9 Cheap Holiday Experiences for Kids

Right now, the holidays might seem daunting. Everything is expensive, and you want to give your kids a great season, but you might be worried about funds. I think the best thing to do in that situation (or honestly, regardless of it) is to give your kids holiday experiences that they can cherish. You might not be able to give them all the things, but you can give them memories. So, here are some things you can do throughout the holiday season that are free or cheap!

Bake or cook with them

Baking and cooking have the added bonus of getting delicious food on top of a great holiday experience. Odds are, this is going to be exhausting, but it’s an experience well worth having with your kids. Whenever I cook with my older son, it’s tricky, but he has so much fun, and he’s always so proud after.

Cater to your child’s age and do some prep work ahead of time to make things go smoother. This might mean pre-measuring things or peeling produce. It might be worth investing in a child’s baking or cooking kit as well as kid aprons if you’re looking to do it more regularly, too (which I recommend!).

Make some mini pumpkin pies or sugar cookies!

Drive around and look at holiday lights

One of my favorite parts about the holiday season is all the lights that go up, and I’m sure your kids would have fun looking, too! Many towns release lists with all the good local light displays, or you could just drive around populated neighborhoods and see what you can find.

There might also be a few venues that decorate for the holiday season that you can visit for relatively cheap! Our local winery sets up an entire display for Christmas, and they sell hot chocolate and waffles. Look into your local scene!

Go ice skating

Ice skating is a great winter experience as well as a good skill to teach. It’s usually pretty cheap to get into an open skate and rent some ice skates. Plus, it’ll get some of their energy out during the weekend!

Go caroling

This one might be a little dated, and you’ll probably want to collect a group of people to do it with, but if you live in a populated area and you know your neighbors, it can be a great holiday experience for your kiddos. Learn some songs (or pick some easy ones), find the instrumental on Spotify, and walk around. They’ll probably have a blast, and the people who answer the door will find it adorable.

Take silly photos together

As parents, we love holiday photos anyway. Why not let your kids come up with silly photo ideas? Give them some props and a space, and let them make their own memories. If they’re old enough, letting them take some photos will add to the fun for them. If you’ve got a Polaroid camera, definitely throw that into the mix. They’ll want to take pictures of you too! The pictures might not come out great, but they’ll love it.

Some prop ideas include decorations (like plastic ornaments, fir garlands, tinsel if you’re feeling brave), Santa or elf hats, tissue paper and gift bags, etc. There are also little prop kits you can buy with fake glasses and hats.  

Go Christmas shopping for someone else

This is a great way to incorporate charity into your holiday season if you have the budget to properly sponsor a child. There are many stores and charities that have programs that let you purchase Christmas gifts for another child. Let your kid pick the child and then go shopping with them. They might have a better idea than you do of what will work, depending on their age.

Just keep in mind that this type of charity is about the child in need, so if you can’t properly afford their gifts, it’s a good idea to leave this to someone who can. There’s nothing wrong with being on a budget, but if you can’t afford the $25 gift they’re asking for, leaving it for someone else is kinder. Of course, you can set a budget, and you don’t need to buy the most expensive option for everything, but the goal is to give the child in question a good Christmas.

Decorate Christmas cards

If you’re a family that sends out Christmas cards, it might be fun to collect all your spare art supplies and create/decorate some cards. I’m sure your family members would love to get a personally decorated card. You can still include a photo if you’d like, but letting your kids add stickers or scribble on them could be fun!

Other crafts are good too! Just taking the time to make a holiday craft together, regardless of what it is, can be a great holiday experience.

Go pick out a tree together

Real trees tend to be on par financially with fake trees, though they also require maintenance. But more importantly, it can be really fun to go to a Christmas tree farm and pick one out! Your kids can run around and decide which one will look the best in your living room. The only thing with this one is you’ll probably need to go early, and you might even need to show interest ahead of the season. But there might be local pop-up stores for Christmas trees, too! Look into local farms and charities.

Look into library programs

Never sleep on your local library! One of our local libraries does family gingerbread house decorating nights. They give you all the supplies, and you get to just show up and decorate a house together. They also do a Polar Express night when they read the story, and you get to drink hot chocolate in a thoroughly decorated children’s room. There are usually so many events and options going on. You might need to sign up for these programs early, but it’s worth looking into.

There are so many holiday experiences you can have with your kids that don’t require too much money. Experiences are worth so much more because they give you memories and photos that you can look back on.

I’ve written before about holiday traditions you can start with kids as well! What are your favorites?