Special days and fun holidays to celebrate with your kids in January
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Inside: Discover a list of special days to celebrate with your kids in January and use them as an inspiration for planning fun activities to enjoy together.
When I first discovered a list of fun holidays to celebrate with the kids throughout the year, it was such a great inspiration for planning unique family activities!
So this year I decided to do some research at the beginning of each month and create a list of special days and fun holidays to celebrate with the kids. And I want to invite you to try it as well!
This list can help you make January more special (and fun) for your kids and givs you inspiration for planning more family activities to enjoy together.
You can use these special days to:
- encourage kids to learn new things
- add more fun to your days (with easy activities that won’t waste your time or energy)
- connect as a family and get closer to your kids.
To get started, you just need to print the list of holidays, display it in your home, and use it as inspiration for trying new activities with your kids.
I also included simple activity ideas for every holiday below, in case you want to try them with your little ones.
January is International Creativity Month
You can celebrate this throughout the whole month by starting an art challenge with the kids.
The simplest way to plan a creative challenge is to use the alphabet letter as art prompts. Every day of the challenge use one letter of the alphabet as an inspiration to create drawings or paintings.
(For example, on the first day of the challenge invite the kids to draw or paint something that starts with the letter “A”. The next day, move on to letter “B” and so on.)
Special days and fun holidays to celebrate in January (+ simple activity ideas)
- January 4 – National Spaghetti Day
Try a new spaghetti recipe with your kids. If you have older kids, you can invite them to create their own spaghetti recipe using ingredients you have at home.
- January 5 – National Bird Day 🐦
Make a bird feeder with your kids. Here is an easy idea to try: Peanut Butter Bird Treats Kids Can Make (by Natural Beach Living).
- January 6: Cuddle Up Day
Make time for some extra cuddle time with your kids and read together or watch a nice family movie.
- January 8 – Bubble Bath Day
Prepare a special bubble bath for your kids. You can also add some water color tablets to make it even more fun.
- January 11 – Learn Your Name in Morse Code Day
If you have older kids, invite them to write their names in Morse Code or even write secret messages in Morse Code for other family members to decode.
- January 13 – National Sticker Day
Invite the kids to create an artwork using stickers. Or use stickers to create art prompts for them.
- January 15 – Strawberry Ice Cream Day
This is such a fun holiday to celebrate! You can go to an ice-cream shop and enjoy strawberry ice-creams together, or you can even create ice-cream at home with the kids.
- January 16 – Appreciate a Dragon Day
I’m pretty sure my oldest son will love this fun holiday!
You can celebrate it by inviting the kids to draw or paint picture of dragons and watching a dragom-themed movie together (like one of the movies in the “How to train your dragon” series).
- Third Monday of the month (this year on January 18): Martin Luther King Jr. Day
This day is a wonderful opportunity to start conversations with the kids about racial equality and civil rights.
Here are some ideas to try: read the book Who Was Martin Luther King, Jr.?, make these easy peace signs (by Inner Child Fun) or create dream cards (a lovely craft by Parenting Chaos).
- January 18: World Snowman Day ⛄
Build a snowman with your kids (either outdoor if you have snow where you live, or at home using playdough, paper, or any other materials you have at hand).
You can also try this fun snowman sight word bingo craft by The Imagination Tree.
- January 18 :Winnie the Pooh Day
If your kids like Winnie the Pooh, you can celebrate by inviting them to create a drawing or a story inspired by this cute character.
- January 19: National Popcorn Day 🍿
Plan a family movie night with plenty of popcorn and have fun together!
- January 20: Penguin Awareness Day 🐧
You can celebrate this day by watching a documentary about penguins (like “March of the Penguins“) or reading a book about them.
- January 21: National Hugging Day
Invite all family members to give lots of extra hugs during this day.
- January 23: National Pie Day 🥧
Bake your family’s favorite pie with your kids.
- January 24: Compliment Day
Invite the kids to create compliment cards for family and friends. Also, use this opportunity to surprise your kids with little compliment notes for them hidden throughout the house.
- January 28: International Lego Day
Invite the kids to build something awesome out of Legos to celebrate this special day. You can also watch together one of the Lego movies or read about the interesting history of the Lego company.
- January 29: National Puzzle Day 🧩
Plan a fun family puzzle night and solve puzzles together.
If you are looking for a new puzzle to try, here are two recommendations: Songbirds Family Jigsaw Puzzle (a cute 500 piece puzzle to solve with the kids) and Cats and Dogs Double-Sided Puzzle (a 100 pieces puzzle that is double-sided, so the kids will have double the fun solving it).
- January 30: National Croissant Day 🥐
Go to a coffee shop with your kids and celebrate with some delicious croissants!
Download the list of special days to celebrate in January
Having the list of special days in sight every day is a great reminder to use them as inspiration for planning fun activities.
This is why I created a list of all the holidays mentioned above for you to print and display in your home. We displayed it on the fridge and I can’t wait to try all the activities with the kids this month!
⭐ Click here to download the printable list
I hope you’ll enjoy it with your kids! Have a wonderful month of January!
More fun activities for kids
