I love the holiday season and Christmas! And I love to make this time special for my kids! I want them to have great memories of the holidays like I do from my childhood. Here are some ideas for budget-friendly holiday traditions for kids.

Updated: 11/6/22

I am always looking for great new ways to make the holidays fun and exciting for my children. I also like to use this time to teach them the importance of helping others and giving back to the community… We try to constantly teach them the importance of helping and giving, especially this time of year.

Having some holiday traditions is a great way to make some memories and make the holidays exciting for kids.

I not only want the holidays to be an exciting time for kids, but I also want to try to keep the holidays as stress-free as possible. If you are feeling stressed during the holidays, you NEED to check out this great article on how to decrease holiday stress and stay organized.

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Here are some great ideas for budget-friendly holiday traditions for kids:

1. Look At Christmas Lights.

• This is something I enjoy doing several times throughout the holiday season. We will often randomly drive around neighborhoods to look at lights. There is something about Christmas lights that I love and my kids get so excited when we do this.
• Our community also offers a great free lights show a few days out of the year. We always go and check this out. I would encourage you to see if your community or a nearby community offers something like this.

2. Holiday Baking.

• I am trying to cut back on my sugar intake… so this one is not super great for me, but it’s still fun! I am on the prowl for some healthier holiday baking options. I would love to hear about any healthy recipes you might have!
• This for me is more about spending time with my kids and doing this because my kids enjoy it.
• I usually try to make treats we can freeze or I bring them to work or my kid’s school and share with others!
• Here are a few recipes we like to make during the holidays:
  • This recipe for sugar cookie bars is amazing! I LOVE sugar cookies, but I hate the work they require. This solves my problem! I was on the lookout for sugar cookie bars for several months before I found this recipe and I LOVE it. I tried about 6 recipes before I found this one.
  • My husband’s favorite “cookie” are these chocolate peanut butter Ritz cookies. I use the term cookie loosely with this. They are very easy and delicious, but I’m not sure if they are considered a true “cookie” or not! My kids like to decorate them with sprinkles. The other benefit is they require no baking!
  • This is another good recipe for hot chocolate cookies.
  • I try to stick with just a couple of recipes for holiday baking. I have fun doing it, but I also don’t want to stress over it. So keeping it simple helps keep it less stressful for me.

3. Decorating

• I love decorating for holidays! I like to put on some Christmas music, make some hot chocolate, and have the kids help me decorate.
• We usually put up 2 trees. One on each floor of our house. I got this tree last year and I really like it! It is much better than the other artificial tree we have. It is much easier to assemble and it looks so much nicer!
• This is one of my favorite Christmas traditions. I typically break it up into several days. I do this for a couple of reasons:
  1. It makes it more fun and then it doesn’t feel like a chore. I work until I start getting sick of it and then do more another day.
  2. I do a little cleaning while I am putting up the decorations… like dusting shelves or pictures as I am swapping out decorations. The cleaning I usually do is cleaning that is not done frequently. Check out this post for how to deep clean your house.
  3. It prolongs the fun of decorating!
• Here are a few of my favorite Christmas decorations: table runner, ceramic white decorative bottles, and of course you have to have some garland.

4. Make Homemade Decorations.

• There are so many different ideas for homemade decorations! The possibilities are endless… and so fun!
• Here are a few of the decoration ideas that we enjoy. I do try to find some new ideas each year so we don’t end up with all of the same decorations.
  • Salt Dough Ornaments- the kids can paint these, but I always love handprint keepsakes. I love looking back to see how small they once were!
  • I love using popsicle sticks for all kinds of crafts. Here is a sled out of popsicle sticks. I also love this Snowman made out of popsicle sticks. So cute and easy!
• Amazon also has some great kits and starter kits to help decrease some of the work. The thing I love about these is they are fairly affordable and most of the kits come with everything you need. Here are a few of my favorite kits:
  • They have these wooden ornaments that kids can decorate.
  • There are cute snow globe kits.
  • Window Art Kit
• But seriously the possibilities are endless. You can decide how much work you want to put into it and find all kinds of cute ideas that the kids will love.
• I usually keep some of the decorations, but we also gift some decorations to family and friends.

5. Make Homemade Gifts.

• This is another one of my kid’s favorites. Grandparents, godparents, and even some teachers enjoy getting these.
• I try to do gifts that can also be useful.
• The possibilities for this are also endless. You can find so many great ideas on Pinterest!
• Here are a few ideas that I have found and used on Pinterest. The kids also enjoyed making them.
  • Homemade body scrub
  • Holiday Kitchen Towels. This was one of my favorites. It was easy and I am a sucker for kids’ handprints!
  • Sharpie Coffee Mugs. I made these into a cute basket with all sorts of coffee items.
  • Cookie Mix In A Jar.
• I have always wanted to try making homemade vanilla, but for some reason, I am too nervous to try this. I’m not sure what we will decide to make this year for homemade gifts, but this is a great way to stick to a budget while still having fun!

6. Make a Snowman

• Honestly, this is one of my least favorite winter traditions, but my kids love it. So, I keep doing it.
• But it’s pretty self-explanatory!

7. Attend Local Holiday Activities

• Our town has a Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony that we try to attend.
• They also have Santa in the park and have hot chocolate and little bonfire pits set up to make Smores. It’s a fun little activity for the kids and they get to see Santa.
• I would encourage you to find some activities in your community or a nearby community to attend.

8. Go See Santa

9. Help Someone In Need/Focus on Doing Good Deeds.

• My husband’s family used to draw names and exchange gifts. A few years ago, we decided to take the money we normally spend on gifts and give it to a local family in need. It’s just a nice thing to know you are helping out someone locally that is going through a hard time.
• The great thing about this is that you can go as big or as small as you want and you don’t have to spend money doing it.
• We try to have the kids focus on giving compliments around Christmas. It makes everyone feel better.
• You could also shovel someone’s driveway, babysit someone’s kids for free, bring treats or goodies to someone unsuspecting, visit some people in Assisted Living or A Nursing Home, send a handwritten note to someone, etc. There are so many options and there are so many great lists for this on Pinterest as well.

10. Watch a Christmas Move and Drink Hot Chocolate.

• I do this countless times during the holidays with my kids. I am a total sucker for cheesy holiday movies!
• This is probably my favorite holiday tradition. I love to snuggle up on the couch and watch a good movie.

11. Go To A Holiday Concert.

12. Make Reindeer Food

• This is another thing my kids love to do.
• It’s simple and quick to make. And I always have all the items needed at home.
• We sprinkle it on Christmas Eve so Santa knows where to go.
• Here is the Reindeer Food “recipe” we use.

13. Write A Letter To Santa

14. Have a Potluck with Friends

• This is a great way to spend time with friends and also stick to a budget.
• Plus if everyone brings a dish, it’s less work and less stress for you.

There are so many great budget-friendly holiday traditions that kids love. Do you have other budget-friendly holiday traditions for kids that aren’t on our list? If so, I would LOVE to hear them!

Do you need some holiday gift ideas? Here is a great guide for non-toy gift ideas and a gift guide to gross motor toys to help kids burn energy.

Here is a post by a fellow blogger with some great budget-friendly toddler gift ideas.