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Christmas Activities for Kids: 12 Ideas, Eve to Boxing Day
12 Christmas activities for kids aged 3 to 8, all but one screen-free, from Christmas Eve to Boxing Day, including a five-minute Christmas yoga routine.
The best Christmas activities for kids aged 3 to 8 are short, simple and mostly screen-free: a lights walk and a slow wind-down on Christmas Eve, a game and a five-minute stretch on Christmas afternoon, and a walk or a den of boxes on Boxing Day. Have one ready for each and the holiday mostly looks after itself.
Below are 12 ideas, four for each day, for parents and for grandparents hosting a houseful. If you're still choosing presents, our children's Christmas gift guide keeps to ones that aren't another screen.
What are some easy Christmas activities for kids?
The easiest Christmas activities for kids need nothing new: a walk to see the lights, a game round the table, thank-you drawings, a few yoga poses and a den built from the present boxes. All 12 below suit ages 3 to 8, all but one need no screen, and most take 5 to 40 minutes.
Pick one for each tricky moment: the long wait on Christmas Eve, the flat hour after dinner, and Boxing Day morning. You'll need paper, pens, wellies, the present boxes and a mat or rug.
What are good Christmas Eve activities for kids?
Good Christmas Eve activities burn off excitement first and calm it down later. Get outside after tea, make something for the morning, then slow everything down for bed. The aim is a child tired enough to sleep, with a clear sense that the day is over.
1. A Christmas lights walk
Wrap up after tea and walk the streets near you, counting lit windows, trees and reindeer. Give each child a job: one counts stars, one counts snowmen. Good from age 3, with a buggy on standby for tired legs.
2. Set out the plate for Father Christmas
A mince pie, a carrot for the reindeer and a glass of milk, chosen and carried by your child, with a note or a drawing beside it. It's theirs, and it gives the evening a clear finish line.
3. Wrap one present for someone else
Give your child brown paper, tape and a pen, and let them wrap a gift for a parent, a sibling or a grandparent, with potato-print stars or a hand-drawn tag. It turns the waiting into making.
4. A slow wind-down before bed
Bath, pyjamas, one story, lights low. UK government guidance for under-5s on the Best Start in Life website suggests bedtime stories instead of screens, and avoiding screens in the hour before bed, as this could affect sleep. New pyjamas and a book are classic Christmas Eve box ideas for this hour, and our bedtime yoga routine for kids adds a few slow stretches.
What can kids do on Christmas Day afternoon?
Christmas afternoon activities need to be short, close to the sofa and easy to start, because everyone is full and the adults want to sit down. A five-minute stretch, a table game, a thank-you drawing or a call to absent family all fit between the pudding and tea.
5. A five-minute Christmas yoga routine: tree, star, reindeer
Christmas yoga for kids is a few simple poses given festive names, done together for five minutes on a mat or clear floor. Stand in a line and take turns to lead.
- Tree: stand tall, palms together, and place the sole of one foot on the other calf or inner thigh (never the knee). Wobbling is allowed. Swap feet.
- Star: jump the feet wide and stretch the arms out wide, fingers spread, like the star on top of the tree.
- Reindeer: step one foot forward into a lunge, put both hands on your head with fingers spread as antlers, and hold for three breaths. Swap legs.
Finish lying flat, eyes closed, for ten slow breaths. Star and reindeer are playful shapes rather than classic poses. Tree is pose 14 on our Sun Salutation design, a full-length mat with fifteen standing poses marked in, so a child can check their foot against the drawing. For more poses, see our beginner's guide to kids' yoga.
6. Thank-you drawings
Ask everyone to draw their favourite present or the person who gave it. Write the words for younger children; older ones write their own. It works while the adults have a cup of tea.
7. A video call with family who aren't there
A video call to grandparents or cousins who aren't there lets your child show off what they unwrapped. It's a screen, but a shared one: the Best Start in Life guidance lists video calls with family among the shared activities it allows even for under-2s.
8. A game round the table
Charades, sleeping lions, I Spy with colours, or "I went to Father Christmas's workshop and I found…", where each player adds an item to the list. They need nothing but the people at the table, and grandparents usually know the best ones.
What are good Boxing Day activities for kids?
Good Boxing Day activities get everyone out of the house, or at least off the sofa, after a day of sitting and eating. A walk, a den of present boxes, a show or an indoor obstacle course all use what you have. Plan one outdoor idea and one indoor fallback.
