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Maybe your elf is trapped and needs help getting out! Photo courtesy of Mommy Poppins
December 2 – Get more ideas for your Elf on the Shelf
If you’re like me, yesterday was day one of Elf on the Shelf…and today is the first day I’m already out of ideas! Luckily, we’ve rounded up 50 easy Elf on the Shelf ideas for this year!
December 3 – Make a Gift Day
Whether you celebrate Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or the Solstice, you probably celebrate with gifts. And while kids probably want something off their wish list (or our Gift Guide, if you want to surprise them!), the grownups in the family would adore something handmade by your kids. We have a list of gifts that are fun and easy for kids to make.
December 4 – National Cookie Day
Holidays are all about the cookie: Christmas cookies, Hanukkah cookies, cookie swaps, cookie baskets for teachers, and more. Happily, we polled our editors for their best tried-and-true, easy for kids to help make cookie recipes. Here are our top 10 holiday and Christmas cookie recipes.
December 5 – Walt Disney Day
I’m sure your kids would love tickets to Disneyland or Disney World to celebrate Walt Disney Day, but with the holidays coming up, that’s probably not in the cards. However, it’s so easy to celebrate by watching a classic Disney movie (whichever one is the right age for your kids; there’s something for everyone in the history of Disney flicks!) and making some Mickey Mouse pancakes for dinner!
December 6 – St. Nicholas Day
St. Nicholas is the saint who inspired Santa Claus. Sure, it can be another day to celebrate things in a month packed with holidays, but what I love about this holiday is that it’s a nice excuse to talk to kids about the true meaning of Christmas (to me, at least)—giving to others. To kick the day off, the traditional way of celebrating St. Nicholas Day is to leave a shoe out the night before and find a treat in the shoe on the morning of December 6.
Then spend the day brainstorming things you can do to help family, friends, and neighbors!
December 7 – National Slime Day
Who doesn’t love slime? Today’s a great day to make some slime at home with our easy recipes. But you’d rather not spend the next few days picking slime out of your hair and carpets, you can take it outside the home. SlooMoo, in NYC, Houston, Atlanta, Chicago, and LA is a slime museum where kids can make their own and even get slimed, and they’re hosting a series of fun ways to celebrate.
December 8 – Bodhi Day
Bodhi Day is a Buddhist holiday. The holiday is centered around trees, as it is the day the founder of Buddhism found enlightenment by sitting under a tree (ok, that’s a vast simplification, but works for kids!). Decorate your Christmas tree, Hanukkah bush, or tree in your yard.
You can also eat rice and milk (like rice pudding!), which some Buddhists eat on this day to honor the meal that helped Buddha get his strength back after his fast. And, of course, you can do kind acts for others to improve your karma!
Llama Llama Red Pajama by Anna Dewdney is a fabulous bedtime read on Llama Day! Photo courtesy of Amazon
December 9 – National Llama Day
Llamas have become a bit of a thing in the last few years! Here are fun & easy ways to celebrate llamas with kids!
December 10 – Dewey Decimal System Day
Hear me out: This is a very cool day! This is the birthday of Melvil Dewey, the inventor of the Dewey Decimal System. Established in 1876, it’s the most widely used book classification in the world. It’s used by pretty much every public library in the US, which makes today a great day to visit your public library! Check your local calendar of events for library storytimes and other fun library events.
December 11 – National App Day
It may feel like every day is App Day! But it’s a great day to take the time to look at the apps your kids use, talk with them about them, and maybe discover some great new (free) educational apps and websites for kids.
Kids will flip for the Bakery Bling gingerbread houses, like Unicorn Magical Manor. Photo courtesy of Amazon
December 12 – Gingerbread House Day
Today is the perfect day to make a gingerbread house! You can make your own from ingredients as simple as graham crackers and frosting or buy a kit that’s simple (like the ones at Trader Joe’s) or crazy elaborate (like my favorite house from Bakery Bling).
December 13 – National Cocoa Day
When it’s cold outside, it’s time for cocoa. Make today a day when you make something more elaborate than a Swiss Miss packet. Teach your kids to make a signature hot chocolate customized to their tastes from scratch. From Hot Chocolate Bombs to Unicorn Cocoa, we’ve got 11 of the most unique and best-loved cocoa recipes for kids.
December 14 – Monkey Day
Who doesn’t love monkeying around? Whether you visit the monkeys at your local zoo, bake up some monkey bread, read Curious George, watch George of the Jungle (I know, they’re apes, not monkeys, but who can resist this Brendan Frasier classic?), or just dance around the house to the music of the Monkees, make sure today is more fun than a Barrel of Monkeys!
December 15 – National Cupcake Day
The best way to celebrate Cupcake Day is by eating cupcakes! Make your own or visit a bakery, these kid-sized sweet treats make any day special. Especially National Cupcake Day!
December 16 – Have a holiday movie night!
The holidays get so busy, it’s easy to wake up on Christmas morning and realize you never made time to curl up and watch a Christmas movie! Whether you like The Grinch, Elf, Charlie Brown, or Die Hard, it’s Christmas movie night! Here’s a list of the best family Christmas and holiday movies.
