21 Things to Do for Christmas 2026

The ideas below run from free neighborhood light drives to ticketed ballet seats, and the one that fits depends on whether you have a free afternoon, a free evening, or a little cash to spare.

A cast-iron skillet of toasted marshmallows and chocolate chips takes the same hour as paper snowflakes, and both work with supplies already in the kitchen.

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1. Walk-Through Winter WonderLights Show

A half-mile path of light tunnels and illuminated displays turns an ordinary evening walk into something worth bundling up for. Winter WonderLights shows string lights through plant collections and along garden paths that look completely different after dark.

Most of these shows run from late November into early January, with timed entry tickets that keep the path from crowding.

Dress warmer than you think; standing still in front of a display chills you faster than the walk itself. Weeknight slots cost less and draw smaller crowds, which matters when you’re trying to photograph the tunnel without strangers in frame.

Bring cash for the parking lot, check whether strollers are allowed on the path, and expect the whole loop to take longer than you think.

For 41 magical nights, 600 drones will soar into the sky, creating breathtaking holiday-themed animations. See these dazzling displays from across the city every night at 7 p.m. for free.

— Visit Denver

2. Gingerbread House Decorating

Gingerbread architecture works at every skill level, which is why it survives as a December tradition. Most families start simpler.

A kit from the grocery store includes pre-baked walls, icing in a piping bag, and candy you will supplement with better candy.

Making dough from scratch adds an afternoon and requires a template cut from cardboard, but the walls taste like actual gingerbread instead of compressed cracker.

Royal icing, not the stuff in the kit, is the adhesive that holds; beat it stiff enough that a knife dragged through leaves a clean groove.

Set a one-hour decorating limit if children are involved. The house will look more chaotic and more memorable.

3. Go to a Tree Lighting Ceremony

A tree lighting gathers people who do not otherwise attend community events, which is its particular value.

You stand in cold air with neighbors, the countdown happens, and for a moment the commercial preparation of the past weeks feels like shared anticipation.

The Olathe, Kansas ceremony runs 5:30 to 8:00 pm with live music and Santa; Austin’s Zilker Tree uses over 3,300 lights on a 150-foot structure that dominates the skyline.

Most towns run something similar, often on a Friday or Saturday evening in early December. Check whether your downtown library, city hall, or main street association hosts one; they rarely advertise beyond a Facebook event and a local news brief.

Arrive 30 minutes before the announced time for parking that does not require a ten-block walk. Bring a thermos; hot chocolate sold on site is usually overpriced and lukewarm.

4. Christmas Cookie Baking

Christmas cookies justify the one afternoon a year when flour covers every surface and no one hurries the process.

Snowmen, trees, gingerbread figures, and snowflakes are the standard shapes that hold up year after year. What makes them work is the decorating, which children can manage at any age with varying levels of mess.

A three-ingredient shortbread dough, butter and sugar and flour in a ratio that forgives imprecise measuring, forms the base if you want reliability.

Molasses cookies add spice and chew; sugar cookies take color best. The youngest helper can press sprinkles; older ones pipe icing from a bag with the corner snipped.

Bake the plain shapes a day ahead. Fresh-baked cookies soften under wet icing and lose their edges.

5. Letters to Santa

A letter to Santa forces children to articulate what they actually want, which is harder than it sounds and more useful to parents than any wish list app.

Pre-printed "Dear Santa" sheets give structure for children who stall at a blank page.

Grandview, Missouri runs a North Pole Mailbox at City Hall from November 28 to December 10, with letters dropped by the 8th receiving a reply; include your child’s name and address clearly.

If your town has no such program, a grandparent or family friend answers just as well.

Older children who no longer believe can write a letter of reflection instead, listing what went well this year and what they hope to improve.

Save the replies. They read differently a decade later.

6. Go Ice Skating

Outdoor ice skating in December is half activity and half atmosphere; a rink in a city square with a decorated tree behind it is the combination people travel for.

Most pop-up rinks run through early January and include skate rental in the admission price, typically charged per person for a timed session.

Arrive at opening for the smoothest ice and the shortest line; later in the evening the surface chips and the music gets louder. Dress in layers you can shed after the first lap; skating warms you faster than walking.

Call ahead to confirm hours; weather closes outdoor rinks more often than websites update.

7. KC Ballet’s the Nutcracker

The Nutcracker at KC Ballet leans into spectacle: dancing mice, Sugar Plums, and a full snowfall sequence across the stage. Some regional companies cast local celebrities as Mother Ginger, which turns the second act into a guessing game for regulars.

Tickets for a touring Nutcracker often start cheap for upper balcony seats and climb steeply for orchestra center.

The performances right before Christmas sell out first; a weeknight in early December costs less and leaves you less rushed. Young children rarely sit through the full running time; the matinee draws more families and more bathroom breaks.

Dress ranges from holiday sweaters to full formality.

I would choose the middle: dark jeans and a jacket, or a simple dress. You will not feel out of place.

8. Hot Chocolate Bar

A hot chocolate bar works for the same reason a taco bar works: everyone builds what they actually want. A labeled wooden stand, a ceramic pot, and a glass canister of marshmallows is enough structure to start from.

