10 Cheap Holiday Activities
The holidays don’t need to be expensive to be fun! Creating traditions is the most important part.
With the holidays just around the corner, so many of us are looking for fun, holiday activities to do with our families. I’m a huge fan of holiday traditions. It simply doesn’t feel like the holidays if I don’t decorate a gingerbread house or sniff a Christmas tree. However, between gifts, Christmas events and regular monthly expenses, December can get expensive. Whereas I do think holiday traditions with friends and family are important, you don’t need to spend a ton of money to create memories.
Here are my 10 favorite holiday activities on a budget:
1. Make Christmas cookies or decorate a gingerbread house
I’m not sure why the Christmas holidays get their own special cookies, but I do know I want all of them! Something about eating a cookie in the shape of a mitten makes the holidays happier. As a kid (and as an adult too), my mom would make the dough and I was in charge of decorating with sprinkles and being the official Taste Tester.
Decorating a gingerbread house is also a lot of fun. There are a lot of semi-prepared kits out there for about $20, where you just have to stick the house together and decorate with candies. When I was a kid, a neighbor would throw a holiday party for all the kids in the neighborhood and we’d make graham cracker gingerbread houses (this would also be a great idea for any December birthday parties).
2. Watch Christmas movies with a bowl of popcorn
Christmas doesn’t feel like Christmas if I haven’t watched Elf, A Christmas Story, Grinch and A Christmas Carol. I love having movie night, making a big bowl of popcorn and putting on my favorite Christmas movies. If I’m being honest, I probably watch Elf 3-4 times every December. Just make sure you have enough popcorn.
3. Decorate a Christmas tree
Decorating the Christmas tree was a pretty big deal in my family. Every year, my mom would buy me a new ornament that “represented” that year. Maybe it was a sport that I played, a place we traveled, or my favorite movie character from that year. As I got older, I accumulated more and more ornaments. I love pulling out my boxes of ornaments every year and unwrapping my favorite ones. It gives me a little trip down memory lane every year.
4. Make ornaments
Instead of buying ornaments, why not make them? You can find some really cute DIY ornaments online or buy supplies at a local craft store. Kid-decorated ornaments are always fun and a great gift for grandma and grandpa, but you can also find more sophisticated ornaments as well. During 2020 when I couldn’t come home for Christmas, I made bottle cap snowmen and wine cork reindeer ornaments to decorate my tree.
Homemade ornaments can be a fun, cheap craft for kids and a cute decoration for the tree!
5. Make paper snowflakes
One of my favorite holiday decorations is paper snowflakes. I hang dozens and dozens of them in my living room because it gives great Winter Wonderland vibes.
If you want to turn it into a craft project for kids, you can give them some paint or glitter glue and let them decorate the snowflakes.
6. Ice skating
Although not a free activity, ice skating is a holiday must-do. Tickets are usually about $10 per person and give you a couple hours of skating. Most skating rinks also play holiday music, and some even have fake snow and lights. Usually you get to see at least one newbie pulling themselves along on the railing. It’s a fun time.
7. Local festivals, parades, free holiday events
My city has tons of holiday events. There are lots of holiday markets (browsing is free 🙂), parades and festivals. There are local tree lightings, Santa meet-and-greets, and tours of some of the historic homes. My city also hosts a boat parade, where locals that keep their boats in the marina can decorate their boats with lights and “parade” down the river.
8. Cookie exchange
One of my favorite activities, that seems to be growing in popularity, is a cookie exchange. It’s like a holiday party, but everyone has to bring a different cookie. You exchange cookies and everyone goes home with a plate of a variety of cookies. It’s a great way to get together with friends, without having to pay for any kind of Secret Santa gift.
A cookie exchange can be a great way to get together with friends, without having to spend lots of money. And you get to take home the cookies!
9. Drive around the neighborhood looking for your favorite lights and decorations
We did this all the time when I was a kid, and even as an adult it’s still one of my favorite activities. I drive, or walk, around the neighborhood and look for the best lights and decorations (you really only have to do this once to know which of your neighbors go all-out for Christmas). It’s always fun to see the neighborhoods lit up with twinkling lights.
10. Read “Twas the Night Before Christmas” and “A Christmas Carol”
These stories are classics for a reason. They’re lovely stories and a fun tradition to read every year. As a kid, my dad used to read Twas the Night Before Christmas every Christmas Eve before we went to bed.
Bonus: hot chocolate bar
Hot chocolate is an important part of every winter season. If you want to spruce it up a little, you can make a full hot chocolate bar with marshmallows, whipped cream, candy canes, cinnamon sticks, and any other toppings you enjoy.
A hot chocolate bar is a great way to add some fun to your favorite wintertime drink!
The holidays are a wonderful time of year, but it can be easy to get caught up in the excitement and end up spending more than you want to. There’s no reason you need to spend lots of money to plan holiday activities and create holiday traditions. Pick your favorite 2-3 and make sure you do them every year. Before long, it won’t feel like the holidays without them.
Action Items
Research local holiday events in your area. Are there any parades, holiday markets, Santa meet-and-greets, or caroling events that you could attend?
Pick 1 holiday activity that you will do with your friends or family every year. Making an effort to maintain this tradition year after year will help you make wonderful memories with your friends and family, without having to spend lots of money.
Want to learn more about how to budget for the holidays? Check out my post: Budgeting for the Holidays (without being a Scrooge).
Your life may not be perfect, but it is imperfectly yours. The only way to live it is your way.
