We've got 45 fab cheap/free things to do with kids in winter, to help you all enjoy the coldest season on a budget. As it gets chillier and darker, it's harder to come up with affordable ways to pass the time — and Christmas takes up most of our money — so we've got inspo right here with plenty of fun free children's winter activities, updated for 2024 with new ideas.
We've sorted our top free and cheap winter activities into five categories, so it's easy to browse the kids' particular areas of interest, whether that's arts and crafts, nature and the great outdoors, being sporty and active, cooking (and eating!), or learning and exploring. Enjoy!
Crafty:
Christmas is great inspiration for winter crafts, from homemade decorations to cards and gift wrap.
1. Shake up your own snow globe. Got a jam jar and some biodegradable glitter? Then you can create a magical snow globe. You just need to glue a waterproof figure onto the inside of the lid. To help the glitter fall slowly, add two to three teaspoons of glycerine — you can find it in the baking aisle of supermarkets (it's just £1 at Ocado). BBC Good Food's how to make a snow globe tutorial has the handy hack of using baby oil of you don't have glycerine, and the top tip of using a jar with a rubber seal to help avoid leakage.
2. Get your wrapping paper all wrapped up with potato stamps. Making your own gift wrap is a great way for kids to while away a cold, rainy afternoon. And the result is you can wrap your gifts in affordable paper that's totally unique, and all you need is a potato, an ink pad or paint, and brown paper — Sainsburys has a 5 metre roll for £1.50. HGTV Handmade's DIY Potato Stamped Wrapping Paper video tutorial shows you how, but essentially you just cut a shape out of a raw potato (this part is for the adults to do) and then dip it in ink/paint, and press it on the brown paper, in a repeating pattern. You can find ink pads from £2 at Hobbycraft, but if you have regular paint at home you can use that too.
3. Deck the halls with DIY salt dough decorations. You can create your own Christmas decorations with store cupboard ingredients. I've used Tocuan Box easy salt dough recipe and it really is easy — just mix together a ratio of 2 parts plain flour to 1 part table salt and 1 part water. Roll it, cut out your shapes using cookie cutters (and poke a hole near the top), and then place on baking parchment on a tray in your oven on its lowest setting for a couple of hours (until the shapes are hard). Once they're cool you can decorate with paint and thread through some string, twine, ribbon or yarn to hang them up.
4. Upcycle a sweater into a Christmas jumper. Thursday 12th December 2024 is Christmas Jumper Day in the UK, which raises money for Save the Children, and that can mean the costly experience of buying something new. But the kids can get crafty and Christmas-ify an existing jumper/charity shop find. Save the Children's DIY Christmas jumper ideas will give you all the inspo you need, such as attaching cotton wool balls for a snowy look, or a Christmas tree shape made out of green felt, or simply oodles of tinsel.
5. Write a letter to Father Christmas... and get a reply! This activity is a lovely way for children to connect with the magic of Christmas, and take their time over a beautifully written letter to the Big Man. And thanks to Royal Mail's Letters to Santa initiative, the kids can hear back from Father Christmas if they send their letters to arrive by Monday 9 December 2024. The Big Guy will be replying to as many as possible - but adults can also help the process by checking the website for instructions and a special download.
6. Make simple paper snowflakes. All you need is white paper and scissors to create these striking yet simple Christmas decorations. Start out with a square shape (fold a corner of A4 paper to meet the other side, and cut off the strip at the bottom), then fold the square in half diagonally, in half again along the folded edge, and then fold the right side across (with the point at the top). Turn over and fold the other side across in the same way, so that the points at the bottom overlap. Cut off the two points that are sticking out at the bottom, and cut out your shapes from the edges (keeping the point intact). If you're a visual learner like me, watch this paper snowflake video tutorial from Wonder Crafts to follow along.
7. Try ice painting. If you've got an ice cube tray, you can try ice painting. All you need to do is add some food colouring to water, and pour it into the tray (different colours in different segments). Add a stick to make it easier to hold the coloured ice cube once it's frozen in your freezer. Then it's time to have some ice painting fun, pushing the cold coloured cubes around. The beauty of doing this in the winter is the ice stays solid for longer.
