25 Christmas Activities for Teens (they'll actually enjoy)

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It can be easy to think that the magic of Christmas is simply reserved for younger kids. However, these Christmas activities for teens bring just as much fun and wonder to the festive season. Our teenagers don’t have to miss out on the magic of the holiday season simply because they’ve grown older.

After all, Christmas is a wonderful time to focus on others, building strong relationships, and spending time together.

You may be struggling with how to make the Christmas season special for your teenager. If so, these fun Christmas activities are a great jumping-off point!

Why Bother With Christmas Activities for Teens?

The magic of Christmas can fade if we allow it to. Obviously, as we grow older we see through what is real and what is not. However, as someone whose family never did push Santa or any kind of belief in him, I can attest to the fact that Christmas was still every bit as magical for me.

So much of what made it special were the planned activities and traditions. We would watch Christmas movies, do lots of baking, and go and see the Christmas lights.

Every year was very similar and it created a lot of security. Even as a teen, I really looked forward to those events.

Above all, those times meant time with my family. Yes, the activities were special, but the memories made with family members were even more special.

Christmas activities were less about the activities and more about relationship building. Of course, I didn’t know that when I was a teenager, but now as a mom myself, I can totally see it.

It’s so much fun to have those shared memories with my parents and siblings.

So, even though you may have a teenager or two who may behave as though they don’t care about Christmas, I would encourage you to keep up the traditions and fun activities.

Even if they don’t appreciate it right now, they will grow to appreciate it in the future. They will have a whole bunch of really fun memories to look back on and enjoy.

20 Fun Christmas Activities for Teens

Whether it’s making Christmas ornaments, playing fun Christmas games, or working on a small gift, you can have fun with teens when you’re intentional about it.

What’s great is that these aren’t just activities exclusive to teenagers but can generally be shared by all family members. This list of Christmas activities gives many suggestions for finding the magic in the simple things.

#1 Build a gingerbread house

If you’re wracking your brain for holiday ideas to get your too-cool-for-school teen(s) involved, let your teen decorate a gingerbread house in their own weird or wacky way. It’s not only fun but a great way to get them into the Christmas spirit. They might even surprise you with their decorating abilities.

Give this classic holiday tradition an updated twist by turning a normal gingerbread decorating session into a Gingerbread House contest. Teens will feel more engaged due to a little competition. Raise the stakes by offering a cool prize to the winner.

Gingerbread houses are cute and the perfect activity for a small group of kids to do together. They’ll have a really great time decorating. Blast the Christmas music and really boost up the festive feeling. Maybe even suggest they wear ugly sweaters to really make things interesting.

You can purchase gingerbread house kits to make the set up a bit easier.

#2 Decorate Cookies

Whip up a batch of holiday cookies or buy pre-cut sugar cookies from the store and get your older kids involved. Some of the best Christmas experiences develop from traditions that teens can look forward to year after year, even if they’re too chill to admit it.

Get sprinkles, colored sugar, icing, gel food coloring, and chopped nuts to spice up the activity. Let your teens focus on creating their own cookie masterpieces.

If you’re looking for gift ideas, this is a fun way to turn creativity into a gift-giving experience as well.

#3 Go Ice Skating

Bundle up and hit your local indoor or outdoor public ice-skating rink. Bask in the festive Christmas spirit by celebrating with some hot cocoa while you and your teens chat with family or friends after getting out on the ice.

#4 Do a Candy Cane Scavenger Hunt

Stash a variety of colorful candy canes around the house, set a timer, and watch your kids take off. Tell them that the first person who comes back carrying the most candy canes when the timer goes off wins. This is such a fun game. Scavenger hunts are always popular but a Christmas scavenger hunt takes it to a whole other level!

Have a prize or two handy for the winner!

#5 Start an Advent Calendar Tradition

It’s hard to carve out time to create family traditions, but it’s possible with a little flexibility, effort, and planning. A fun activity you can start is to do a daily Advent calendar ritual in your house. For example, you can get a wooden Advent calendar or a cardboard one that has pockets to fill with candy, notes, or other treats.

Turn this into an area where your teen can be of service to others. Baking for neighbors, caroling, and taking gifts to those in need. All of these things could be added to an advent calendar.

