Christmas Holiday Activities for Kids at Home

Christmas is a time of joy, togetherness, and celebration—but during times of social distancing, families often look for meaningful Christmas activities for kids at home that are fun, engaging, and developmentally enriching. The good news? Holiday moments can be turned into powerful learning opportunities, especially when activities are thoughtfully planned.

From boosting speech and language skills to encouraging creativity, turn-taking, and emotional connection, these holiday activities for kids are perfect for keeping little ones engaged while staying safe at home. Whether your child is typically developing or needs extra speech and language support, these Christmas activities combine festive fun with purposeful learning.

Activities for Christmas holidays

Below are simple, joyful, and therapist-recommended ideas that parents can easily try during the Christmas holidays.

I Spy Christmas Game

I spy with my little eye is a super fun activity! You can target various speech and language skills including receptive vocabulary, categorization, expressive language and reasoning skills.

How to play:

Once your done decorating for Christmas, you can sit back with your children and start playing this game. To make it more fun and motivating include a points chart to see who gets the maximum number of right answers. Take turn to say “I Spy with my little eye something red…” can you guess? Wait for your child to respond, you can add more options too “I Spy with my little eye something red and round…” can you guess? Once your child guesses it right, add points to the point board and switch turns. Start with simple descriptive vocabulary and then go on to add more complex language reasoning skills.

Pintables click here

This classic game becomes even more exciting during Christmas when children can spot ornaments, lights, candy canes, stockings, and gifts making it one of the most loved Christmas games for children.

Making Holiday Cookies

We all enjoy baking and eating holiday cookies! Engage your child in this lively baking activity. You can promote several skills such as social language, turn-taking, requesting and following directions.

How to play:

Targeting Vocabulary: While you prep ingredients to make the cookies, first make a written list of the materials needed. Give your child the list, and encourage him/her to find the things listed to make a cookie. You can give directions such as “The flour is in the cabinet”, “No not there”,” Look under the snacks”. When your child finds it encourages him by saying “Yay you found it”!

Teaching Sequencing Skills: Once all the ingredients are in place, encourage your child to choose the next step in the process to make a cookie. Mixing and blending the ingredients. In this step, target concepts such as “Put in”, “Take out”, “On/Off the blender”. Next, encourage the little one to choose the next step listed and continue to ask open-ended questions “What should we do next?” “Do you need more sugar?” throughout the holiday activites.

Teaching Turn-Taking: In the same activity, encourage your children to wait and take turns one by one while pouring the flour into cookie mould. Talk about the different shapes and decorations of the cookie moulds. Once, the cookies are made, take turns to pack them into different jars and to send out to friends and family.

Baking together is not just a holiday tradition it’s one of the most effective Christmas activities for kids at home that naturally builds communication and cooperation.

Making Holiday Cards

The COVID restrictions have impacted social gatherings and joyfulness during Christmas. Don’t let your little one feel let down! Cheer up to make some great holiday cards to spread the love around! In this activity, you can target literacy skills such as reading, writing, arts and craft skills such as cutting, pasting and colouring.

How to play:

Gather some chart paper, coloured papers, scissors, glue and paint. Encourage your little one to write Christmas messages in the cards, guide him to spell and write simple messages “Merry Christmas” “Have a good year” etc., Next, motivate him/her to stick Christmas theme stickers, make a small tree, stars and a gingerbread cookie monster to decorate your card. You can teach cutting, pasting and painting the cards and so on. Remember to stay excited during the holiday activites and continue to stimulate your child with new vocabulary, words, phrases and questions.

How to make a holiday card

Card-making encourages emotional expression and connection, making it a wonderful holiday activity for kids to practice gratitude and kindness.

Santa’s Surprise Gift Bag

Children all over the world look forward with excitement for their holiday presents. You can teach several language concepts with this activity such as questioning, requesting and cause and effect.

How to play:

You may need a few medium-size Santa gift bags and some gift sock bags to hide in different places around your home. Buy small presents or hide tiny toys and edible items in each gift bag. Encourage your little one to search and find as many bags he/she can. Collect all the bags and encourage your little one to ask “What is in the blue bag?”. Play guessing the gift game “It is something that you love to eat?”. Continue to include speech and language targets.

This treasure-hunt style activity is especially effective for improving curiosity, sentence formation, and conversational skills.

Final Thoughts

Christmas at home doesn’t have to be quiet or boring. With a little creativity, everyday moments can turn into meaningful learning experiences. These Christmas activities for kids at home not only bring festive cheer but also support speech, language, cognitive, and social development in a natural and joyful way.

Remember learning doesn’t always need worksheets or screens. Sometimes, the best therapy happens while playing, baking, crafting, and laughing together. This holiday season, celebrate progress, connection, and the small wins that make childhood truly special.