The best ideas for a Christmas bucket list your whole family will love

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Inside: Discover a list of awesome ideas to add to your Christmas bucket list and download a printable that will help you create a very cute bucket list for your family.

When it comes to creating a Christmas bucket list for your family, there are a lot of Christmas activity ideas that you can find all over the internet. And some of them are really awesome!

When we first started to create our own bucket list for the holiday season, we opted for a “classical” activity list that included activities like decorating the tree, making Christmas crafts, baking cookies and so on.

We liked them because they brought opportunities for us to spent together, but after a few years I realized that I wanted something different.

I wanted to make sure that every activity will really bring us joy.

Because here is the truth: Every family is different and the popular Christmas activity ideas are not always the best choice for everyone.

Sometimes they only add one more thing to do on your to-do list instead of bringing the joy and connection they were meant to bring.

In our family, we all have different preferences and many of the ideas that other families enjoy were not right for us.

My son doesn’t like doing crafts. I don’t like to bake cookies. And my husband certainly doesn’t like to create homemade ornaments. So we decided to simply give up doing these activities!

How a Christmas bucket list can make holidays more meaningful

Instead, we created a holiday bucket list of 24 things that we really want to do before Christmas. We added traditional things that we love (like driving around town to see the lights), but we skipped all the activities that aren’t truly “compatible” with what we like.

This little change had made a big difference because we all fully enjoyed the activities that we did together. We laughed more and we felt more relaxed than ever before.

This is why this year I want to invite you to create your own joy-focused Christmas bucket list.

Here is how you can do this:

1. Invite all the family members to a short meeting in the living room.

2. Grab a piece of paper and invite everyone to share activity ideas. The ideas don’t necessarily need to be related to Christmas. You can add any activity that you think will bring joy to your family.

3. Write down 24 ideas that you all agree on and create your family’s Christmas bucket list. If you want to create a cute list download the printable at the end of the article.

4. Display the bucket list on your fridge or in your living room. Having it at hand will motivate you to make room for more happy activities this holiday season.

5. Try to do one of the activities on the list every day until Christmas. You can either make a plan in advance or spontaneously pick an activity at the start of the day. Either way, I’m sure that your kids will be very happy to check off each of the ideas on the list.

24 ideas for your Christmas bucket list

I’ve gathered here 24 activity ideas to inspire you when creating your list.

The printable bucket list at the end of the article will include 2 pages: one filled-in bucket list where you’ll find all the ideas below and a blank bucket list where you can add your own ideas.

These ideas are just a starting point for your list. I’m pretty sure that your kids will have plenty of original ideas to share with you and that they will help you create an awesome Christmas bucket list.

1. Make paper snowflakes and decorate the windows.
2. Create a salt dough ornament and decorate it.
3. Go on a Christmas-themed scavenger hunt.
4. Play a Christmas board game.
5. Decorate the house and the Christmas tree.
6. Have a Christmas-themed visit to the library.
7. Make a Christmas craft.
8. Sing carols by the Christmas tree lights.
9. Make reindeer food.
10. Make a Christmas wreath.
11. Have a mini dance party with Christmas songs.
12. Create a homemade gift for a loved one.
13. Have a picnic under the Christmas tree.
14. Make a holiday greeting video for family and friends.
15. Drive around town to see the Christmas lights.
16. Write a letter to Santa.
17. Go on a walk and collect pinecones.
18. Have a movie night with Christmas movies.
19. Go to a Christmas event.
20. Have a pajama day.
21. Bake Christmas cookies.
22. Go on a sleigh ride.
23. Go ice-skating.
24. Have a special evening with cookies and hot cocoa.

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