Spin the wheel Christmas family activities
Outings and traditions worth planning
A daily advent activities list handles small stuff like crafts and cocoa. This list is for the bigger things: a tree farm trip, a train ride, a tree lighting in town, an afternoon at a skating rink. These activities need a date and often a ticket, and the popular ones sell out. Looking at the list before Thanksgiving weekend gives you time to book.
Some entries cost nothing, like the walk through a neighborhood light display or sledding on the nearest hill. Others cost a bit more, like a holiday train or a ballet. Plan on about $10 to $30 per person for paid events, and look at your city's website, since many towns hold free tree lightings and parades.
A few entries are about giving back: volunteering at a pantry, adopting a family for gifts, singing at a care home. Children often remember these long after they have forgotten what they got. Put one on the calendar early, since many gift drives collect by mid-December.
What's on this wheel
- Drive through a light display
- Visit a tree farm and cut your own
- Ice skate at an outdoor rink
- Ride a holiday train
- Go to a community tree lighting
- Hear a holiday choir concert
- See a holiday ballet or play
- Walk through a Christmas market
- Tour a decorated historic house
- Go sledding on the nearest hill
- Volunteer at a food pantry
- Adopt a family and shop for gifts
- Take a horse-drawn sleigh ride
- Visit a living nativity
- Visit a gingerbread house display
- Take a winter hike with hot cocoa
- Cookie swap with neighbors
- Deliver treats to neighbors
- Sing carols at a care home
- Pick a family ornament each year
- Make a holiday scrapbook page
- Go to a candlelight service
- Take a family photo in pajamas
- Visit a winter lights garden
- Host a neighborhood cocoa stand
- Hold a snowman-building contest
- Picnic under the lit tree
- Make handmade cards for relatives
- Watch the town parade
- Go to a library story hour
- Visit Santa at a local event
- Go ice fishing or winter camping
- Watch a lighted boat parade
- Build a gingerbread village
- Pajama and cocoa movie night
- Plan a donation drive with friends
- Wrap gifts together with music
- Take a neighborhood lights walk
- Start a yearly tradition list
- Film a time-lapse of the tree
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Planning the month with the wheel
- Open Entries and remove activities that don't fit your weather, budget or town.
- Each weekend, press Spin together with the kids and agree on a day right away.
- Use Remove from wheel after you book or finish an activity, so the next spin brings something new.
- Keep the last spin for a tradition you can repeat every year, like the ornament or the pajama photo.
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Christmas family activities questions
How many activities should we plan?
One or two outings per weekend from the first weekend of December is plenty. With weekday evenings left for simple things at home, you will have a full but not exhausting month.
What can we do for free?
Walking the neighborhood to see lights, sledding, a winter hike with cocoa, a town tree lighting or parade and a library story hour usually cost nothing. Add homemade cards or a cookie swap for very little.
What works with teenagers?
Ice skating, a market, a winter hike and volunteering usually land better than craft projects. Let them choose the music or the route, and keep the outing short.
Do I need to book ahead?
For trains, sleigh rides, ballets and popular light displays, yes, often by the end of November. Tree lightings, parades and neighborhood light walks are usually first come, first served.
Can I add local events?
Type local events into Entries, one per line, and they join the spin. Original list brings back the first 40 ideas.
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