8. Craft your own Christmas cards. You can keep this quick and easy by using your potato stamps (from idea number 2) to repeat a design across multiple cards, or take your time with a nifty 3D card, like One Little Project's 3D Christmas tree card tutorial. It's a fun origami project that can bring joy to a loved one this Christmas.
9. Handprint a Christmas wreath. For a really personal wreath, use the kids' handprints as the foliage! Simply draw round their hands on green card, cut out the shapes, and stick them to the ring of a paper plate. For step-by-step instructions and details on how to decorate it further with red pompoms as the berries, The Best Ideas for Kids has a handprint wreath tutorial.
Nature:
There are beautiful moments to enjoy in the great outdoors during wintertime.
10. Put pine cones to good use. September to December is prime pine cone collecting season, so take a walk in your local park or woodland and look for conifer trees. The kids can then do all manner of fun and useful things with them back at home. Turn them into bird feeders or put them in a bug hotel as a perfect pad for ladybirds. Or get crafty; attach string, twine or yarn to turn them into hanging Christmas tree decorations, or make them a mini Christmas tree, decorated with mini pompoms.
11. Make a fairy house out of a stump. As the leaves fall and the forests become bare, it's easier to spot interesting logs and stumps when you go on your woodland walks. And those stumps can become magical portals with a bit of imagination and a few found objects. The kids can arrange fallen leaves, twigs, clumps of moss, feathers, stones and pine cones into clever shapes to represent paths, doors, windows and roofs.
12. Create a foraged wreath. A wreath is a staple winter decoration, but you don't have to buy one. The kids can make their own with the Woodland Trust's tips on foraging for natural Christmas decorations. Collect bendy branches or twigs on a walk and weave them together into a circle shape, adding everything from sprigs of rosemary to pine cones as accoutrements.
13. Help the birds. Birds need a helping hand in the colder seasons, and the kids can get involved with homemade bird feeders and shop-bought options. The RSPB has lots of tips on helping birds near you, from what to feed them (high-energy, high-fat foods in the winter) to how to choose a bird table or feeder.
14. Go on a winter scavenger hunt. The Wildlife Trust has an excellent winter scavenger hunt free printable that's full of fun nature things to spot on a wintry walk that can be done anytime, but is a particularly handy activity during 12 Days Wild — their midwinter nature challenge that takes place from 25th December to 5th January each year and encourages everyone to do one wild thing a day.
15. Look for animal tracks - or make your own! You can keep your eyes peeled for animal tracks at any time of year, but if we get snow this winter, then it's all the more exciting to head out on a winter walk and spot them. Snow is the ideal base to make them stand out, but places that are muddy also make it easier to see tracks. If you can't see any, then leave your own welly-shaped ones! The Wildlife Trust has info on how to identify animal tracks, and the top tip to leave a sand-filled tray outside your home overnight so you see who’s visited when you check the next day.
16. Go stargazing. Crisp and clear winter nights can make wonderful conditions to see the stars. Sky at Night Magazine has tips for stargazing with kids, like wearing a red light head torch to reassure little ones who are nervous of the dark.
17. Create frozen sun catchers. Make the most of sub-zero temperatures by creating a nature-filled sun catcher using fallen nature finds like twigs, leaves and petals, to turn them into a beautiful hanging decoration for your garden. It's super-simple, and just involves filling a container with nature's treasures, pouring water over the top to submerge them, freezing it (either outside if it's cold enough, or in your freezer if not), and then removing the ice block from the container and hanging it up outside. An adult will need to drill a hole and thread some string through, but you can avoid this step by placing a piece of string in the water before freezing it. Take Them Outside has a video showing how to make frozen sun catchers.
18. Have a puddle jumping competition. Make the most of rainy days by pulling on the puddle suits and heading out to enjoy the big splashy puddles the rain has left behind. If the kids aren't excited enough by just the jumping, you could appeal to their competitive sides, and turn it into a contest - who can jump in the most puddles in one go, who can make the biggest splash, etc.
