Celebrating 12 days of Christmas with your kids can seem like an expensive thing, but it does not have to be. Here are some of my favorite ideas to celebrate for 12 days straight for free. Be sure to read to the end to get your freebie!
12 Days of Christmas Excursions
Plan an excursion for each day of Christmas. One of the most memorable ways to celebrate Christmas with your children is to spend quality time together. Excursions can be a fun activity like going to the beach, zoo, or somewhere special. Or you could be really practical with it for example returning/exchanging clothes to the store that don’t fit. Making time to spend a couple of hours together as a family is so special for your children.
12 Days of Singing
Singing is another great way to set aside 20 minutes each day to be together during Christmas. Each day you can commit to learn or practice a Christmas song as a family. If your family is musically inclined include musical instruments and four-part harmonies. For the less musically gifted, you can teach your children the basic gist of the song. Just have fun with it! Next year when they hear the song you practiced playing in the grocery store, they will be thrilled to sing along.
12 Days of Feasting
Plan to have a special meal each day of Christmas. If you normally do not bring out your fancy dishes for mealtimes, bust them out, IT’S CHRISTMAS! Invite friends and family to come over and enjoy a meal. A simple way to have people over is to do dessert together, less cleanup, and no stress of preparing a big meal for guests. Feasting is a wonderful way to keep the spirit of joy during Christmastide.
12 Days of Board Games
Think you will be bored celebrating 12 days of Christmas? Try adding board games to your agenda..see what I did there? Board games are a simple way to incorporate quality time into your Christmas schedule. You might even think about adding a board game to one of your gifts under the tree. Some of our family favorites include Sushi Go, Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride, and Chameleon.
If you have younger kids you could do building blocks, Magnatiles, or playdough (though I hate playdough before age 3). Our family typically plays board games once the littles are in bed, but we try to make quality time playing and reading with the smaller kids before they go down for the night.
12 Days of Giving
Each day of Christmas, encourage your family to give in one way or another. This does not have to be costly, you can give someone a compliment, send them a letter, regift old toys, or share some leftover food. In my Christmas Traditions post, I talked about wanting to teach my children to focus on giving rather than receiving this year and in years to come. Twelve days of giving could be a fun way to incorporate that spirit of Christmas throughout the whole season. Planning to give something to another each day will also encourage the children to be looking for ways to bless others. What more could you want from your kids?
The 12 Days of Christmas Free Printable
I’ve created a free printable to help you celebrate the true meaning of Christmas with your kids. In this printable, there are 12 prompts with the date listed to make it easier to keep track of. Each prompt relates to the biblical narrative. The prompts correlate to the day of Christmas (For example on the 6th day of Christmas the prompt is about the 6 days of creation). These prompts are great for all ages as they can be built upon for older children and simplified for younger children. You can hang these on the wall or the refrigerator as a reminder about the true meaning of Christmas.
Be sure to tag us on Instagram if you use these printables!
In Conclusion
There is no “right” way to celebrate 12 days of Christmas. We will probably do a mixture of all these different ideas. Be sure to share your favorite ways to celebrate Christmastide below, so we can learn from you. God bless you this season and Merry Christmas!
Great Ideas! We have been singing Christmas songs almost every day together. Kids are so precious when they sing and I’m impressed by the new songs they’ve learned at school this year. 🙂
That’s wonderful nothing like the voices of children singing to bring joy to your day!
These are great ideas! I love the 12 days of giving. What a great way to show your kids the meaning of Christmas!
love these ideas so much!
glad you do!
I love this! These activities build wonderful lifelong memories! I am excited to show my kids the printable you made. Mahalo!
Excited for your kids to use it!