Christmas Game Ideas For Your Toddler

Posted by Jennifer Ranking on November 30th, 2020

It’s time to start looking forward to Christmas! Over the holidays, you can build excitement with these fun games that your toddler will love. They’re engaging, educational and might even tire them out enough to give you a good night’s sleep! These games are aimed at 1-3 year olds, but can easily be adapted for any child. 

Christmas Obstacle Course

When your baby is between the ages of one and three, they are learning the essential skill of balance. So, a Christmas obstacle course is the perfect opportunity to help them work on this. You don’t need to go out and buy anything fancy, just find some soft Christmas items, such as cuddly toys, cushions, tinsel or blankets and create an obstacle course. Make cushion stepping stones, tinsel rings on the floor for them to jump in and out of and lay down blankets for them to crawl under. Get the Christmas music on and you’re good to go. Greet them at the end with a Christmas themed prize and be prepared to do it over and over! 

Christmas Card Making

Your relatives would love nothing more than to receive a homemade Christmas card from your little one. Set up a craft table with glitters, coloured paper and pens and let your child go wild! Draw some Christmas trees on green paper and stars on yellow paper and encourage your little one to cut them out and stick them onto the cards. There are endless developmental benefits of little ones using safe scissors, so this is a great thing to add into the craft session. 

If your child is smaller, you could dip their finger into brown paint and add a couple of fingerprints to the card. Then, glue on a small red pom pom for a nose and draw two black eyes and some antlers to make the cutest homemade reindeers ever. You will definitely need coverall bibs for this one, as it’s going to get messy! Supervise your child throughout any Christmas card making, as you know they have a tendency to place things in their mouth or nose when you’re not about. 

Decorate Christmas Cookies

Baking Christmas cookies with your toddler is a great way to get them excited for Christmas. Make a simple sugar cookie recipe and get plenty of decorations to let them go wild! You could give them to friends and family as a gift, host a Christmas bake sale to raise some money for charity or enjoy them with your family.

Christmas Decoration Bingo

This is a great way to get outdoors in the fresh air, especially if it usually takes a little more convincing! Wrap up warm and take a walk around your neighborhood and see if your little one can spot certain types of christmas decorations, such as coloured lights, Christmas trees or inflatable garden decorations. Ask them to identify colours, shapes and numbers of decorations and when you get home, ask them which decorations were their favourite - this is a great way to develop communication skills.