9. A Boxing Day walk with a mission
A walk is easier to sell with a job attached. Give your child a list to find: a robin, a holly bush, a puddle to jump in, a dog in a Christmas jumper.
10. Build a den from the boxes
The present boxes are a free building kit. Tape them into a tunnel, a rocket or a reindeer stable, cut a door (adults do the cutting), and add cushions and a torch.
11. The Boxing Day show
Give the children the morning to rehearse a show with their new things: a song, a magic trick, a joke. Make tickets from wrapping paper and line up chairs. Shy children can sell the tickets.
12. An indoor obstacle course
If it's pouring, use sofa cushions as stepping stones, a broom handle across two chairs to crawl under, and a mat for three star jumps and a tree pose at the finish. Time each run.
How do you entertain kids at Christmas?
The easiest way to entertain kids at Christmas is three short activities in a row rather than one long one, which feels like waiting. Mix one active, one making and one calm idea, keep each to 10 or 20 minutes, and stop while everyone is still enjoying it.
Three illustrative combinations:
- Christmas Eve, about an hour: the lights walk, then the plate for Father Christmas, then bath and a story.
- Christmas Day afternoon, about 30 minutes: the yoga routine, a round of charades, then thank-you drawings.
- Boxing Day, a wet morning: build the den, run the obstacle course through it, then hold the show inside it.
To bring the grown-ups in, family yoga for the whole family has poses to do side by side.
What if your child isn't interested?
Christmas is a lot for small children: late nights, new faces and a pile of new things. If your child says no to an activity, don't push it. Some need an hour of quiet play with one new toy before they'll join anything.
If new toys need batteries, the Office for Product Safety and Standards' Christmas toy advice is to make sure any button batteries in a toy are safely behind a screwed-down flap. Check before it's handed back to a three-year-old.
Frequently asked questions
What are some things to do with kids at Christmas without screens?
Good things to do with kids at Christmas without screens include a lights walk, setting out the plate for Father Christmas, thank-you drawings, charades, a five-minute tree, star and reindeer yoga routine, and a den built from the present boxes. None needs more than paper and a rug.
How can I make Christmas special for my kids?
Give them jobs that are theirs: carrying the plate for Father Christmas, wrapping a present for someone else, leading the yoga routine or selling tickets for the Boxing Day show. Small traditions you repeat each year, like the same lights walk, give the holiday a shape children look forward to.
Is it OK for kids to watch TV on Christmas Day?
Yes, some TV can be part of the day. For under-5s, UK government guidance suggests keeping it to an hour a day for 2 to 5 year-olds, less if possible, watching together, not leaving screens on in the background, and avoiding them in the hour before bed.
What can you do with kids on Boxing Day if it rains?
Build a den from the present boxes, set up an indoor obstacle course with sofa cushions and a rug, or let the children put on a Boxing Day show with their new things. In a dry spell, a short walk in wellies with a list to find gets everyone out.
A present for Christmas afternoon, and after
If you're looking for a present that gets used after Boxing Day, a Yogi-Me mat is a children's yoga mat with 15 poses laser-engraved into the surface. They're numbered, so a five-year-old can start at 1 and work through to 15 on their own.
It's designed for ages 3 to 8. Three- and four-year-olds copy the poses with a little help; older children lead their own sessions. Under three, we'd wait.
Buying as a grandparent? At 183 x 61 cm it's full length on purpose, so there's room to stretch out at three and still at eight, and room for you to have a go at the tree pose too. The trade-off is that a shorter mat is easier for a three-year-old to carry alone. Ours weighs 800 g and rolls up with a carry strap for the trip to your house.
Will it just sit gathering dust? There's nothing to set up and no screen to follow, so it's as easy to roll out on a wet Saturday in January as on Christmas afternoon.
It's non-toxic, PVC-free TPE, according to our supplier's specification, with 6 mm of cushioning. Mince pie crumbs come off with a damp cloth and a little mild soap; let it dry flat, and use it on a dry, flat floor.
Sun Salutation is the standing design, for children who want to move. Freedom Flow stays on the floor, for children who need to settle. Both are the same size, material and price, in seven colours each, and which mat suits which child sets out the difference.
Buying for cousins as well? Two or more mats are 10 per cent off. As Becks, a yoga teacher and verified buyer, put it in her review: "I just made the mistake of buying one, instead of two."
Each mat is £34.99 with free UK delivery and 30-day returns. Choose a colour for the child who'll be leading the tree pose on Christmas afternoon.
