7 Kid Things You Need to Do This Christmas

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Christmas is such a magical time of year, with decorated houses, treats galore, gift giving, and craft making. Christmastime presents the perfect opportunity to do things with your kids that you will both enjoy. In this article I am going to tell you about my favourite things to do at Christmas with my kids. I’d love it if let me know in the comments below what you are going to do with yours!

The older my boys get, the more excited I get for Christmas.  I see the delights of the season through their little, awed eyes, and it makes my heart so warm and fuzzy!

I love that at Christmastime, the whole world seems to make an effort to make everything look and feel magical. There are SO MANY Christmas crafts and goodies you can create that even if you started now, you would not run out of things to keep you and your children busy.

So that’s exactly what I plan to do.

I am going to try and eek out this season for as long as possible, because once Christmas is over, then all the crafting and decorating and baking loses the magic, and has to be shelved for the year.

Here’s a snapshot of the things I am going to try with my little ones:

1. Slow cooker Hot Chocolate

And specifically, this Peppermint Hot Chocolate from Five Heart Home:

I live in a part of the world where Christmas is hot. 

Which is wrong. Because the thing is, “Christmas” is a winter celebration.  All the Christmassy things to do, like roasting chestnuts on an open fire, are unthinkable when the sun is blazing high in the blue sky. 

I would LOVE to have a winter Christmas one year, but this year it will not be.  I have decided, therefore, to have at least one wintry thing that will give me that Christmas feeling.

Enter: Slow Cooker Hot Chocolate.  I cannot wait to put it in the pot, let its smell permeate my house, and enjoy it in the summer’s evening after a walk to see the Christmas Lights.

Kids LOVE hot chocolate, and how fun and different is it to make it in a big Cauldron that is the slow-cooker? They could even bung everything into the pot!

We might do this one more than once.

2. Sourdough Croissants

Now, if there is any Sourdough Recipe that beats this one, you can just blow me down.

People. Sourdough. Croissants. It doesn’t get better than that!

I mean, what could be better than a warm, buttery croissant for breakfast on Christmas morning?  Or perhaps to accompany that slow cooker hot chocolate and gift-unwrapping.

Don’t be scared to make croissants with your children. While they have a reputation of being difficult and quite fiddly to make, they are actually do-able with little hands. The scariest thing about croissants are all the steps. Each little thing that you do, in itself, is not hard. Kids will love helping to roll out the dough and shape the croissants. They will love seeing the dough take shape, and seeing all those layers materialise.

3. Cinnamon Sugar Donuts

Is there anything more Christmassy than these sweetly spiced buttery goodies?  Sign me up!  I will be making a sourdough brioche, deep fry it, and roll it in a cinnamon sugar mix.

Make sure you keep the kids away from the hot oil, but you can involve them with the mixing of the dough, cutting the donuts out, and rolling them in cinnamon sugar. Yum, yum, YUM.

4. Make an Advent calendar

Making an Advent Calendar is the perfect thing to do with your children this Christmas. Making the calendar will be a fun craft activity in which they can take part, plus it promises an activity every day for the festive season.

I love the idea of unwrapping something every day – not necessarily a chocolate, but a little activity or inspiring quote for the day, or craft to do.

Observing Advent is such a fun way to build anticipation, and also to extract the full meaning out of Christmas in a way the little ones can absorb.  It is something the whole family, adults and children alike, will enjoy being part of.

I love this idea for a DIY Advent Calendar from A Beautiful Mess:

5. DIY snowflakes

DIY Snowflakes is an easy Christmas-themed activity that kids can easily do. Did anyone not make cut-out snowflakes as a kid? There’s nothing like unfolding that scrap of paper to reveal a beautiful snowflake.

Snowflakes are cheap, easy to make, and I probably have all the equipment already to make these.  I can’t wait to see Mr 2yo’s face when we open them out! Plus, if you make an abundant supply, you can transform your home into a winter wonderland without breaking your Christmas Budget.

6. Gingerbread house

The last time we made a Gingerbread House was when I was a few days from giving birth to my eldest.  It was such a fun distraction, and I delighted in the building, cementing and decorating of this Christmas masterpiece.

I would love to have a go at this one again, especially now that there is an extra pair of chompers to help eat it all up!  It will be so much fun to make and decorate with my boys, and they will love to see the completed house. Your kids will, too!

There are multiple ways you can make gingerbread houses. You could make one massive one, altogether. Or, you could make miniature gingerbread houses, which your little ones could decorate individually. This could save those arguments! The easiest way to build gingerbread houses is out of cookies or graham crackers and royal icing. No baking or cutting out intricate shapes required.

7. DIY Hessian Christmas decorations

If you have a lot of hessian in lying around (like us, left over from our wedding 4 years ago), then get cracking making Hessian Christmas Decorations. Even if you do not already have hessian (or burlap), it is cheap to buy, and these decorations give rustic charm to your Christmas decor.

Hessian lends well to Christmas decorations – it is so woodsy and rustic.  Paired with gold beads, baubels, and twinkling airy lights, they will make your home look truly magical. Hessian decorations will also keep their shape, and last a few Christmasses.

Handmade Christmas= Happy Budget = Happy Kids = Happy Mama.

What are some things you will be doing with your kids This Christmas?