67 Ways to Celebrate the Season (Printable)

Just before Thanksgiving each year, our family prints out the following list of 67 Ways to Celebrate the Season. We post it on our bulletin board for easy reference and use it to jog our memory concerning all the different activities and events we’ve enjoyed during Christmases past.

The children helped me generate our original “Countdown to Christmas” list years ago, and we continue to add to it as we discover new traditions we want to make a part of our family’s holiday celebrations.

The list reminds us to enjoy small, simple pleasures that make this time of year so memorable for our little ones. We don’t try to do everything on our bucket list. That’s not the point. We just pick and choose whatever activities appeal to us or fit our schedules this year.

Try making a “Countdown to Christmas” List with your own family this year. You can use ours to get started or compile one of your own from scratch!

67 Simple Ways to Celebrate the Season

1. take family photo for Christmas cards

2. hang house lights

3. put Christmas music in speaker system/ cars

4. wrap/unwrap/read 25 books before Christmas

5. Christmas card assembly line: work together

6. make Candy Kiss Christmas Chains

7. decorate Christmas tree(s)

8. host shoebox stuffing party for “Operation Christmas Child”

9. re-read old Christmas letters aloud

10. read Family Devotions for Advent Season

11. review Luke 2 and quote from memory

12. watch It’s a Wonderful Life

13. ring bell for Salvation Army

14. read Dicken’s Christmas Stories

15. make hot cocoa

16. visit Christmas tree farm/ buy clippings

17. have birthday party for Jesus

18. read/ watch The Gift of the Magi

19. make thank-you gifts for pastors/teachers

20. watch Little Drummer Boy

21. play Christmas Charades

22. read/watch A Christmas Carol

23. read/watch How the Grinch Stole Christmas

24. sing carols around the fire

25. read The First Night

26. have family Christmas piano recital

27. make fantasy fudge

28. watch Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer

29. take pumpkin or banana nut bread to neighbors

30. read Year of the Perfect Christmas Tree

31. make Christmas ornaments or crafts

32. give baking to mail-carrier/garbage men

33. drive around to look at lights

34. string popcorn/cranberries for outside tree

35. make gingerbread house

36. take coffee/donations to bell ringers

37. watch/read Little House Christmas

38. visit a drive-through or walk-through Nativity at a local church

39. make cathedral window cookies

40. take cookies to girls in Dad’s office

41. sing/ play instruments for church program

42. watch Frosty the Snowman

43. listen to/ sing along with Handel’s Messiah

44. attend home school Christmas party

45. watch Elf

46. make sausage balls

47. work Twelve Days of Christmas jigsaw puzzle

48. bake Christmas cookies

49. make s’mores in drive-way; invite neighbors?

50. watch White Christmas

51. shop at a local church or school holiday craft fair

52. see The Nutcracker ballet at community college

53. watch Miracle on 34th Street (old version)

54. jog in Rudolph Family Fun Run

55. go ice-skating

56. go Christmas caroling

57. play Christmas party games as family

58. act out Christmas story with little ones

59. attend Emerald Ball with teens

60. tell Christmas story with advent gift boxes

61. watch Star of Bethlehem

62. drink hot apple cider

63. make/buy sibling stocking stuffers

64. take kids Christmas shopping (for others)

65. visit Six Flags Holiday in the Park

66. eat traditional Christmas breakfast

67. think/pray about/ make New Year’s resolutions

To print a plain-text version of our original 67 Ways to Celebrate the Season list, follow this link. For a prettier, updated version of our “Countdown to Christmas,” simply click on the image below:

Incidentally, if you are looking for another way to make this season more meaningful, take a look at my new devotional journal for advent, Joy to the World. It will help focus your thoughts and anchor your heart to the real reason we celebrate Christmas.