How to Make Christmas Feel Closer with Holiday Activities

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Fun and festive ways to celebrate the holidays leading up to Christmas

Co-authored by Jennifer Guttman, PsyD

Last Updated: November 28, 2024 Approved

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Leading up to Christmas with Themed Activities

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Finding Distractions

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Speeding up Your Wait with Other Activities

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Q&A

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Tips

Waiting for that magical Christmas morning can be agonizing. School drags on as the day approaches, and even your after school activities become less engaging. But who could blame you? With all those presents awaiting you and all that free time over Christmas break to do with as you wish, the anticipation of the day can make Christmas take forever to get here! But with a few tricks and some time-killing projects on your side, the big day will be here soon enough.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Leading up to Christmas with Themed Activities

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1
Make a Christmas countdown with an advent calendar. You can buy these calendars from most general retailers, like Walmart or _target. Advent calendars are made with little doors/drawers that are labeled from 1 to 24. You are supposed to open each numbered door for the corresponding day of December that passes.
- For example, you would open the door/drawer labelled 1 on December 1st, 2 on December 2nd, and so on until number 25, Christmas day.
- Some advent calendars have room for a small treat to be put inside. This way, you get to look forward to the treats you have put inside as the day approaches! Choose your favorite candy and enjoy.
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Write Christmas cards out for your friends, classmates, or family. It’s always nice to receive a card around the holidays. You could even stretch out your card making several days by making a few personalized cards a day until you’re done.
- Deliver your cards personally and watch the recipient’s face light up, or invest in a few stamps and send your cards by mail.
- For an extra surprise, you might hide your card somewhere sneaky, like in the backpack of your intended recipient. Be careful when attempting this; your card might be accidentally overlooked!
- Make the Christmas cards by hand. This will pass time and allows you to tailor the cards to the interests of friends and family.^{[1]
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3
Start buying presents if you are able. You might have to rely on your parents or someone older to drive you to the store to shop, which can make buying a gift for that person difficult. To get around this, you might go shopping for a few weekends with different people, buying a gift for the person who drove you when he isn’t around.
- Throughout the week, plan what you will get other people. You might do this by brainstorming what certain people you want to buy gifts for like.
- This planning will also distract you from the approaching day, making time seems to go faster.^{[2]
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Make homemade gifts. Homemade crafts are a great way of showing you care to those you love. You can make something useful by knitting an article of clothing, making a clay dish, building a birdhouse, or painting a picture. Whatever skill you possess can likely be used to make gifts for family and friends.
- The earlier you get started on this, the better. After all, you are going to need to get your materials together for your present project.
- You’ll also need to find alone time to make your presents when others won't find out.
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Bake Christmas treats. There are plenty of traditional baked goods you can make around Christmas time. This can also be a fun activity to do with your friends or family. You might throw a Christmas cookie baking party, bake a Christmas cake with your mom, or make Christmas candies, like peanut brittle, rock candy, and so on.^{[3]
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- Wrap your delicious treats before you plan on handing them out. Some plastic wrap and a short length of ribbon is all you need to make your edible present presentable.
- Once you bake your cake, you should decorate it for Christmas.
- You may be able to find some nifty cake ideas on DIY sharing media like Pinterest, on cooking websites, or in traditional cookbooks around your home.
- See if there are any family rituals that you can add to the holiday (like baking) that become part of your holiday traditions.
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Plan a Christmas party with friends and family. You will have plenty of work planning and hosting your party to take your mind off of how slow Christmas is coming. You're going to have to cook food for the party and decorate. You may even want to send out cute little invitations for your guests to RSVP whether they will or will not be coming.
- At your party, you might have a White Elephant gift exchange, where each person brings a silly gift wrapped up to exchange with others.
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Decorate your home. Hunting for a Christmas tree is a great way of getting out of the house, breathing some fresh air, and enjoying some nature. Go to a tree farm with your family or friends and cut down the tree of your dreams! Then you can take it home, hang your tree with lights and ornaments, or if you are feeling especially ambitious, you can make your own decorations.
- You might even make a set of Christmas ornaments every year with your friends and/or family so that you have a memento of the time you spent decorating. These can even be handed down to your kids when you get older!^{[4]
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Encourage the excitement of those younger than you. The excitement of Christmas and the anticipation of Christmas approaching is often even more intense for younger children. You can have fun while taking your mind off of the wait yourself by doing Christmas activities with younger children.
- You might volunteer to help with festivities at your local elementary school, library, daycare, or church.
- You could plan out a simple holiday treasure hunt for the children, do some holiday-themed word searches, color some holiday pictures, or make some holiday crafts.
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Enjoy holiday movies either by yourself or with others. In the weeks leading up to Christmas, there will be many classic holiday movies on T.V., but you could also dig through your movie collection or a streaming video service, like Netflix or Hulu, and watch some holiday movies that way, too! Some ideas for Christmas movies include:
- A Christmas Carol
- The Grinch movie
- It’s a Wonderful Life
- A Charlie Brown Christmas
- Home Alone^{[6]
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- The Polar Express
- Elf
- ”The Nightmare Before Christmas”