Set out 3 toppings minimum, or the choice feels thin. Marshmallows, whipped cream, and one flavored syrup, peppermint or caramel, cover most preferences.

A thick, proper hot chocolate, made from actual chocolate melted into milk and cream, comes together fast on the stove and tastes nothing like powder. For a crowd, keep it warm in a slow cooker on low.

Mugs matter more than you think. Matching ones, or one per person with a name or a role, make the setup feel intentional rather than accidental.

9. Attend a Christmas Eve Service

A Christmas Eve service compresses the holiday into an hour of stillness, which is the point.

Most churches run one or more times that evening; the late service tends to fill with people who do not otherwise attend, which changes the atmosphere, not always for the better.

Candlelight services follow a reliable shape: scripture, carols, a short message, then lights dimmed and candles lit from the Christ candle at the front, passed hand to hand through the rows.

The room warms visibly. Some congregations end with a spoken refrain about light; others sing Silent Night in near-darkness.

Arrive well before the service starts for seating that does not require squeezing past full pews. Invite someone who would not go alone; the invitation is often the harder part for them.

10. Attend a Christmas Craft Fair

A Christmas craft fair is where you find the gift that did not exist before you saw it. Red plaid cloth, clear bins, and small labeled items, lip balms and wrapped chocolates, is the scale most vendors work at.

Cash still moves faster than card readers at indoor markets; bring small bills. Prices run lower than retail for comparable handmade work because no middleman takes a cut, but not so low that the maker earns nothing.

The best time to shop is the first hour of the first day, before the one-of-a-kind pieces sell.

Talk to the person behind the table. They made what you are holding, and they will tell you what it is made of and whether it can be customized.

11. Christmas Tree Trimming

Trimming the tree spreads one task across an evening so no one person carries it. Red baubles, berries, and large glowing spheres make a coherent palette built from 2 colors and a texture.

Start with lights, working from the trunk outward so the tree glows from inside.

Ornaments come last, hung by the children first, then adjusted by adults after they sleep. A new ornament each year, dated on the back, builds a collection that tells its own history by the time the children leave home.

Holiday music and hot chocolate are not required, but they slow the process down to the speed it ought to run.

12. Make Christmas Ornaments

Homemade ornaments survive on a tree for years and carry the date and the maker in a way store-bought ones cannot. Resin, glitter, and shaped forms require a mold and curing time; most families start simpler.

Salt dough, flour and salt and water baked hard, takes an afternoon and holds a child’s handprint or a cookie-cutter shape.

Paper, glue, and any decoration within reach, sequins or buttons or scraps of ribbon, works for an afternoon with no planning. Painting kits and pom-pom kits, pre-packaged with instructions, keep the project from stalling when creativity runs dry.

Hang the best one front and center. The child who made it will check.

13. Nativity Centerpiece

A nativity scene on the table keeps the holiday anchored in something quieter than the surrounding noise.

The figurines, wood or ceramic or the painted resin kind passed down, sit well on a slice of tree trunk with greenery and a single poinsettia clipped short.

My mother kept the baby Jesus in his box until Christmas morning; the empty manger made the waiting visible. Pinecones, a few red ornaments, and evergreen sprigs fill gaps without crowding the figures.

This suits the family that already owns a set and wants it seen rather than stored. The display arranges fast and costs nothing if the materials come from the yard and the ornament box.

14. Attend a Christmas Parade

Christmas parades draw the people who would not attend a parade in July; cold air and lights change the equation.

The 9NEWS Parade of Lights in Denver runs December 5 with 40-plus units, illuminated floats, marching bands, and character balloons filling downtown streets. A local mascot or 2 opens the route, and Santa closes it.

Arrive well before start time for curb seating; the front row goes to those who stake it out with folding chairs and blankets. Standing still in cold air drains body heat faster than walking, so plan for it.

15. Make Paper Snowflakes

Paper snowflakes reward the one tool every household already owns: scissors.

A square of white printer paper, folded into triangles, cut along the edges, opened to a pattern that never repeats.

Templates from a quick image search rescue those who freeze at a blank fold. The cuts need not be intricate; children manage simple shapes, and simple shapes strung on thread read as snow from across a room.

Tape them to windows where daylight shows the cutwork, or hang them from ceiling fixtures with invisible thread. The paper yellows by January; that is the nature of it, and part of the point.

16. Make Christmas Cards

A handmade card carries weight that a printed envelope does not, especially when the recipient recognizes the hand that made it.

Fingerprint reindeer, three in a row, with red heart noses and a marker-drawn greeting, is the level most families reach.

Craft-store kits with cards and embellishments keep the project from stalling; I prefer them to starting from blank stock, which intimidates. The work takes one cold afternoon, spread across a kitchen table covered in newspaper.

Mail them early, the week of December 10, or they arrive as afterthoughts. The ones you hand-deliver can wait; the postal system cannot.

17. Look at Neighborhood Christmas Lights

Driving to look at lights turns an ordinary evening into something the children remember, and costs only gas and time.

