30 family Christmas bucket list ideas
There are so many activities that you can do over Christmas, that it can be hard to decide which ones your family will enjoy.
A way to make this easier is to write a family Christmas bucket list, listing the things you’d like to do with your family over Christmas, that you can work your way through over the holiday season.
If you like the idea of creating a family Christmas bucket list but don’t know what activities to put on it, here are 30 ideas that you may like to consider.
When adding anything to your list, only include activities that your family will enjoy, not activities that you feel like you should do, because the aim of a family Christmas bucket list is to have fun.
Start a new family tradition
There are many family Christmas traditions that you can start, from cooking new foods, making Christmas Eve boxes, or doing any of the activities listed below.
Put a wreath on your front door
Having a wreath on your front door creates the feeling of Christmas before you enter the house, and can be a nice reminder that Christmas is on the way.
Get your advent calendars ready
There are many different advent calendars that you can buy with and without edible treats, or you could make your own advent calendar filled with items to keep your children entertained.
Decorate your Christmas tree and home
Decorating your Christmas tree and home is a fun family activity, and if you have babies or toddlers in the house, you can still have beautiful décor by using toddler friendly Christmas decorations.
Make your own decorations
There are many Christmas crafts that your children can make that can be used to decorate over Christmas.
Decorate a gingerbread house
If you’d like to add decorating a gingerbread house to your family Christmas bucket list, you don’t have to make it from scratch, you can buy pre made houses, or kits that you assemble.
The best part of this activity for children is decorating them with frosting, lollies, sprinkles, chocolates, marshmallows, and anything else that they desire.
Make a hot chocolate station
Hot chocolates are perfect for cold nights, and to make drinking them extra special, you could create a hot chocolate station where each family member gets to choose the toppings they’d like on theirs.
Toppings on your hot chocolate station could include different syrups, chocolate shavings, whipped cream, marshmallows, sprinkles, and chocolate buttons.
Bake some biscuits
This is a great family Christmas buck list item for younger children who love to bake, which could be made even more fun if they’re in charge of choosing the Christmas baking recipes that will be made.
Make a Christmas song playlist
There are many Christmas songs that you can add to a Christmas song playlist that can be played over Christmas, or when doing whatever you need to do to get organised for Christmas.
Take a family Christmas photo
Taking a family Christmas photo is not only fun, but is a great way to see how your family changes over time.
You could have a different theme each year, or dress up in the funniest Christmas jumpers you can find.
Write a letter to Santa
Younger children will love this bucket list idea, and they’ll be delighted with Santa’s response, plus writing a letter to Santa makes it easy to know what presents our children would like.
If you’re in the UK details on how to write a letter to Santa so your child gets a response can be found on the Royal Mail website.
Camp out in the living room
Setting up sleeping areas, telling stories, and eating snacks in the living room is one of the more unique family Christmas bucket list ideas that you may like try.
Have a family board game night
If you have older children, having a family board game night is a fun Christmas activity.
Some holiday inspired boards game ideas are:
- Christmas Monopoly
- Articulate Christmas
- The Best of Christmas Game
- Christmas Charades Game
- Christmas Bingo
Read Christmas books
There are many Christmas themed books that you and your children can read together in the lead up to Christmas.
Some of these are:
- The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg
- Dear Santa, by Marcy Kelman
- The Jolly Christmas Postman, by Janet Ahlberg and Allan Ahlberg
- There’s an Elf in Your Book, by Tom Fletcher and Greg Abbott
- The Snowman, by Raymond Briggs
Related post:
10 best books for 6 year olds
Learn a Christmas carol
Learning a Christmas carol could be a fun way to spend Christmas Eve, and even a way to sing carols you loved when you were young.
Wrap gifts
To make gift wrapping enjoyable you can spread your gift wrapping over several days, put your favourite music on, listen to some podcasts, and even treat yourself to a festive drink or snack whilst wrapping.
If you’d like to make this a family activity, get your children to help wrap any extended family gifts.
Do Secret Santa with extended family
If you have many people in your family the cost of Christmas can escalate.
A way to keep present costs and time spent wrapping gifts to a minimum, is to suggest doing a Secret Santa with extended family.
This means putting everyone’s name in a hat and then telling each family member who they need to buy for, and what the maximum price they need to spend is.
This way everyone only needs to buy one gift.
Buy matching Christmas pyjamas
If everyone in your family is up for a bit of fun, buy matching pyjamas that you can all wear whilst opening your gifts, or having breakfast on Christmas morning.
Drink Eggnog
Eggnog is the drink that I associate with Christmas, so drinking it during the festive season is something that I may just add to my Christmas to do list this holiday season.
If you’d like to do this as well, here’s an Eggnog recipe you could try.
Photo with Santa
There are many Santa Grottos set up during November and December where you can go to have your child’s photo taken with Santa.
This may not be the most enjoyable experience for younger children, but having photos to look back on, even if your child isn’t happy, can be a great way to capture Christmas memories.
Go to a local Christmas event
There are many local Christmas events that you can attend with your family including tree festivals, Christmas light switch ons, Santa and reindeer parades, and much more, that are a great way to start the holidays.
See a pantomime
There are many pantomimes and Christmas plays on over the holidays in small local theatres.
Go ice skating
Ice skating rinks are in many locations, with many having equipment that helps younger children to skate.
Go to a Christmas tree farm
Having a real Christmas tree in your home may be the thing you’d like to add to your family Christmas bucket list this year, and if so, visiting a Christmas tree farm and choosing your tree is a really nice thing to do.
Open one gift on Christmas Eve
Choose a small gift that your children can open Christmas Eve and let them open it, it may even encourage them to get to bed early so Santa can visit.
Watch a Christmas movie
There are new Christmas movies every year, watching them as a family is a fantastic way to spend Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.
Some Christmas movies include:
- A Christmas Story
- Elf
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- Miracle on 34th Street
- The Grinch
Go for a Christmas Day walk
Christmas Day is perfect for taking a walk, it’s fresh outside, and the streets are quiet, so you can enjoy some time with your family before the day gets busy.
Leave out food for Santa and his reindeers
Leaving food out for Santa and his reindeers is something that younger children will love to do.
Santa may enjoy some fruit mince pies, chocolate, or milk, and his reindeers would love carrots, or some special reindeer food that consists of mixing together oats and sprinkles.
Have a pancake breakfast
Starting Christmas Day with pancakes that have a festive feel to them is another fun family Christmas buck list idea that you may like to try.
Some festive pancake recipes are:
Build a snowman or snow angel
Building a snowman, or making a snow angel is very Christmassy, and allows children to get creative with what they use to decorate their snowman’s face, or what clothes they dress him in.
What Christmas activities do you do with your family?