Part 2

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Finding Distractions

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1
Read a book or a series of books. Oftentimes, you will have some relaxation time on your hands around Christmas time. Making it a habit to read your favorite book or series during this time can be relaxing and nostalgic. This way, every year, when you start reading your book(s), you’ll be warmly reminded of past Christmases. Some series you may want to consider include:
- The Harry Potter Series, by J.K. Rowling
- The Chronicles of Narnia, by C.S. Lewis
- The Series of Unfortunate Events books, by Lemony Snicket^{[7]
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- The "Warriors" series, by Erin Hunter
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Watch a favorite TV or movie series from beginning to end. You can even arrange to watch these with a group of friends who are fans like you! Or you might just settle in every Thursday evening with a bowl of popcorn for some good old throwback Thursday TV watching. Some ideas for your viewing pleasure:
- The Harry Potter movies
- The Dr. Who series, in particular the Christmas specials
- The Lord of the Rings movies
- The Star Wars movies
- The Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) movies and TV shows.
In those final weeks before school ends, homework is probably the last thing you will want to think about. But consider this – if you finish your homework before vacation and the holiday season truly begin, you will not have to worry about forgetting or being rushed to complete assignments before school starts back up again.^{[8]
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By thinking ahead and getting back into your normal routine before break comes to an end, you will struggle less with getting back into the swing of things. This is especially true if you have been staying up late and enjoying sleeping in. Why suffer more than you have to? With a little effort, you can ease back into your routine no problem.
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Take on a holiday project. This could be something you do to commemorate the holiday to make it special in your memory, or you may want to make use of the festive atmosphere. For example, you want to take a few excursions with a camera and capture some holiday sights to use on your Christmas cards, or you could make a holiday music video with your friends.
- A video documentary can also be a fun project that you can show off to your friends and family. Take a camera and interview a few important people in your life about the holidays. You might want to ask about favorite Christmas memories, gifts, or traditions.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Speeding up Your Wait with Other Activities

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1
Spend time with friends and family. Make arrangements with relatives that you have not seen for a while and reconnect with them while you both have some free time over the holidays. You don’t have to feel awkward when giving them a call. Family will likely be glad to hear from you! The same is true with old friends. Give them a ring, a text, or an email and make some plans!
- Christmas is a time when many people who have moved away return home for the holidays. Use this to your advantage and set up a lunch date, grab a cup of coffee, or do a similar activity.^{[9]
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Work out and come back from break new and improved. Christmas break is a good time for you to start some new good habits like working out, picking out new outfits to change up your style, or try a new haircut. If you find your change in style does not suit you, you should have enough time over the holiday season to return to your tried-and-true style.
- If you’ve always planned on getting in shape and wow-ing your friends with a new and improved you, you might look into go back to school with a look that turns heads.
3
Occupy Yourself on Christmas Eve during the day. Many of the activities you can do to pass the time on Christmas Eve can also be put to use in the days leading up to Christmas, like playing video games, as an example. You can even spend time preparing Christmas Eve activities, which will kill time and make Christmas approach even faster. For example, you might prepare a Christmas Eve talent show. Some other ideas include:
- Preparing a hobby to practice, enjoy, or perform on Christmas, like magic, playing a musical instrument, or painting a Christmas scene.
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Find something fun to do. The old adage “Time flies when you’re having fun” can be put to use to make your wait for Christmas more bearable. What you find to be fun will depend on the kind of things you enjoy, but some suggestions you may want to consider include:
- Video games
- Snowball fights
- Making snow forts and snowmen
- Building an igloo^{[10]
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This might be the perfect place for you to vent your excitement, but the time you spend putting your feelings down in your journal will also help pass the time. You can chronicle your daily events leading up to the big day, keep a log of hints people might be giving you about what they want for Christmas, or even write about past Christmases.
This is a fun and easy way to pass time. You can tell him what you want for Christmas, how much you appreciate his work, or ask for some ideas on what to give other people. But just remember, he is very busy this time of year. Do not expect him to respond, at least right away!

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Tomorrow is Christmas Day and I am excited about it. How can I make the time go faster?

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Just do something fun to keep yourself occupied. Or do a lot of physical activity so you tire yourself out and fall asleep early.

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How do I keep my family busy until Christmas day?

Aaron Talalla

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You can ask them to decorate the house, help you make Christmas cards and/or Christmas cookies, or help you to wrap presents for extended family or friends.

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What if I'm only nine years old?

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You can still do many of these activities. Your age shouldn't matter.

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Tips

Do not look at the calendar too much; write letters to relatives you have not seen in a while, or try and catch Santa Claus, Kris Kringle, St. Nicholas, you know who I'm talking about. The guy who delivers presents to your house!

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Help others, like your friends or neighbors, to prepare for Christmas.

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Tasks that you find rewarding, like practicing piano, can be done throughout the weeks to help pass the time.

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