harder (red, red, blue, green, red, red, blue…).

Print one sheet per child. Coloured pencils or felt-tips needed. Six to eight rows gives a child twenty to thirty minutes of work. The key sits at the very bottom of the sheet so a child can self-check without an adult present.

A child who breezes through the sheet can invent their own pattern on the back of the paper, draw the first four bulbs of a new sequence, and challenge a sibling to complete it. That small transfer of the teacher role is often the most engaging part of the session.

20. Cut and Build a Paper Lantern

The sheet prints a rectangular template decorated with a Christmas pattern (stars, holly, or geometric shapes in outline).

Children colour the pattern, then follow simple folding and cutting instructions printed on the sheet: fold in half lengthwise, cut slits along the fold, open and join the short ends to form a cylinder.

A handle strip is printed separately at the top of the sheet.

Print on standard paper, not cardstock, because cardstock does not curve easily into the cylinder shape. One sheet per child, plus scissors and a stapler or tape. The whole process takes twenty to thirty-five minutes. The finished lanterns can hang from the tree or along a windowsill with a battery tea-light inside.

Cutting the slits evenly is the hardest step for small hands. Pre-fold the sheet and cut a small notch at the top and bottom of each slit line before the child begins, so they have a guide to follow and the slits end up the right depth.

21. Draw the Rest of the Snow Scene

The left half of the page holds a detailed illustrated snow scene: a snowman, a fence, bare trees, falling snowflakes, and a house in the background. The right half is completely blank.

The child’s task is to mirror, extend, or invent the rest of the scene using pencil or coloured pencils. There is no correct answer, only the blank space and the starting image.

Print one sheet per child. Pencils, coloured pencils, or felt-tips all work. This is the least structured activity in the set, which makes it ideal for a child who is already warmed up creatively. Allow twenty to forty-five minutes; the open brief means children often go well beyond the expected time.

A child who says ‘I don’t know what to draw’ needs one concrete question: is it snowing harder on the right side, or has it stopped? That single detail is enough to start the pencil moving.

22. Building a Fort From Sofa Cushions

No printing needed. Gather every sofa cushion, throw pillow, and spare blanket in reach and designate the living room floor as a construction site. The brief: build a fort big enough for at least two people to sit inside. No other rules.

The engineering problem is real, the cushions keep sliding, the blanket roof keeps collapsing, and solving those problems is the entire activity.

One adult intervention at the start helps: push the sofa back from the wall to create a deeper floor space, and offer a few wooden clothes pegs or binder clips to hold blanket edges together. After that, step back. The build phase takes fifteen to thirty minutes; the play phase inside the fort can last the rest of the afternoon.

If the structure keeps collapsing and frustration rises, suggest a modification rather than a rebuild: instead of a full roof, make two walls and a floor, then drape one blanket over the back of the sofa as the ceiling. Lower ambition, faster result, more time inside enjoying it.

23. Sort the Presents by Size

The sheet shows a large illustrated pile of wrapped gift boxes in various sizes, each gift numbered. Below, three labelled shelves are drawn: Small, Medium, and Large. Children write the number of each gift on the correct shelf. The gifts overlap in the pile, so size comparison requires careful looking rather than a quick glance.

Print one sheet per child. A pencil is all that is needed. This works for ages four and up, though younger children may need the pile pointed out one gift at a time. Expect ten to twenty minutes. The answer key sits at the bottom so children can check their own work.

For a child who finishes early, ask them to rank the three largest gifts in order from biggest to smallest by writing 1st, 2nd, and 3rd on their paper. That extends the task with a new operation without needing a new sheet.

24. Write Your Letter, Guided Lines

The sheet provides a gentle, structured space to write a letter to Santa (or any chosen recipient), with a printed salutation, four guided writing sections with prompts, and a sign-off line.

The prompts are open and brief: what the child would like, something they are grateful for, something they are looking forward to, and a closing wish. The guided lines keep handwriting neat without a full handwriting-practice grid.

Print one sheet per child. A pencil or pen, and the task is genuinely self-directing because the prompts handle the ‘what do I write’ paralysis that stops most children mid-letter. Allow fifteen to twenty-five minutes. The finished letter is worth keeping, folding, and posting (to a real or imaginary address).

For a child who wants to write more than the guided sections allow, the back of the paper is their extension space. For a child who cannot write yet, an adult can scribe while the child dictates, and the child signs their name at the bottom.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I use these sheets if I have children of different ages?

Pair a tracing or colouring sheet with a counting or pattern sheet and let each child pick the one that suits them. Most of the printables work across a wider age range than they appear: a four-year-old can colour the Christmas tree while a seven-year-old finishes the pattern rows beside them at the same table.

Do I need a colour printer for these activities?

Most sheets work fine in black and white. The colouring, dot-marker, and draw-the-scene sheets are better in black and white because the child provides all the colour. Only the Spot the Difference and Match the Shadow sheets benefit from a colour print for the reference images.

How many sheets should I print at once?

Print two or three days ahead rather than the full set at once. Children often take longer than expected on a sheet they enjoy, and having too many printed creates visual overwhelm. A small stack face-down on the table with a ‘pick one’ rule works well.

What age range do these christmas kids activities suit?

The set spans ages two to eight. Dot Marker Baubles, Trace the Candy Cane Lines, and Cut and Glue the Snowman work from age two with adult scissors help. Sort the Presents, Spot the Difference, and Finish the Pattern are best for five and up. The no-print activities suit almost any age with minor adjustments.

Can these activities work if I only have one child?

Yes, all of them. The Roll and Cover Reindeer game is more fun with two players but works as a solo game: the child tries to cover all the reindeer in as few rolls as possible and beats their own record. The fort, the torchlight story, and the sensory bin are all equally engaging solo.

What if I run out of ink mid-December?

Eight of the twenty-four activities need no printing at all. The Craft Box, Salt Dough Ornaments, Paper Chains, Baking, Torchlight Story, Sensory Bin, Sock Toss, and Fort Building are all zero-print. Rotate them into any day the printer is out of action.