A plan for parents and teachers

Christmas Activities for Kids, Ages 3 to 9

Christmas Day is Friday, December 25, 2026. Here is a plan for the whole stretch, from the first of December to New Year’s Eve, with the ages and what you need for each idea.

December with young children is long and busy, and short on quiet hours. The trick is to have a few good things ready before you need them.

Each idea below says who it suits, where it works and what you need. Every one uses something real: a book, a free sheet from this site, or a printable from our shop that you can print at home.

December 1 to 24: a countdown to color

The Christmas Coloring and Activity Pack ($5.79, ages 4 to 9) has a Countdown Tree with 24 shapes. Color one each day from December 1, and the tree is full on Christmas Eve. The same pack has 12 coloring pages and 15 activities, from mazes and word searches to a Design an Ornament page and a wish list.

Want more pages? Little Panda's Christmas Activity Book ($7.99) is 100 pages for ages 4 to 9. Nine of the pack’s twelve coloring pictures are in the book too, so most families need one or the other, not both.

December 12 to 24: a story a night

Little Panda and the Winter of Giving is thirteen bedtime stories, about five minutes each, for ages 3 to 8. The first frost has come to the bamboo grove, Little Panda’s friend Hamish MacCoo has gone quiet, and Little Panda starts asking questions. Why is Christmas on the twenty-fifth of December? Who was the real man called Nicholas? Which poem built the sleigh? In the last story, he finds a gift for his homesick friend that costs nothing at all.

Start on Saturday, December 12, and read one story a night. The last one lands on Christmas Eve. At the back there are thirteen coloring pages and a Word Nook of new words.

The full book is $17.99 in paperback. Volume 1, with the first seven stories, is $14.99.

Activities for the season

Pick a few. The ones a child remembers are usually the simple ones done together.

Class party: picture bingo

  • For ages 4 and up
  • Where A class party or a family evening

You need: Christmas Picture Bingo ($5.79). The markers are in the pack.

  1. Print one card per child. There are 40 different cards, enough for a whole class.
  2. The 36 calling cards show a picture and its name, so children who cannot read yet can still play.
  3. Let each winner be the next caller.

Christmas Eve: family games

  • For ages 6 and up
  • Where Around the table or on the floor

You need: The Christmas Party Games Bundle ($5.95), pencils, scissors and a die.

  1. Start with Roll-a-Snowman: roll the die and draw the part of the snowman it calls for. The first full snowman wins.
  2. Then the Left-Right Gift Pass, a story with Little Panda in it. Pass a small wrapped gift left or right each time the story says so.
  3. Finish with the Snowy Mazes. There are two levels, so a younger and an older child can race on their own maze.

Grandparents and kids: trivia from a bowl

  • For ages 8 and up
  • Where The table, after dinner

You need: The Christmas Trivia Game ($5.79) and scissors.

  1. Cut out the question cards and put them in a bowl. Each card has its answer printed upside down, so nobody has to be the quizmaster.
  2. Make mixed teams, such as one child with one grandparent.
  3. Start with the easy rounds. The first of the eight is called Little Ones, and the last is the Tricky Round.
  4. The questions stick to nature, winter animals, food, old carols and rhymes, and two old Christmas stories. Nothing comes from films or TV, so nobody needs to have watched anything.

Wrapping day: tags to color

  • For ages 4 to 9
  • Where The kitchen table, while you wrap

You need: The Gift Tags to Color page in the Coloring and Activity Pack, or the Christmas Gift Tags and Cards Set printed in its ink-saving edition, which prints as outlines to color.

  1. Let your child color the tags while you wrap.
  2. Children who can write fill in the To and From lines.
  3. A grown-up does the cutting.

A gift that costs nothing

  • For ages 3 to 8
  • Where At home, the week before Christmas

You need: Plain paper, or the gift coupons in the Christmas Gift Tags and Cards Set ($5.79): four are left blank to fill in.

  1. Ask your child: what could you give that nobody has to buy?
  2. Help them write or draw it on a coupon: a song, a story read by me, a turn choosing the game.
  3. Wrap it and put it under the tree with the others.

Travel days: the car and the plane

  • For ages 4 to 9
  • Where In the car, at the airport, on the plane

You need: Little Panda's Road Trip Activity Book or Little Panda's Airplane Travel Activity Book, $7.99 each, and a clipboard.

