As moms and teachers, our goal for Christmas is to keep Jesus the Reason for the Season. The activities below help us reach our goal. Use these ideas to create Christ-centered Christmas Traditions in your family and with other children. Ideas are provided to host a Happy Birthday Jesus Party as well!
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Using Legos or blocks, the Christmas Activity workbook provides daily activities to impress Christ in Christmas. Crafts, baking, and songs support the suggested learning. Free of family Our Out-of-Sync Life blog and ABCJLM Newsletter subscribers, or to purchase here.
Several ideas to hold your very own birthday party for Jesus!
Visit neighbors or a nursing home to deliver goodies and smiles. Start the beginning of December planning times to visit. Plan love on people with your time and attention.
A list 25 activities to countdown to Christmas. Great family tradition.
Read daily promises from God and add a glass ornament on the tree stating the promise. Print the 25 Promise verses or use your own.
Idea shared by Nicolle: Growing up, our coffee table housed a little manger with hay under it. During the time right after Thanksgiving until Christmas, every time we did something without being asked to do it, we got to place a piece of hay in the manger. The goal was to get enough hay in the manger by Christmas for baby Jesus. Since a bale of hay is not readily available to everyone, try using ornamental grass from your landscape. You could also use artificial or dried decorative grass found at your local hobby store.
Hang an extra stocking for Jesus and each time a family members does something to love on others write on a slip of paper the activity and place it in the stocking. On Christmas Eve read the slips of paper together.
If you are near Branson, Missouri, take a trip to Silver Dollar City to celebrate an "Old Fashion Christmas"
Without the child watching, hide several stars around the room. Tell the child that he/she is to be like the Wise Men and find the star that led them to Baby Jesus. Help the child dress the part with a robe and a towel around his/her head (use a belt, safety pin, or robe to hold the towel on).
Have your child assist you in the cards by helping to sign their name and telling you their address. Demonstrate the proper way to address and stamp a card.
Make Gingerbread Houses to review shapes, sorting, and spatial relationships. Purchase a Gingerbread House Kit or use these instructions to make your own.
Print the coloring sheet or the poem on little cards and attach with a ribbon to real candy canes. Add to any gift or use as favors at parties or Christmas gatherings.
View a list of over 55 Christmas children books to wrap and read one book per day as a countdown to Christmas or for Advent.
A shortened version of the video by the same name, your child can read the real story behind Christmas to learn who Santa Claus is, why it's called Christmas, why stockings are hung, who St. Nicolas was, and how it all intertwines together.
Make for your own tree or to giveaway these simple and wonderful smelling ornaments.
Rectangle Christmas Tree. This is a great activity to teach size, sorting, cutting, and gluing.
Make homemade wrapping paper with a brown paper grocery sack or large piece of brown packing paper. Paint, color, or stamp decorations.
Cut out the inside of a paper plate and decorate with cut pieces of construction paper or tissue paper.
Cut out the small Baby Jesus from the Baby Jesus template . On a piece of construction paper, glue enough small pieces of brown and yellow yarn to form a bed. Glue Baby Jesus into the bed. Glue popsicle sticks around the baby to make a manger.
Create a Handprint & Footprint Calendar to give as a gift to a loved one. The instructions include examples to make for each month as well as suggested Bible verses that correspond with the prints.
Place a few macaroni noodles in a zip-top plastic bag. Add couple of drops of vinegar and 4-5 drops of food coloring. Mix to distribute the color. Dye more macaroni in separate bags. Open the top of the bag and let dry. Using the Star Template, place a thin layer of glue on the paper. Add the colored macaroni to create a colorful macaroni star.
Create a handprint Christmas tree on a towel, bag, tablecloth, t-shirt, etc. Could also be used as the "December" Handprint & Footprint Calendar page.
Fold a handkerchief in half, corner to corner. Roll two of the corners of the triangle in towards each other until the rolls touch. Without disturbing the rolls just created, very carefully separate the triangle point. (If you pull too hard the entire thing will fall apart.) Hold the one end while pulling back the other end around the rolls until a cradle is formed. The rolls become a baby. Let the child rock Baby Jesus during story time.
Make Cone Christmas Trees using a sugar ice cream cone, whipped frosting, and candies.
Create a countdown chain to build excitement for Christmas. Also check out this Idea for a classroom setting.
Cut out the stars from the printable on cardstock paper and decorate. Cut on the dotted lines. Slide the cut portion of one star over the cut portion of the other to make a 3D Star. Add a string to hang.
Directions: Mix together the flour and salt. Add in the water. May add food coloring. Knead until smooth. Break off a small section and roll 1/8" thick. Have the child press his foot or hand into the dough to make a print. Let it dry for a few days by flipping periodically or bake at 200 degrees until hard.Make the ornament dough and allow the ornaments to reflect each personality or create a hand or footprint.. Start a tradition by dating the ornaments to look back at years of memories.
Mix dry ingredients in saucepan. Add plain or tinted (food coloring works well) warm water and stir until dissolved. Cook over medium high heat until it resembles play dough. Remove from heat and cool to touch. Kneed on lightly cornstarched surface until smooth and soft. Roll to the desired thickness. Cut with cookie cutters. Add a hand or footprint if desired. Use a straw to make a hole for hanging. Embellish, paint, emboss as desired. Air dry for 24 hours turning one or twice to reduce curling.
