The best Christmas activity planners plus one for the parent with zero energy!

December is here and so is all the hustle and bustle of Christmas! As someone who struggles greatly with anxiety I already find Christmas difficult; add to that a toddler, preschooler and being 7 months pregnant and I must confess to feeling completely overwhelmed! One way I cope with this, is with a battle action plan.

Since November I've been watching my Pinterest and Facebook feeds fill up with creative and fun Christmas activities-I want to do them all! Some part of me almost feels like if I don't do them all-I'm a terrible mum. Ridiculous I know, but anxiety reigns when it comes to thoughts on my parenting abilities.

I began looking at Christmas activity planners-something that would help me give my girls a magical Christmas and that I'd need to do minimal planning for. I found six that I fell in love with.
 

The Six Best Christmas Activity Planners (in my humble opinion)

24 Days of Christmas printables: Every morning from December 1 through December 24, Simple Fun For Kids will be posting an all new printable. It will mostly be fun stuff for older toddlers and preschoolers with a few learning activities thrown in. These are no-prep or minimal-prep printables with minimal supplies required, so you can just print them out whenever you have a few minutes to spend with the kids that day! Find out more.

Christ Centred Advent: If your family is striving to be intentional about making sure your children know what the real reason behind Christmas is-then you can't go past this calendar from Tales of Beauty for Ashes. Each day features a scripture, family activity, service project, craft and a book. Find out more.

Advent Calendar Printable Activity Cards: Homegrown Friends has created a brand new set of Christmas Advent Calendar Printable Activity Cards just for you! All the hard work has been done for you, all that's left is for you to choose between the 30 amazing activities, add in the dates and print them off! Find out more.

Family Focused Printable Advent Calendar Activity Cards: If you want to make sure that you find time to connect with your family despite all the holiday hustle and bustle, then this is the calendar for you! Edventures With Kids has put together 100 free printable activities for you to choose between! All of the activities are family-focused to make sure you connect a little each day! Find out more.

Occupational Therapy Christmas Calendar: This free printable from the Sugar Aunts is a way for kids and families to connect and cope during this busy season through holiday festivities, while simultaneously working on many Occupational Therapy goal areas. The calendar is meant to be an easy way to fit OT practice into everyday Christmas fun. The calendar is flexible: if a day is too hectic to fit in an activity, switch it around and do a different activity. The most important message is to connect with your family and meet the needs of each member in fun and festive ways this Christmas! Find out more.

Free December Activity Calendar:  If you haven't seen And Next Comes L's free monthly activity calendars then now is the perfect time to acquaint yourself! This month's calendar has been designed specifically to get your kids into the Christmas spirit and I must confess it's probably my favourite! There's 31 crafts and activities for kids to keep the kids busy all December long, including sensory play ideas, fine motor activities, Christmas crafts, and learning activities! Download your copy and keep it handy on your phone or computer. Then every morning, simply open the calendar, find the current date, and click on the corresponding photo. You will be taken to the activity's or craft's instructions. No need to plan activities for your kids as this calendar has it all: math, science, crafts, fine motor activities, and more! Find out more.

The Christmas Activity Planner for the Parent with Zero Energy

Unfortunately I know realistically, an activity a day is more than I can cope with at the moment: between constant all-day sickness, OB appointments, school transition, Kinder pickups and drop offs and merely looking after Squiggles-my energy is spent!

Instead I've chosen to alter what I do normally with the girls to fit a Christmas theme. I'll have to be a little more organised than normal but I feel it's doable and whilst there's still that nagging feeling I could be doing more I know the girls will enjoy themselves and we'll still be able to have many discussions about Christmas and what it really is about.

You can download your FREE printable version of my action plan, along with a shopping list simply by clicking the links below (I'll be adding one week at a time on Saturday evenings, because as I said, I have zero energy!).

Week One Activities and Shopping List

Instead of daily activities, each week I've planned five 'stations', a station is simply an area in your home that can be set up and left for the week, such as a small table or a rug in a corner. You can choose to set all of the stations up at the beginning of the week or set one a day up but the idea is they remain set up for the week allowing your children to access and explore the station at their leisure. If five stations overwhelms you, just pick three, or two or even one. The activities are all very open ended and will hopefully keep your child engaged all week long no matter how many stations you choose to set up.

Please always supervise your infant/child at play.  Please stay within arms reach and never leave infants/children unattended.  You know you're infant/child best, use your own judgement-considering your infant/child's temperament, habits, behaviour and development before you play with a new play medium.