20 Fun Family Activity Ideas for Winter Break

1. Make gingerbread play dough. Add your favorite winter spices like Cinnamon, ginger and cloves to your playdough recipe It will make it smell festive and fun! 
2. Build a snowman. If you have enough snow, take the time to build a snowman with your kids. We try to work together to build the biggest snowman we can. You could break into teams and see what team could make the biggest one. If you have a lot of teams, you could hand out crazy awards for each snowman creation like tallest, craziest, classic etc…
3. Sledding. Find a hill, bundle up and go! If you don’t have snow, try ice blocking instead!
4. Snuggle up and watch Christmas movies! Who says you need to go to the movie theater? There are a ton of good movies on Amazon and Netflix!
5. Serve someone! Work together to shovel your neighbors driveway! Your kids will appreciate it after they’re done. Nothing warms you up like serving someone else. 
6. Donate toys to someone in need. We recently had the kids go through all of their never-played-with toys and gently worn clothes. When we were getting ready to deliver them to a needy family, I had the kids fold the clothes nicely and wipe the toys down with Clorox wipes to make them ‘like new’ for the family. You wouldn’t believe how excited they were to deliver them! My oldest couldn’t sit still, he kept saying he was SO excited to give them to someone else. 
7. Make cookies. Nothing says Chistmas time like making a batch of delicious sugar or gingerbread cookies! Share them with a friend!
8. Paint the snow! Fill old Windex spray bottles with water and food coloring and spray the snow with them! See what kind of cool designs you can come up with. 
9. Trap an Elf. Build an ‘Elf Trap’ and see if you can catch one of Santa’s elves! We’ve never caught one before, but the elves have left us little treats when we try to catch them! Wink Wink!
10. Set up an obstacle course. Using paper plates, cups, paper bags, string or whatever you have laying around, see how fast your kids can make it through without knocking over stacked cups and through string!
11. Build a snow fort. Using old bowls and buckets. Pack the snow to build an igloo! 
12. Play some minute to win it games! We have lots of ideas here on Lou Lou Girls!
13. Make window art. Using a coloring book for a guide, poke pin holes in a plain sheet of paper, following the pattern on your coloring page. Hold it up to the window and see your cool design. 
14. Visit a rest home. Prepare a fun song to sing, or take your baked goods to a local rest home and deliver them to the residents there. Take the time to visit with them and let them tell you about their favorite Christmas. 
15. Go to the library. Find some new favorite Christmas books to read to get you excited for the big day.
16. Try a new recipe. My kids LOVE to cook. Find something fairly simple to make and let them follow the recipe on their own, with guidance of course! 
17. Make a silly video. Gather up silly costumes and have the kids make their own play to perform. They love watching themselves on the phone when they’re done!
18. Play a board game. Pull out one of your favorites and play!
19. Make paper snowflakes. Get cutting and decorate someone’s room with them!
20. Take pictures. Set up a mini photo shoot with your kids. Use a spare strand of lights, paper snowflakes, and Santa hats and let them photograph each other!

20 Fun Family Activity Ideas for Winter Break