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4 Frugal Ways to Keep Young Kids Busy During Christmas Vacation

December 14, 2013 By MelissaB 13 Comments

During a typical year, children get two weeks off school during Christmas break, often a week or so before Christmas and a week after.  However, if Christmas falls on a weekend, and if your school scheduled vacation as my son’s did, you will see kids who don’t get out of school for Christmas vacation until December 23rd.  That leaves them with almost two weeks of vacation AFTER Christmas itself, a time that is pretty low on excitement.  (It is so much easier to have a week off before the holiday because there are so many activities for the kids to enjoy.)  You could very likely end up with bored children, especially because all of the activities of Christmas are over just a few days into vacation.

However, there are plenty of frugal ways to keep the kids, especially your preschool and elementary school kids, entertained during the Christmas vacation.  Consider the following activities:

  1. Have a family play.  Take out the dress up box and let the kids come up with a play to perform for the family.  If your children are old enough, you can largely stay out of the picture and let them decide on a story, props, stage directions (even if the stage is just your living room).  Smaller children may need a bit more direction and assistance from parents.  If the kids are stuck for story ideas, they may want to act out what happens in one of their favorite stories.
  2. Check out your local library.  Our local library has plenty of activities for kids during the holiday including a movie viewing night, family story hour, and a Lego building activity.  In addition to activities, most kids will enjoy spending an hour or two at the library reading books and choosing books to check out to read at home.
  3. Visit a public museum.  Many museums put up special holiday displays such as holidays around the world and Christmas decorations throughout the years.  Most kids love all of the lights and decorations that go with the holiday, so take the time to visit your local museum and enjoy the display.  Afterwards, at night, take the time to drive around and view all of the colorful holiday lights and decorations on neighborhood houses.  If you have a house in your area that goes all out with the decorations, make sure to visit that one.
  4. Let kids stay up late.  My kids need their sleep and have an early bed time.  However, during the holidays, we relax the rules a bit and let them stay up later one or two nights a week.  Perhaps they can stay up to watch a favorite show that they normally can’t view because it is past their bedtime or you could play games with them.  Either way, they will be delighted to stay up later than they are usually allowed to.

There are simple things you can do to entertain your young children without spending a lot of money.  Employ some of these tactics, and you will hopefully avoid the common vacation chant, “Mom, I am bored!”

MelissaB
MelissaB

Melissa is a writer and virtual assistant. She earned her Master’s from Southern Illinois University, and her Bachelor’s in English from the University of Michigan. When she’s not working, you can find her homeschooling her kids, reading a good book, or cooking. She resides in New York, where she loves the natural beauty of the area.

Filed Under: Children, Frugality Tagged With: children, christmas, christmas vacation, kids

Comments

  1. Little House says

    December 16, 2011 at 9:38 am

    I’d also add have their friends over one or two days over vacation, maybe even a slumber party. It will keep them engaged and build strong friendships.

  2. shanendoah@the dog ate my wallet says

    December 16, 2011 at 2:09 pm

    We were allowed to stay up late Chistmas Eve. Mostly it led to these really adorable pictures of my brother and I sound asleep on the couch…

  3. Super Frugalette says

    December 19, 2011 at 12:50 am

    My son who is six actually seems burned out. He is so excited about doing nothing…no school, no hockey, etc.

  4. Marie at FamilyMoneyValues says

    December 19, 2011 at 9:41 am

    Super Frugalette – I hear ya! Scheduling kids time has gone to extremes since I grew up. But….parents do need to have something in their back pockets for the kids to do when they get bored. Especially when my favorite saying doesn’t even work. My favorite saying to my kids when they were bored used to be ” If you are bored, I will find something for you to do”. They knew that meant chores so they suddenly found something interesting to do!

  5. Travis @debtchronicles says

    December 16, 2013 at 7:40 am

    Our daughter wants to have a Christmas party with her friends. Last year we did a Gingerbread decorating party (which was really inexpensive) followed by watching a movie. They all had such a great time!

Trackbacks

  1. This Week from the Best Personal Finance Blogs | Personal Investment Management and Financial Planning says:
    December 26, 2011 at 3:26 pm

    […] Broke presents 4 Frugal Ways to Keep Kids Busy During Christmas Vacation posted at Beating Broke, saying, “There are plenty of frugal ways to keep the kids, […]

  2. Weekly Favorites, Gratitude, and Giveaways #129 | Budgeting In the Fun Stuff says:
    December 21, 2013 at 3:30 pm

    […] Broke with 4 Frugal Ways to Keep Young Kids Busy During Christmas Vacation  Got to love the […]

  3. The Potato Sack #7 : Blog Link Roundup And Happy Holidays - Money and Potatoes says:
    December 23, 2013 at 5:04 am

    […] Beating broke has some good ideas on how to keep your kids busy while on a budget during the Christmas break. […]

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