Tasty:
The coldest season is the best time to get cosy with some homebaked goodies and special hot drinks.
19. Bake gingerbread. What could be more Christmassy than eating gingerbread? Baking your own, that's what. It'll fill your home with a delicious scent, give the kids a fun activity to do, and will result in a tasty festive treat that can be decorated or just gobbled up as is. I always use a failsafe recipe from a Winnie the Pooh cookbook from my childhood, which just uses a handful or ingredients and is super simple. Melt 85g butter, 85g brown sugar and 3tbsp golden syrup in a pan, then pour it into 225g plain flour mixed with 1tsp ground cinnamon, 2tsp ground ginger and 1tsp baking powder. Mix it all together, roll it out to the thickness of a £1 coin, cut out your shapes, and place on baking parchment on a tray to bake at 180°C for around 8 minutes or until golden. Once cool, you can decorate by making your own piping bag out of a sandwich bag with a small hole cut out of a corner, filled with icing sugar mixed with a little hot water. Cheap, easy and delicious.
20. Create Reindeer chocolate cornflake cakes. For a no-bake recipe that they kids will love putting together (and devouring), you can't beat cornflake cakes. And when it's wintertime, you can't beat reindeer-themed Rudolph Cornflake Cakes, recipe courtesy of Delish. The adult starts by melting 100g dark chocolate, 50g butter and 50g golden syrup in a pan and pouring over 100g cornflakes. Then once the mixture is in a dozen cupcake cases in a muffin tin, the kids can get to work decorating. Pretzels make great antlers, red sweets like Smarties or M&Ms make great Rudolph noses, and you can using white icing plus choc chips for eyes (or buy ready-made edible eyes). Pop in the fridge to set.
21. Make oh-so easy mince pies. The Jus-Rol mince pie recipe shows you a brilliant cheat's version of the yuletide classic that the kids can get involved with. It's as easy as cutting out the discs for the base, placing in a muffin tin, filling each with two teaspoons of mincemeat, and cutting out a disc for the top that's attached with a bit of water. Make a hole in the top and bake for 15-20 minutes on 200°C. You can get 320g Jus-Rol Shortcrust Pastry Sheets for £1.25 (you'll need two packs to make a dozen mince pies) and a 411g jar of mincemeat for £1.60 at ASDA So that's a dozen homemade mince pies for less than a fiver — the proud look on their faces when they serve them to the family will be priceless.
22. Marvel at homemade 'magic shell'. Remember that cool chocolate sauce that hardened when you poured it on your ice cream as a kid? Well, you can create it with your kids, with just two ingredients, thanks to this homemage magic shell recipe from Live Well Bake Often. All you need to do is put chocolate chips and coconut oil (a 300ml jar of Coco Loco Organic Coconut Oil is £1.75 at ALDI) in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave in 20-30 second bursts, stirring thoroughly after each go, until it's smooth. Let it cool for a few minutes, then watch their faces as it solidifies before their eyes as it coats their ice cream. Magic.
23. Have a hot chocolate overhaul. One of the great things about cold wintry weather is that it's the perfect time for hot chocolate. And you can make yours all the more special by overhauling the straightforward chocolate powder and milk combo — a decadent hot choc is all about the extras. And the kids will have a ball coming up with their own combinations. Think mini marshmallows, choc chips, little fudge pieces, squirty cream, a sprinkle of hot chocolate powder, or even a chunk of choc brownie to scoop out with a spoon.
24. Create marshmallow snowman toppers. If you want to get even more creative with your hot choc, you can make marshmallow snowmen to float on top. Draw the eyes, mouth and buttons with chocolate sauce (or use choc chips), an orange tic tac can be pushed in as the nose, and pretzel sticks can form the arms. The CFA Connection has a video showing you how to create marshmallow snowmen as hot chocolate toppers.
25. Gift hot choc reindeer cones. The kids can share the hot choc love by making hot chocolate reindeer cones as gifts. BBC Good Food shows you how to fold baking parchment into the cone, fill with instant hot choc powder and toppings, and twist a pipe cleaner around the top to close it and act as antlers.
