10 Holiday Family Activities

As a mom and a learning specialist, I want my children to be the best they can be. I know that when I give my children opportunities to learn and have fun I am doing just that. So what does this have to do with the holidays? Well, you know as well as I do, holiday time means more family time, which means more time for family holiday activities.

Keep Your Kids Engaged with Family Activities

Keeping your kids engaged over the holidays can be daunting, or it can be fun. I don’t like being stressed, so I always think of a plan to keep everyone engaged in a variety of activities that can be done without a ton of running around. To that end, I have created the following list of family holiday activities. Each family activity builds camaraderie as well as learning skills.

10 Holiday Family Activities

1. Have a family game night. Go to last week’s post to learn about our favorite learning games.
2. Do a family Secret Holiday Card. Put everyone’s name in a hat, then have everyone draw a different name. Each person then creates a handmade holiday card for the person whose name they drew, noting what it is they appreciate about them.
3. Have each family member write down 3 things that they like to do as a family. Share them at breakfast or at dinner. As a family, choose a couple of the things to do and then make plans to do them.
4. Have a family ‘participation story’ night. Download the activity sheet for ‘Why Santa Has a Beard’.
5. Download the Christmas Word Search and have your kids find the words.
6. Have your family sit in the room where the Christmas tree is. Turn off all the lights except for the Christmas tree. As a family, take turns making up a story using the words holiday, holly, reindeer, table, mouse, horse, cranberries, and turkey. Have each person say a sentence or two making up a story and passing the reins of the story to the person to their left by saying, “And thennnnn…”
7. Watch a holiday movie together and share your favorite parts. After you watch the movie, you can do a quick memory exercise, asking what happened at the beginning, middle, end, and what they think might happen next with the characters in the movie.
8. Have your kids decorate the front door for the holidays. They can draw shapes of holly, stars, ornaments and anything else in the spirit of the holidays onto construction paper. Cut them out and then tape them to the door.
9. Write a family letter to a soldier. You can find information on how to write your letter here.
10. Research how New Year’s Day is celebrated in another country.

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Learn More

Bonnie Terry, M.Ed., BCET is internationally recognized as America’s Leading Learning Specialist. She is an award-winning author, learning disability specialist, and board-certified educational therapist.

Best Selling Author: Family Strategies for ADHD Kids, School Strategies for ADHD Kids, Five Minutes to Better Reading Skills, Ten Minutes to Better Writing and Study Skills, and The Sentence Zone Game.