#6 Have a Snowball Fight Indoors

Grab some supplies from Amazon to start a snowball fight among family and friends in an indoor space. The entire family can join in on this.

You never know, it could become one of your new Christmas traditions. It’s also good for those who don’t get snow where they live. Otherwise, I’d suggest just going outside and using the snow on the ground. Set up teams have a bunch of fun!

#7 Enjoy a Christmas Movie Night

Nothing says the holidays are here like a good Christmas movie marathon. Many teens enjoy watching childhood favorites such as Elf, A Christmas Story, Home Alone, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, The Santa Claus, or Rudolph. You can even add in movies that older kids might enjoy such as National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.

It’s a good idea to include some yummy snacks, turn on the Christmas lights, and make it super cozy.

We tend to rewatch a lot of the same Christmas movies every year. It makes for a really fun family tradition. If you do it over several nights then each family member can have their pick of which movie they’d like to watch.

#8 Set Up a Hot Chocolate Bar

A holiday hot chocolate bar goes well with a fresh batch of Christmas cookies.

Add candy canes, whip cream, chocolate sauce, marshmallows, chocolate-covered pretzels, cinnamon sticks, toffee bites, peppermint bark, chocolate sprinkles, and caramel flavoring to make it fancy and fun to drizzle on top or eat while they sip homemade hot chocolate.

This will be especially popular if they have some friends over to enjoy it too.

#9 Read Festive Christmas Books

There are a ton of beautiful holiday books that older kids and teens will enjoy. These can include Roberto Innocenti’s magical illustrations for A Christmas Carol, The Vanderbeekers of 141st Street, or A Boy Called Christmas or old favorites like The Best Christmas Pageant Ever or The Night Before Christmas.

Of course, they can read them on their own, but it’s also a great idea to have them read the books aloud to the rest of the family. Perhaps over a mug of hot chocolate?

#10 Attend a Christmas Performance

Check out your local area for holiday music or theater performances that are both fun and affordable. You might even find Christmas ballets, plays, concerts, or shows like The Nutcracker, Cirque Christmas, or Manheim Steamroller that will leave your teen with great Christmas memories.

You could make it a special outing just with them, or have them invite a friend or two to come along as well.

#11 Play Christmas Group Games

Ask your teen’s friends or cousins over for a festive competition of Christmas Family Feud games, win-it-in-a-minute-style games, fill-in-the-blank games, matching games, trivia, or Christmas song guessing games. Christmas party games are so much fun and are often super popular with teens.

Just be sure to have snacks on hand and lots of festive music playing too! Perhaps have some fun prizes on hand to share out with the winners.

#12 Make Holiday Crafts or Gifts

If your teen enjoys crafting, there are a lot of craft options such as jewelry, blankets, t-shirts, art, woodworking, and even gift kits on Etsy to get your kid started.

This is something we did a lot when I was a kid. The gift recipients were always very grateful (and gracious) for receiving our creations. We would even have a ton of fun making the packaging for the things we made. We got creative and reused boxes, turning them into Christmas-themed gift wrapping.

#13 Hit the Sledding Hills

When the kids have time off from school, sports, and other regular activities during Christmas break, it’s the perfect time to get outside. If you live in a climate that gets snow, sledding is a great way to keep your kids occupied outside.

Check out the larger hills at local parks. Your older kids will feel more engaged with a challenge and enjoy racing each other down bigger hills.

#14 Turn Making Snowmen into a Contest

If your area gets snow at Christmas, building a snowman together can make for great family bonding time. Make it even better by splitting the family into two teams for a snowman-making contest. This race isn’t about speed.

Turn friends or neighbors into judges to pick the funniest, silliest, or craziest snowman for the win. If your teen is part of a youth group, then this is a fantastic activity to put on for them.

#15 Do a White Elephant Gift Exchange

A Dirty Santa or White Elephant gift exchange is a fun activity for a group of teens, their friends, or even getting extended family together.

Pick names out of a hat and set a $5 spending limit. Have everyone choose the wackiest, tackiest, or worst gift they can think of and wrap it in the craziest wrapping they can come up with to add to the Christmas fun. Christmas gifts don’t have to be stressful or overly serious when they’re done this way.