26. Perfect polar bear peppermint creams. Peppermint creams are a classic festive sweet treat, and you can make them even more winter-appropriate by decorating them to look like polar bears. All you need to make the peppermint creams themselves are icing sugar, egg white and peppermint essence. And then it's just a case of clever construction to make the bear's snout and ears. Check out BBC Good Food's polar bear peppermint creams recipe to see how.
27. Make no-bake melting snowmen biscuits. Use bought biscuits to make this quick and easy for the young ones, as then all the fun's in the decorating. Marshmallows make the snowmen's heads, and icing makes the melted puddle underneath, with pretzels for arms and mini decorations for the eyes, nose and buttons. See BBC Good Food's melting snowmen biscuits recipe.
Active:
Keep warm with wintertime activities to stay active indoors while you wait for the snow fun to start.
28. Boss balloon keepy uppy. It might not be warm enough to have a kick about in the garden, but the kids can keep up with the footie skills by taking them inside. Don't worry, we're not suggesting they boot a football around the living room. Broken TVs that way lie. No, we reckon getting a balloon is the best way to go when it comes to indoor ball games. They can practice keepy uppy skills with a balloon without any danger of breaking anything, and it can become a challenge to not let the balloon touch the floor.
29. Host your version of the Winter Olympics. Get into the spirit of the Winter Olympics by creating your own scaled-down Games at home. This could involve ice cube curling, table-top ice hockey, or an indoor obstacle course to get the heart pumping. Fun Loving Families has lots of Winter Olympics-related games ideas, as well as themed crafts and treats.
30. Go bowling in the comfort of your own home. Ten pin bowling is a great activity for the colder months, but bowling alleys can be pricey. So set up your own at home with a DIY skittles set. Gather together some empty plastic bottles to serve as the pins. You can weigh them down with some water, or gravel, or sand. You can bunch up an old pair of socks to be the ball.
31. Play sock hockey. They might not be able to play ice hockey, but they can use that balled up pair of old socks again for another winter-themed game: sock hockey! The socks become the puck, a cardboard box becomes the goal, and the kids can use rulers or wooden spoons as their hockey sticks. They have to move around on their knees as they attempt to score five goals first.
32. Dance til you can't dance no more at your dance party. You can't beat a dance session to help keep warm, so turn up their favourite tunes and have a dance party at home to keep them active and moving. It could include sessions of Musical Statues, or turn into a dance off, or even involve some karaoke.
33. Play charades. A good old fashioned game of charades can help get everyone moving as they act out a movie, book, TV show or song title. You can switch it up to be any theme, and if inspiration is a little lacking then write down simple ideas on pieces of paper, fold them up, and pop them in a bowl for people to draw out at random. You could make it winter- or Christmas-themed at this time of year.
34. Take a penny hike. Make a winter walk more interesting by turning it into a 'penny hike'. This simply means you take a coin with you, and flip it each time you come to a turning point - heads means turn left, tails right (or the other way round!). It adds a bit of mystery and intrigue to your local area, and could mean you discover somewhere new.
35. Search for Christmas lights. Encourage the kids to get outside and take a stroll around the local neighbourhood by enticing them with the promise of Christmas lights and decorations. As it gets dark so early in December, you can head out soon after they're back from school, and be home in time for tea. Note where you can find some good displays locally beforehand, so you know they're going to be rewarded for their efforts to get some fresh air and exercise!
36. Set a festive treasure hunt. Get them racing round the house looking for Christmas-related items on a themed treasure hunt. All you need to do is write out a few clues, and leave them at each point, so the fun continues as they solve each clue and move on to the next one. For example, you might write 'what would you use for a snowman's nose?' and then leave the following clue next to the carrots. They could hunt for the treat left for Santa on Christmas Eve (mince pie), where the stockings will be waiting, etc.
Educational:
Snow and ice experiments are where it's at for wintertime science experiments.
