Looking for ideas on how to have a more Christ centered Christmas this year? We’ve rounded up our favorite ideas and designed some printables to help you celebrate the reason for the season – the gift of Jesus Christ and His message of love and joy. Read below for our 12 favorite Christ centered Christmas activities and traditions that can help you incorporate Christ more into your holiday festivities.
We love decorating for Christmas with nativity sets so of course we had to make our own DIY nativity with the kids! This toilet paper roll nativity craft is a fun and easy kids activity that allows you to talk about the birth of Jesus Christ while you’re coloring and assembling. Have the kids draw their own nativity or download our printable nativity craft.
Read along in Luke 2 while the kids use puppets to tell the story of Christ’s birth. Some years we have the kids dress in costumes and act out the nativity, but you could easily mix it up and use puppets and scenes to tell the Christmas story of Jesus Christ’s birth.
Have mini devotionals throughout the month of December and choose a Christmas coloring page to go along with the lesson / thought. You could spend time talking about each person in the nativity story for each devotional: Mary, Joseph, the innkeeper, the shepherds, angels, wisemen, etc. You could also find themes that you can discuss with your kids like making room for Christ, etc. We keep the devotionals short and sweet!
Read one advent story card a day to go along with the story found in the New Testament. You could combine the nativity advent story cards with our nativity coloring pages. Use each story card as the topic for your mini devotional for the day!
Put on a Christmas movie and color with the kids. We’ve got a giant nativity coloring poster you could color together while you watch a fun Christmas movie. The best gift you can give your kids this Christmas is spending time with them and creating simple memories.
Plan your December with our calendar / bucket list and then countdown to Christmas by coloring a picture a day! We love these giant coloring posters that are actually 24×36” blueprint / engineer prints. You can print them at any print shop and they only cost a few dollars. We love planning fun activities throughout the month of December so this is the perfect printable to keep track of all your events and activities. Use this printable to create a bucket list of all the things you want to do during the holiday season. Traditions like gingerbread houses, looking at lights, a Christmas movie, Christmas craft, scavenger hunt, small acts of service, etc. Then put them on the calendar as you plan each week. Try to cross off your Christmas bucket list throughout the month.
Try to complete 25 acts of kindness throughout the month of December. You could use our countdown to Christmas coloring poster to keep track of your acts of kindness. Color in a picture each time you complete an act of service to keep track of your goal. Use the calendar to plan what you want to do each week. It can be small things like visiting a neighbor, taking a treat to someone who is lonely, volunteering to babysit for a young couple, putting away shopping carts, volunteering at the school, messaging loved ones, leaving random notes of appreciation and words of encouragement on cars, etc. Also big things like participating in a Sub-4-Santa, making stockings to hand out to the homeless, organizing friends and family to go Christmas caroling. Make it a goal to spread love and kindness throughout the holiday season and do 25 acts of kindness this Christmas!
Have a small lesson on Christ’s birth and then play a fun game of Nativity BINGO.
Another twist on a classic game, but Christ centered. We always like to end our mini devotionals and family discussions with a game and treat. Mix it up and play a Christmas version of the Don’t Eat Pete that we call “Don’t Eat Christmas!” This is also fun to add to a primary lesson for church. Instructions for playing are included in the printable.
We actually used this idea at our church Christmas party. We sent the kids on a nativity scavenger hunt (throughout the gym) and gave them a prize for finding all the nativity characters. Make it as challenging or easy as needed. This is a fun and simple activity for all age levels and would work great for a ward activity, primary activity, or a family fun night.
Join Christians all over the world and participate in “Light the World.” Share the light of Christ with others by loving, lifting, and helping someone everyday this Christmas season. There are lots of free printables with easy ideas on how to let your light shine!
Make ornaments with the names of Christ and add them to your tree. Have a family lesson or family discussion about what each name represents.
We hope you can use some of our favorite ideas to add more Christ into your Christmas traditions this year. For more Christmas printables, check out all our posts here.
Mele Kalikimaka and happy holidays friends!!
Much love and aloha,
Stacey + Niki
Aloha Friends! We hope to inspire you to create magical memories with your ohana through play, learning, and celebrating. We offer ideas that make celebrating and playing fun and easy, so that you want to do it more often! We love sharing our creativity and talents with you, and hope you find some content on our page that inspires you to create a beautiful life with your ohana.
