12 Wallet-Friendly Holiday Activities Your Family Will Love

I am, by no means, a cold weather person, and yet the holiday season is my favorite time of year. It’s a time of family, friends, togetherness, and finding warmth in the coldest of times.

The tricky thing about the holidays can sometimes be finding ways to keep everyone entertained. The family is together for several days without school (and, if you’re lucky enough, without work), so you need to find a way to enjoy your time together without getting stir-crazy.

With that in mind, I’ve compiled a list of 12 of my favorite holiday season family activities. I’ve tried to include fun ideas for both indoors and outdoors, so you can get some facetime with the snow without neglecting the wonders of central heating. Give these ideas a try and see if you end up with any fun new holiday traditions!

Have a Winter Bonfire

Summer bonfires can be a lot of fun, but there’s something so special about huddling together in the warmth of a fire on a cold winter’s night. The whole family can toast marshmallows, tell stories, and sing songs together.

Having a bonfire is also a great way to teach any youngsters in your family about fire safety. Teach them how to properly set a good campfire, and how to make sure it’s fully extinguished before going in for the night.

Tour the Local Lights

Whether it’s a few tasteful lights, or an over-the-top Christmas Vacation-like display, few things make a home more beautiful than holiday decorations. Get the family together and take a walk or a drive to see the local sights.

Before you go, check local social media pages to see if any nearby neighborhoods have decorating contests, you’ll be sure to see some dazzling displays in those areas. You might even get some inspiration for your own next year’s display!

Visit Public Parks

Check your local social media pages and event calendars to see what events are happening in your local parks around the holidays. It might just be some light displays, but there could also be live music, craft fairs, or other events happening around the holidays.

One of my favorite things to do each year is go to the New Year’s festival that happens in one of my downtown parks. There’s music, dancing, food trucks, vendors, fireworks, and more. See what your own local parks have to offer.

Build Snow People

This might be obvious to some readers, but I’m going to state it here just to make sure everyone knows: You’re never too old to build a snowman.

Once you have a snowman, he’s going to need friends! Cover your yard in snowmen and snowwomen, then raid that donation box you still haven’t taken to the thrift store and dress your snow people in their winter finest!

Have a Snowball Fight

For three seasons out of the year, the kids in your family get to drive you crazy, and there’s little to nothing that you can do about it. That all changes in winter with the arrival of snowballs.

Split into teams – or go free-for-all style – and toss snowballs at one another until everyone is coated in the chilly white stuff. Hot cocoa just hits differently when you’ve just come back from fighting the snow war.

Play Board Games

It’s important to remember that the holidays are also about togetherness, and you’d be hard-pressed to find a more classic family activity than a good board game. Whether it’s a classic like Monopoly or a more advanced experience like Settlers of Catan, there’s nothing quite like playing a game with the whole family.

If some members of your family tend to get a bit too… let’s charitably say “competitive,” maybe look into a cooperative game.

Put Together Puzzles

For a more relaxed experience around the table, get the family together to assemble a jigsaw puzzle. You can choose any difficulty you like, and harder puzzles can end up being a several days-long activity.

This is also a great activity to do while chatting, so you can catch up with family members you don’t get to spend as much time with. You can also listen to festive music, make plans for later, or even pair this with the next item on the list.

Holiday Movie Marathon

In my house, there are certain movies we make time for every year, without exception (Muppet Christmas Carol and It’s a Wonderful Life are non-negotiable), but we also like to work new movies and other old classics into the rotation.

Have a movie marathon with some of your favorite holiday-themed movies (yes, dad, Die Hard counts), and give a few unknown movies a try, you might find your new favorite! 

Stage a Photoshoot

It’s never too early to get an early jump on next year’s holiday card photo. Get the family together in matching outfits and go take some photos in the winter wonderland! 

You can take photos indoors, of course (especially if you have a beautiful tree), but this is the perfect time to get out in the snow and pose with those snow people you made earlier.

Craft Holiday Decorations

Some of my favorite holiday memories are of crafting decorations with my siblings and our grandma. Every year we would make new decorations to put on the tree (and some of them still go on the tree each year at what is now my aunt and uncle’s house).

You can make decorations out of simple items you have around the house – a paper plate, scissors, and crayons will do the trick – or you can get more elaborate with it and hit up a craft store for supplies like beads, glue, and air-drying clay.

Sing

Get the family together, along with some friends and neighbors, and go caroling! If your neighborhood isn’t exactly public performance-friendly, have an indoor sing-along with some holiday classics!

YouTube can come in extremely handy here, as the site hosts numerous holiday songs – and other great tunes – with videos showing the lyrics, so you don’t even need to know the words.

Have a Holiday Scavenger Hunt

It’s OK to mix holiday traditions a bit, as far as I’m concerned, so don’t be afraid to put a little bit of Easter or Passover into your winter holidays by having a scavenger hunt! Hide small gifts around the house, and give some clues to the little ones (and willing adults).

Everyone loves to get presents, but something feels especially precious about a gift that you had to win!