The best displays cluster in neighborhoods where competition has operated for years; one house adds a projection, the next responds with synchronized music.

A thermos of hot chocolate and a blanket for sitting outside extends the outing past a quick drive-by. Some families rate houses; others simply point.

Start after sunset and plan enough time to walk or drive without rushing. Weeknights mean less traffic and more willingness of homeowners to keep everything lit and running.

18. Holiday Gift Exchange Game

A gift exchange game solves the problem of uneven giving in a large group, where not everyone knows everyone well enough to buy specifically.

Numbered bags or wrapped boxes line a counter; participants roll dice or draw numbers to select and steal in sequence.

The ornament-and-muffin-tin method uses a roll to determine which bag you claim, with rules for swapping that vary by family. A firm price limit keeps the exchange from becoming a competition of spending.

Set the rules before you start. Arguments over whether a stolen gift can be stolen back have ended more than one holiday gathering.

19. Make Christmas Tree Pizzas

Pizza dough shaped into triangles turns dinner into something the children help build. 2 personal-sized trees fit on a standard baking sheet with parchment underneath; wine glasses alongside suggest this scales up to adults after bedtime.

Sauce spreads as the trunk, cheese fills the branches, and pepperoni or vegetables become ornaments placed by hand.

Store dough from the refrigerator case saves an hour; homemade saves money. The shape handles uneven spreading better than a round, since the edges are meant to look organic.

Bake until the points brown; they cook faster than the base. A green salad on the side completes the plate without competing for attention.

20. Bake S’mores Dip

A baking dish of toasted marshmallows, served with cookies for scooping, brings the campfire inside without the smoke.

Chocolate chips form the base, marshmallows blanket the top, and a hot oven does the toasting fast.

A Christmas tree cookie works as the dipping vehicle, which suggests shortbread or graham crackers both work. A star-topped spoon is festive staging; a ordinary spoon performs the same function.

This is rich enough that a small dish stretches a long way. Do not attempt to cut it into neat portions; the scooping is the point.

21. Bubble Wrap Painting Craft

Bubble wrap pressed paint-side-down onto paper prints a dotted texture no brush replicates. Finger paint in bottles, a palette, and a finished ornament shape in red, yellow, and green show the craft is the printing, not the drawing.

Cut the bubble wrap to the size of the shape you want, paint the raised side, and press once.

Second presses fade, so one piece of wrap yields one clean print. The photo includes a small Santa figure, which suggests this suits an afternoon with holiday music running and no precise outcome required.

Paper, not card stock, wrinkles under wet paint; tape the corners down first. The bubbles flatten with use; save fresh wrap for the best results.

Family-oriented Activities

The best projects pull in whoever is around the table.

The gingerbread house has a one-hour limit because children lose interest; the tree trimming works because no one person carries it. Even the hot chocolate bar is structured around choice, which only matters when more than one preference is present.

The salt dough ornaments, the paper snowflakes, the fingerprint cards: all of them use supplies already on hand.

The weekend timeline matters here. A Saturday afternoon with flour on the counter and a movie running in the background is the shape most families actually have available.

The one rule I would add: start before anyone asks to. The mood shifts when a parent is already spreading newspaper on the table versus when a child has begged for it.

Budget-friendly Options

Most of these cost little or nothing at all.

The walk-through light show is the most expensive at typical ticket prices, and even that has a workaround: many neighborhoods now run displays that rival the paid versions, funded by homeowners competing over years.

The craft fair is where budgeting gets interesting. A beeswax candle in a jar, explained by the person who poured it, covers a hostess gift better than a department-store equivalent.

I looked into what the budget bloggers actually spend. Their rule, repeated across sources, is to allocate money to gifts and giving first, then fit the festivities around what remains.

The free activities are not second-best; they are the structure that makes the season last longer than the credit-card statement.

Community Involvement

3 ways to participate without planning anything yourself: the tree lighting, the parade, and the Christmas Eve service. Each one exists because someone else organized it, and each one is stronger for the crowd it draws.

Volunteering is the gap. Greeting, holding doors, and handing out candles at a church on Christmas Eve; the shift is short, the training is none, and the need is real.

Soup kitchens and charities run heavier schedules in December and staff them with whoever appears.

Families rarely volunteer together unless one member already has the connection. The invitation to a first-timer usually comes from inside the organization, not from a general announcement.

If you attend a service regularly, ask the coordinator what they need. If you do not, the North Pole Mailbox program in Grandview is a model worth copying: a single task, a clear deadline, a visible result.

Crafting and Creativity

The list includes four distinct craft projects with different time and skill requirements.

What the sources emphasized, and what the list confirms, is that the output matters less than the date on it.

The dated ornament, the fingerprint reindeer card, the paper snowflake that yellows by January: all of them carry the year they were made.

A child checking that their work hangs front and center is the feedback loop that makes the effort repeatable.

My own preference, after reading through the options, is for the kit over the blank start.

Pre-packaged supplies with instructions remove the decision point where many projects die. The newspaper-covered table and the afternoon spread across it is the tradition; the specific craft is replaceable.

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