Screen-Free Festive Fun: 10 Creative Activities to Keep Tweens and Teens Entertained
The holidays are a time for connection and creativity, but with so much downtime, it’s tempting for tweens and teens to retreat into their screens. Here are 10 fun, festive activities that keep them engaged and off their devices while tapping into their creativity and independence.
1. DIY Holiday Gift Wrapping Station
Set up a gift-wrapping station with brown paper, twine, stamps, and paints. Challenge them to create eco-friendly and beautifully wrapped gifts for family and friends.
2. Host a Christmas Bake-Off
Bring out the competitive spirit with a bake-off challenge. Give them creative freedom to bake and decorate festive treats like cookies, cupcakes, or holiday-themed cakes.
3. Handmade Gift Making
Encourage them to make thoughtful, homemade gifts—such as friendship bracelets, candles, or bath bombs—for friends and family. It’s a meaningful way to spread the holiday cheer.
4. Festive Room Makeover
Let your tween or teen take charge of decorating their room for the holidays. Give them access to fairy lights, garlands, and DIY crafts like making snowflakes or paper chains to create a festive vibe.
5. Christmas Movie Charades
Get the family together for a round of holiday-themed charades, where they have to act out scenes from Christmas movies or holiday activities without words. It’s a great way to get everyone laughing.
6. Create a Hot Chocoalte Bar
Set up a DIY hot chocolate bar with a variety of toppings like marshmallows, whipped cream, and candy canes. They can experiment with different flavours and create Instagram-worthy hot chocolates.
7. Holiday-Themed Photoshoot
Let them stage their own holiday photoshoot with friends or family. They can create fun backgrounds, dress up in festive outfits, and practice their photography skills with props and creative angles.
8. Christmas Lights Walk
Bundle up and go for a walk to admire neighborhood Christmas lights. If they’re up for it, challenge them to take artsy photos of the displays or create a scavenger hunt with specific decorations to find.
9. Festive Journaling or Scrapbooking
Encourage them to journal their favourite holiday memories or create a scrapbook filled with photos, ticket stubs from holiday events, and festive mementoes.
10. Organize a Family Game Night
Let your tween or teen take the lead in organizing a holiday-themed family game night. They can choose the games, set up the space, and even create holiday-themed trivia questions.
By engaging in these hands-on, creative activities, tweens and teens can still have a fun and festive holiday season—without feeling glued to their screens.
Anisa is an accredited and certified Positive Parenting Coach, mother, and ex-deputy head teacher, with 25+ years of experience working and supporting children and families. Anisa specialises in empowering and positively transforming lives of parents and children, who are facing stress, anxiety, or just day-to-day challenges of parenting – working with them directly, in group environments, and through corporate channels. Anisa is hugely passionate about using her coaching skills, and educational background, to find ways for parents and children to move through the challenges they face in life, together.
Anisa is here to help bring about multi-generational change as she believes we often get stuck in the patterns from the past, following the path we ourselves tread, which isn’t always the right one to support our children and she is here to help families work things out, so they get to know that parenting does not have to be hard.
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