Create an angel with a foot for the body and the hands for the wings. Draw a head and face. Add this saying to the back or on the same side if framing: " This little angel is special you see; because she is a part of me. Her wings are my hands, her body my feet. And on the tree she'll look very sweet." Thank you to Lesleigh for this idea.
Decorate the "Happy Birthday, Jesus" title page with glitter, sequins, and stickers. Staple or bind Christmas pages together to form a book. Review the Bible stories as you look through the finished book.
Trace the outlines of the Shepherds Coloring Sheet with a white crayon. Paint over with water colors using q-tips. Glue to a piece of construction paper.
Using the Wise Men Puppets , cut and color each and place on craft sticks. Show the Wise Men following the star.
Using craft supplies like sequins, pompoms, glitter, and stickers, decorate the tree poster.
Print and decorate the tree poster. Add the countdown numbers to build excitement for Christmas Day.
Paint the Angel with watered-down glue. Cover the angel with tissue paper. Paint another layer of glue on top of the tissue paper. Add glitter. Let dry and then cut out.
Cut out each piece of the template and glue together.
Paint both sides of a paper plate brown. Let dry. Using the large baby from the baby Jesus template, cut out and glue the baby inside the paper plate. Fold the sides of the plate in so as to swaddle the baby.
Using pretzels, Hershey Kisses, and M&Ms is a less expensive option to the pretzel/Rolo/pecan bites. Also, adding the M&M allows you to include the M&M Christmas story poem with a gift bag.
Spread margarine on flour tortillas. Sprinkle with cinnamon and sugar. Using a star-shaped cookie cutter, cut stars out of a flour tortilla. Bake approx 10 minutes in 350 degree oven until crisp.
There are a few recipes that make my holiday time complete. Christmas Balls are one of my Christmas musts. I always make a batch of these to include in our gift baskets for neighbors, teachers, and friends as well as some extras for us to eat.
I love sugar cookies but, in my opinion it is hard to find a good sugar cookie. This is the best sugar cookie recipe ever. And instead of being stingy and not sharing it with you, I am going to pass on this amazing cookie recipe so that you can eat them too!
This stuff is so yummy that we have had neighbors call and ask for more! And it is so simple to make that the kids can be actively involved in the process.
Make Jesus a chocolate birthday cake or cupcakes. Allow the child to unwrap butter sticks or separate cupcake wrapper and help frost the cake or cupcakes.
Yellow candle stands for the golden streets of heaven.
To make the colored layers - mix a white cake according to the box/recipe directions. Divide the batter in half. Drop several drops of green food coloring in one half, and red food coloring in the other half. Pour each into 8" round cake pans and bake according to recipe directions. Also bake one 8" round chocolate cake.
When cooled, stack the chocolate layer, red layer in the middle, ending with the green layer with white frosting in between. Frost the entire cake with white frosting. Add yellow decorations and candles to the top.
Read more ideas for hosting a Happy Birthday Jesus Party.
Purchase or use a Nativity set with individual pieces. Place them on a table and have the children close their eyes. Remove one of the pieces and have the children see if they can figure out which piece is missing. After the missing piece is discovered, talk about its significance in the Nativity. For instance, if you take away a Shepherd, explain to the children how an angel appeared to the shepherds in the fields to tell of Jesus' birth.
Using a brown paper grocery sack, cut a hole in the bottom for the child's head and two holes on the sides for the child's arms. Tie at the waist with a belt or rope. Add a towel around the head held on by a belt or rope. Add a staff made out of a wrapping paper roll. Hide a sheep or star and let the child try to find it.
What's In The Bible? Buck Denver Asks...Why Do We Call it Christmas?
Fantastic video to explain the origin of our Christmas traditions.
Adult: (Holding the gift box) Oh, my! Look what I have found today! Hmmm, I wonder how it got here?< wonder who put it here? (Let child respond)What do you think it is?Who do you think it is for?Adult: Well, it is December and I remember that there is a special Holiday this month. Do you remember what holiday it is?Adult: Can you tell me why we have Christmas? (Answers: Jesus’ birthday, to give presents, etc.)Adult: God made a promise a long, long, long time ago of a very special gift. He made the promise way back to Adam and Eve. Do you remember when we talked about Adam and Eve? (If the answer is no, spend just a moment reminding your child about the story of creation.)Adult: God sent special messengers to tell people about a special gift. What do you think we need to do with this gift?Should be open it?Adult: (Slowly open the box and ask questions about each piece of the manger as you bring them out one at a time)Adult: (When all of the items are on the table) I am so glad that God gave us the best gift of all…Jesus. Now let’s see what our Bible say about His special gift.
Using modeling clay or play dough, create your own nativity scene. Have you child tell the story using their creations. This would be a wonderful Family Night activity.
Adult: Today we are celebrating a special occasion. Can you guess what it might be?
Adult: (Looking concerned) Oh no! I forgot one important thing! I forgot to send out the invitations to our birthday party!
Adult: In our story today, we’ll learn that God sent the invitations for Jesus’ birthday through angels. The shepherds came to visit and then they wanted everyone to know that Jesus was born. Let’s find out what our Bible say about this.
Have the children repeat each verse after you.