The holiday season is filled with so many activities and events, many of which are incredibly fun, but cost money. At my house, we like to plan one big event, usually a showing of the Nutcracker or maybe a Christmas play, but then like to focus on soaking in as much of the holiday season as possible without putting out any more cash. I took the question of what to do for free during the holidays to the Women’s-Place members, and I literally had “visions of sugar plums dancing in my head” after reading all of their wonderful freebie activities.

Probably the favorite freebie activity of everyone was to go out and look at Christmas lights. Pack the family in the car and drive to the best lights, or bundle everyone up for a beautiful night walk. Either are wonderful ways to enjoy the sparkling lights. Looking for a fun evening at home? How about making paper or popcorn chains? One of our members, Kristin Reid had a great idea for using the paper chain to count down the days until Christmas. Make one chain with exactly 25 links on it. Take one link off each day of December until you are out of links and “it’s Christmas!!” It is a great visual way, for preschoolers especially, to count down the days to Christmas.

If you are fortunate enough to have snow at the holiday time, bundle up and head outside for some fun in the snow. Make a snowman or maybe a whole family of snowmen. You can plop the kids, and yourself, into the snow and create snow angels. Or there is everyone’s favorite, sledding! Have fun, get all of that excess Christmas energy out of the kids, and then come inside for a hot cup of cocoa or cider.

The holiday season is often a difficult time for many people, especially those that are sick or in nursing homes. Gather some friends, a few Christmas carol songbooks and head to a nearby nursing home or to the homes of some elderly friends or family. It does not matter that you cannot sing a note, carols always sound beautiful when they are sung from the heart. While you are at the nursing home, consider bringing along a few books to read. Your school-age children will enjoy reading, also. Lastly, you might want to help out at a food bank or soup kitchen. Helpers are always needed, especially this time of year.

Here are some more fabulous ideas, compliments of our members…

We LOVE to go watch the Christmas ships. People decorate their boats up with Christmas lights and go on a parade from one beach to the next. They stop in front of the beach where there are bon fires, hot chocolate and hot apple cider, and everyone sings Christmas carols! It’s free and really put you in the Christmas spirit!
We go Christmas tree cutting at a u-cut tree farm. We make it a family day starting off with breakfast then we all go to the tree farm and cut down our tree. It costs a little bit of money but the trees are cheaper at a u-cut then at the corner lots. We then come home and decorate our tree as a family! ~ Host Amy H

I assume everyone likes to do this but we drive all over and see the Christmas lights. Everyone gets a snack and off we go.
When we decorate our Christmas tree, we turn it into family night. I make pizza and we play Christmas music obnoxiously loud and decorate. ~ Host Deek

I live in a historic neighborhood; and, one night during Christmas, we all do luminaries. Not just my block, but hundreds of houses. People come from all over town to walk the streets. Some homes have music blaring, even live Christmas music. There are horse drawn carriages and hay rides. It is so fun. I love to get my kids bundled up and we walk for hours looking at all the pretty lights. Sometimes we drive, but it is more fun to walk.
We also have a boat light parade here and I love to go. We don't make it every year, but have gone a few times. We also have a HUGE Christmas tree at the Landing (downtown shopping area) and there are often live presentations around the Christmas tree for the few weeks before Christmas. It makes a great evening with the family. ~ JBAtkinson

Oh, I have fun memories of boat parades and luminaries from growing up in Florida. Now that I live in the frozen north, my kids will have different memories. We always go to the Holidazzle Parade downtown on one of the "warmer" nights. After freezing, we all go and warm up with dessert and coffee or hot chocolate at a nearby restaurant.
We also decorate the tree together with music blaring and have a day to bake goodies. ~ Cheri A

Christmas caroling...that's my favorite. We make a big to do also when we decorate the tree, but that's usually on Thanksgiving. ~ Lamplighter 777

We also drive around looking for Christmas lights. At night we always light our pellet stove up, sit on the sofa, turn off the lights, turn on the Christmas tree and sit there for about ten minutes, just looking at it. C.J. calls it "family night." Last year I thought I'd skip a night, and he screamed, "we haven't had family night yet!”
We also go to our local farm (across the street!) and do hay rides on their horse drawn carriages, ice skate at our recreation center, roller skate, bowl, and the kids love to make their graham cracker houses, decorate them and then eat them!! (They hate gingerbread, LOL!) ~ Host Deef

We love to go look at the lights too! When we lived in Chicago, we used to go down to State Street and see all the window decorations. I'll have to find out what is comparable in LA.
Going to see Santa Claus at the mall is always a hit too! It's free as long as you don't buy the expensive pictures. ~ Host Julie

One of the new things is to have the fire going, with all the kids in the living room while we read a book about the true meaning of Christmas...the birth of baby Jesus.
We also bake sugar cookies, make homemade frostings and then decorate them. We give them away, also.
Another thing is you can get free movies from the library; you can rent some fun Christmas ones from there!
Last year we had about 15 kids at our house making "peppermint bark" and homemade gift cards for their parents.
Most of all, I just like to be with family and friends. ~ Chelle

We love to drive around & look at the lights... Jordan’s new favorite thing is getting the "real" Christmas tree. Last year was the first year we did that and she said, "This is the best Christmas ever!”
We also love to make little cinnamon decorations. (Take equal parts applesauce & cinnamon, mix together. Roll out dough and use cookie cutters or have the kids make shapes, and bake at 200 degrees for 10 minutes or so, depending on thickness.) They smell so good, and so does your house after baking them. Also, they are fun to make-- and CHEAP!!! (Don't forget to poke a hole in the top before baking so you can hang it up!)
We also have a star lighting in our little town. We have a huge rock (I live in a town called Castle Rock), and there is a star at the very top that they light after Thanksgiving. They also have fireworks and a big thing in town. ~ Host Tmommy

We try to buy a new Christmas-themed puzzle every year and always have a puzzle out that we all work on together.
If we're fortunate enough to have snow (we had LOTS last year!), we like to go outside and have a family snowball fight and build ourselves as a snow-family in the front yard. ~ Kympossible

My favorite thing about Christmas was always sitting around the tree on Christmas Eve and singing carols until the assorted kids fell asleep. We always went by age, oldest to youngest and it’s a tradition that I want to do with my family now. We started last year and got through two carols, I think. ~ Janaz

Sit down with your family and make a plan with some of these wonderful ideas. Actually put them on the calendar, and you will be more likely to accomplish them. I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season filled with joy, blessings and the sparkle of the lights in your loved one’s eyes.

Check out Christmas Fun Freebies and Christmas Freebies for even more great ideas.

~Lynette is a full-time mom to three beautiful children. This will be her first year to enjoy Christmas with her son, and she cannot wait to see his eyes light up when he sees all the beauty the season offers.