  1. Print the games first: spotting lists, bingo and I spy to play through the window.
  2. The airplane book has games you can play without a pencil, like cloud pictures and would you rather, for take-off and landing.
  3. Nothing in either book needs scissors or glue.

The week after Christmas: winter pages

  • For ages 4 to 9
  • Where Indoors on a cold afternoon

You need: Little Panda's Winter Activity Book ($7.99), 100 pages.

  1. Snowmen, penguins, polar bear cubs, mittens, skates and hot cocoa. It is about winter itself, from the first frost to the last snowball, so it keeps working into January.
  2. Print a few pages at a time. Every puzzle is marked easy, medium or tricky.
  3. Thank-you notes fit this week too: the Gift Tags and Cards Set has four fill-in-the-blank thank-you notes written for children.

Bedtime: a reading log for the break

  • For ages 4 to 8
  • Where At bedtime

You need: The free reading log.

  1. Write one line for each story you read together.
  2. Let your child color in the stars after each one, even if the answer is one star.
  3. When the page is full, add up the minutes and start a new one.

New Year’s Eve with young children

Most young children will not see midnight, and they do not need to. A countdown at noon or at bedtime is just as exciting when you are four.

Little Panda and the First Footstep of the Year ($17.99, ages 3 to 8) is the next book in the same series. It is the last week of the year, Hamish MacCoo is packing to go home to Scotland, and Little Panda has to learn to be glad for a friend who is leaving. Along the way he finds out why Scotland saves its best night for last, why a house is swept clean before midnight, and who should be first through the door. Thirteen stories again, about five minutes each.

That last question is first-footing, a Scottish New Year custom. The first visitor through the door after midnight is said to bring the luck for the year, and they bring small gifts. In the book, Little Panda carries coal, shortbread and salt. Vietnamese families keep a similar custom at Tết, called xông đất, which our Lunar New Year guide explains.

  • Be the first foot. At your family’s “midnight,” let your child step outside, knock, and be the first one in with something small in hand: a cookie, a coin, a note.
  • Count down at noon. The New Year’s Eve Party Games Bundle: Modern Minimalist ($5.79) is made for grown-ups to run, but its countdown tags and signs only say how long is left, never a time on the clock, so they work for a noon party too. Several pages are written for younger guests: Kids’ Resolutions, the New Year Interview, a kids’ word search, Which Month Am I? and a countdown scavenger hunt.
  • Make one small promise. Ask your child for one thing they will do next year, small enough to keep. Write it down and read it again next New Year’s Eve.

What to print, and what it costs

Every printable comes in US Letter and A4, and you can download it right after checkout. Print at home or at a print shop.

The Christmas and winter printables on this page

See all Christmas printables

Looking for a gift instead?

If you are choosing a book to give rather than things to do, the Christmas book gift guide sorts the children’s books by age, by what the child is like and by price. If Thanksgiving is still ahead of you, start with Thanksgiving activities for kids. And after New Year’s comes Lunar New Year, on Saturday, February 6, 2027.

Books for December and New Year’s Eve

Bedtime stories for ages 3 to 8, thirteen in each full book. Volume 1 of the Christmas book has the first seven.

Common questions

When is Christmas 2026?

Christmas Day is Friday, December 25, 2026, and Christmas Eve is Thursday, December 24. New Year’s Eve is Thursday, December 31.

What are good Christmas activities for a class party?

Picture bingo is the easiest. Christmas Picture Bingo has 40 different cards and picture calling cards, so a full class can play and nobody needs to read. For older grades, add trivia cards drawn from a bowl.

What can kids do on Christmas Eve?

Something calm that still feels special: the last story of a December read-aloud, a family game such as a left and right gift pass, or coloring gift tags while the grown-ups wrap.

How do I keep kids busy over winter break without screens?

Have a few things ready before the break starts: an activity book with pages marked easy, medium and tricky, a game for the evenings, and a story a night. Print a few pages at a time, so there is always something new.

How can a young child celebrate New Year’s Eve without staying up until midnight?

Count down at noon or at bedtime instead. Then let your child be the first one through the door after your countdown, the way first-footing works in Scotland, and write down one small promise for the new year.

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