Don we now our ugly Christmas sweaters? Photo by Carol VanHook via Flickr 2.0
December 17 – National Ugly Sweater Day
You don’t have to buy an ugly sweater! If you don’t have an old one from Grandma or a party hanging around, half the fun can be decorating one of your sweaters and DIY it into an ugly sweater!
December 18 – National Twin Day
Since I have twins, this is one of my favorite days! But since only about 2% of kids are twins, you may not have them in your household! However, you and your child can dress as twins, they can go twinsies with a best friend and celebrate their friendship, or even have a party for matching stuffed animals, pets, or toys!
December 19 – Do a holiday-themed science experiment
Have you heard of elephant toothpaste? Well, we’ve got a recipe for reindeer toothpaste that’s perfect for December! Then save a little to leave out for Rudolph to use after he finishes his Christmas snacks!
December 20 – Go Caroling Day
Brush up on your Christmas songs, and go as a family, or get a group together. The easiest way to go caroling is to simply put on festive gear, get a group together, and knock on doors! People will be thrilled and join in. You can also reach out to local retirement communities, who really appreciate the visit and company. Hint: practice a few songs to make sure everyone knows the words.
December 21 – Yule (also known as Winter Solstice)
Winter Solstice is also called Yule (as in, make the Yuletide bright) in Scandinavian countries. It’s the shortest day of the year and celebrates that from then on, each day will have more light and sunshine. It’s a great day to add some more greens and boughs to your decor; you can also try making a Yule log with the kids. Here’s an easy Yule log recipe, perfect for making with kids.
Get kids giggling together with some Christmas jokes! Photo courtesy of Bigstock
December 22 – Tell some Christmas jokes
If you celebrate Christmas, your kids are probably getting very antsy for the big day. Time to bring out the big guns: laughter! Tell some funny Christmas jokes for kids to distract them and leave them giggling.
What do you call a greedy elf? Find out here.
December 23 – Festivus
Speaking of laughs, this Seinfeld-created holiday is just the silliness we could all use to break up the holiday season and the end of the year. “Festivus for the rest of us” is celebrated by holding a Festivus dinner, an unadorned aluminum Festivus pole, the “airing of grievances,” the performing of “feats of strength,” and the labeling of easily explainable events as “Festivus miracles.”
Let your kids determine what to eat, what counts as a feat of strength, and what counts as a miracle. You can create some new traditions, and add to your family’s own annual Festivus celebrations.
December 24 – Christmas Eve
What are your Christmas Eve traditions? Most families who celebrate Christmas have very specific family traditions for Christmas Eve, whether it’s opening one present only, dinner at Grandparents’ houses, leaving cookies for Santa and the reindeer… But get those kids to bed early, so Santa has time to work his magic!
Magic happens when Hanukkah and Christmas collide. Photo by Cotton Bro Studios via Pexels
December 25 – Christmas Day AND First Night of Hanukkah
Remember the year of Thanksgivikah, when Thanksgiving and Hanukkah collided? Well, this year it’s even crazier; it’s Chrimakkah! Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah! If you celebrate both holidays (my family does), you can begin the day with stockings and end it with lighting candles on the menorah.
We’ve filled the whole month with Christmas activities, so let’s let today’s activity be learning about the wonderful ways families can celebrate Hanukkah with kids.
December 26 – First Day of Kwanzaa
December 26 is the first day of Kwanzaa and it lasts through January 1. Kwanzaa is a celebration of African American culture and heritage. While Kwanzaa isn’t an African holiday, the celebrations are inspired by many African cultural practices.
Candles are lit, gifts are exchanged, and meals filled with foods with roots in African cultures are common ways of celebrating. If your family doesn’t celebrate Kwanzaa, read more about the history of the Kwanzaa and practices here, and teach your kids about the holiday.
December 27 – Visit the Zoo Day
The presents are opened and the weather outside just might be frightful, prompting you to hibernate inside. But to celebrate Visit the Zoo Day, get out there and get some fresh air and visit your local zoo! See which animals are active in the winter, and visit the cozy warm reptile houses, too.
If you have a deck of cards, you’re never bored. Photo by Kaylynn Chiarello Ebner
December 28 – Card Playing Day
There’s a day for everything! And today is a great day to learn the rules of a new game of cards (or three) and have a family tournament. We rounded up the best card games for kids of all ages, from Old Maid and Go Fish to Spit and Spoons.
December 29 – Write Thank You cards
So… it’s time to pay the piper. You get the presents, you gotta do the thank yous. Set aside some time for your kids to write genuine and heartfelt thank yous to everyone who sent them a present. Be sure to include what the gift is and why it means so much to them! Even the littlest of kids can scribble in crayons on a thank you you write for them.
December 30 – Resolution Day
Time to think about those resolutions for the new year. Have the whole family sit down and think about what they want to accomplish in the following year, write it down, and share it with each other. Put the resolutions away to look at next year and see how well everyone did achieving their goals!
December 31 – New Year’s Eve!
Happy New Year’s Eve! We’ve rounded up a bunch of ways to celebrate with the whole family at home, as well as some unique ideas for NYE celebrations from around the world.
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