#16 Find the Perfect Christmas Tree

Whether you cut down your own tree in a forest or choose a pre-cut tree from a local nursery, treat your teens to a carriage ride, cider, or hot chocolate to create a memorable and festive family experience. After you’ve chosen it, you can have a cozy afternoon or evening decorating it together.

This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. We always make crepes with cinnamon and sugar in the center and a charcuterie board for dinner that night. The kids absolutely love it and look forward to it every year.

#17 Host a Christmas Sleepover

Grab holiday-themed snacks, choose some favorite Christmas movies, and invite your teen’s cousins or friends to your house for a sleepover. There’s something special about falling asleep in the twinkling lights from the Christmas tree.

If you don’t do sleepovers, consider having a movie night instead. Plus, there are likely other kids who also don’t do sleepovers. Having a late movie night gives everyone the opportunity to attend without feeling as though they’re going to miss out.

#18 Look Up Christmas Events in Your Area

Even if your teen doesn’t want to visit Santa, there are likely other Christmas events going on in your area that you can discover with a quick Google search.

Light displays are often lots of fun to go and see. Bundle everyone up in the car and take an evening drive around town to the best Christmas light displays. This was always one of my favorite things to do at Christmas time.

#19 Attend a Christmas Eve Candlelight Service

There’s nothing like a candlelit Christmas Eve service and the echo of Christmas carols to create a warm holiday mood and space for peaceful reflection. If you want a traditional Christmas experience, check out the service times at your local churches.

Some churches may require reservations during the busy holiday time, so make sure to check out schedules and make reservations early.

#20 Throw a Holiday Party

The promise of a party is sure to get your teen to look up from his phone. There are a ton of fun ways to host a Christmas party packed with food, fun, and holiday activities that can include a cookie bake-off, trivia games, or even a Christmas karaoke event.

Better yet, have your teen get involved in planning the event. They can pick games, choose decor, and send out invites. It’s a great activity for teaching good hosting skills.

#21 Make Decorations

I used to absolutely love making Christmas decorations! There are so many different kinds out there and a ton of tutorials on Youtube and Pinterest.

Get the basic supplies you will need and let your teen have fun making decorations.

You could totally turn these into Christmas gifts as well so see if you can find some ways to make that happen. For instance, personalized photo decorations can be super special and fairly easy to make.

#22 Make Hot Chocolate Bombs

These were a huge hit with my kids a couple of years ago. I think they were trending online and I saw them. They were fairly easy to make at home and so much fun to enjoy over the Christmas period.

Get the supplies that your teen will need to make them and they can have a bunch of fun creating. These are also great to pair with a cute mug and give as a Christmas gift.

#23 Volunteer

While many of us get to experience a very privileged Christmas, there are a whole lot of people who don’t have that luxury. See if you can find a way to serve your local community alongside your teen. It could be through your local church or other community organization. Often these kinds of activities have a profound impact on our youth as they see how many other people have to live.

Christmas time is a great time to be intentional about giving to those around us and looking outside of ourselves for ways to bless others.

#24 Create a Wish List

Wish lists aren’t just for little kids. Let your teen have the fun of creating their own wish list. Honestly, it’ll be a big help to you as you figure out what to get them for Christmas.

#25 Go Caroling

If you have a particularly musical teen, they may enjoy going caroling. This was something that I did through my local church as a teenager. We went caroling downtown but we also visited a lot of local rest homes. It was a blessing to be able to sing for the older folk who lived there, many of which didn’t have any family who would visit them around Christmas time.

Final Thoughts

Christmas time can feel stressful and overwhelming for many. It can be easy to let things slide with our teens simply because they are older. Often, they don’t even seem to care about all the fun Christmas activities you’ve been doing for years. Regardless, it’s still so much fun to do special activities together. While they may not say they love it right now, I bet they will look back with much fondness in the future.

I hope that you were able to find some new ideas in this list. Even if you didn’t find new ideas, perhaps you’ll have been reminded of some activities you used to do and forgot about. Christmas time can be so special and our teens shouldn’t be neglected just because they’re a bit older. The best way to strengthen relationships is to spend quality time together. Have a merry Christmas and enjoy your time with your teen!

25 Christmas Activities for Teens (they’ll actually enjoy)

Why Bother With Christmas Activities for Teens?