37. Excavate frozen toys. The kids can become ice archaeologists with this really simple, free activity that helps them learn about the different properties of water. Place small toys in an ice cube tray, fill with water and place in the freezer. Then pop them out once frozen and give to the kids to 'rescue'. You can place larger toys in plastic cups, or even use balloons, if space in your freezer allows — they make excellent dinosaur eggs. If it's sub-zero outside, you can use nature instead of your freezer. Add food colouring or leave the water au naturel. Dinosaurs are a popular item to excavate, but you can also use nature finds like leaves, flowers and herbs. Give the kids various tools to help, from spoons and spades (add safety goggles) to warm water and salt. Check out NutureStore for more frozen ice sensory play ideas.
38. Make fake snow. If the real stuff isn't falling yet, you can create your own, and Gathered will show you three ways to make fake snow using ingredients you might already have at home. They all use bicarbonate of soda (also known as baking soda) — you can get a 200g tub from Tesco for 65p — teamed with one other ingredient: the first version combines it with shaving cream, the second version mixes it with hair conditioner, and the third version adds cornflour (and water) to the equation. Pick the one that you already have, and the kids can start making the soft, white, wintry stuff.
39. Play the Christmas alphabet game. The classic alphabet game is given a festive twist by making it all about Christmas. You can either play it that each person takes a turn naming something festive that begins with a letter from A to Z in order, or one person can run through the whole alphabet themselves. Unusual letters like q, x, z can appear anywhere in the word. It's a handy way to pass the time on a car journey, or for kids to do in their heads when trying to get to sleep. It's great for younger kids learning the alphabet and expanding their vocab, and you can adapt it for competitive older kids by counting how many Christmas-related words they can name for each letter/in a certain amount of time.
40. Create salt crystal snowflakes. This science experiment is an exercise in patience, which is pretty much what waiting for Christmas Day is too, so it's good practice! All you need is salt, water and paper towels cut into snowflakes. You create a saturated salt solution, pour it over your paper snowflakes, and wait for the crystals to grown. Little Bins for Little Hands has the lowdown on growing crystal salt snowflakes.
41. Play Christmas tree I-spy. Once the neighbours start putting up their decorations, take a walk around your local area to spot Christmas trees. You can count how many you find, or give them a colour to spot in the decorations. Or keep it easy at home with a game of I-spy with your own Christmas tree — younger kids can use colours instead of letters of the alphabet and say "I spy with my little eye, something the colour...".
42. Blow frozen bubbles. When the temperature dips below freezing, it's time to make some magic! Fireflies and Mud Pies shows you how to make frozen bubbles with just your standard bubble solution and bubble wands. To make your own bubble solution, mix one part washing up liquid to six parts water (a drop of glycerine will make the bubbles last longer), and you can use everyday objects as wands like cookie cutters. For longer lasting bubbles, add a drop of glycerine to your mixture.) You can get educational by chatting with the kids about the differences water goes through with temperature changes.
43. Make moon sand. The kids have probably played with slime and oobleck, but have they come across moon sand? They can make shapes with it, and enjoy it crumbling through their fingers - perfect sensory play. For a winter theme, they could create snowmen with it. BBC Good Food will show you how to make moon sand with just two ingredients - oil (one part) and flour/cornflour (eight parts). There's no cooking involved, and it's easy to make - but is messy, so contain it in a tray when they get stuck in, and cover your surfaces when it's time to play!
44. Create natural dyes for custom clothing. If you've got some fruit and veg, you can make your own colours that the kids can then us to dye white fabric, and create their own customised socks, t-shirts, etc. They could even gift them to friends and family at Christmas. And they'll get a science lesson in the process. Just be aware that it can get messy, so aprons are essential! BBC Good Food has the lowdown on how to make natural dyes.
45. Cause a snow storm in a jar. If the kids like their science experiments to get fizzy, then Little Bins for Little Hands has instructions on how to create a snow storm in a jar, as well as the science behind it. You need vegetable oil or baby oil, white or light blue washable paint (and/or food colouring), Alka Seltzer tablets, and a cup, jar or bottle. Follow the tutorial and let the fizzing snow storm commence!
