Jingle All the Way: Magical Christmas Party Ideas for Kids!
Grab the jingle bells and crank up the Christmas carols because the North Pole has officially opened for party season!
From festive slime and sparkling jewelry to mini trees and glowing lanterns, these Christmas party ideas bring all the sparkle, colour and excitement of Christmas straight to the activity table.
But Christmas creativity is only the beginning! Kids can adopt a cuddly reindeer, welcome their very own Christmas elf, decorate an edible cookie tree or settle in for cocoa, cupcakes and a Polar Express-inspired popcorn bar. Add Christmas houses to decorate, festive treats to make and special creations to take home, and there’s enough here to fill Santa’s workshop!
Whether you’re planning a kids’ Christmas party, festive playdate, school holiday celebration or a cosy afternoon at home, mix and match your favourite ideas to create a celebration filled with Christmas magic from start to finish.
Consider this your ticket to the merriest party season yet!
What You’ll Find in This Post:
- Very Merry Christmas Party Invitations
- How to Plan a Christmas Party for Kids
- Magical Christmas Party Activities
- Christmas Party Food & Drinks
- Let the Reindeer Games Begin!
- Christmas Party Favours
- Easy Christmas Party Plans
- Christmas Party FAQs
Very Merry Christmas Party Invitations
Kick off your Christmas party with invitations worth jingling about! Create custom invites featuring cheeky elves, candy canes and snowy scenes, or browse pre-made options at Inspired Party Co to set the merry tone.
💡 Tip: Include a ‘What’s Your Elf Name?’ card in the envelope to get kids excited for the magic to come.
How to Plan a Christmas Party for Kids
Start by choosing one or two main activities based on the age and interests of the kids attending your party.
Younger kids may love adopting a plush reindeer or elf, decorating mini Christmas trees or creating colourful sand art, while older kids and tweens may prefer making Christmas jewelry, decorating Christmas cookie trees or tackling more detailed decorating projects.
Once you’ve chosen the main activity, build the rest of the celebration around it with a festive backdrop, an easy food and drink station, a couple of quick Christmas games and a take-home creation or favour.
Party Setup Essentials:
- 6-foot folding table
- 10-foot adjustable backdrop stand
- 90 x 132-inch sequin tablecloth
- 6-foot Christmas fabric backdrop
💡 Tip: Check out Inspired Party Co for reusable, photo-ready backdrops and party pieces that can transform your table into a North Pole workshop, snowy wonderland or colourful Christmas scene.
Christmas Decorating Ideas:
Each activity in this guide has its own styling ideas, but a few versatile Christmas decorations can be mixed and matched throughout your party:
- Christmas-themed fabric backdrop
- Red, green, silver, or gold sequin tablecloth
- Twinkling fairy lights
- Mini Christmas trees
- Oversized baubles
- Candy canes and peppermint decorations
- Wrapped presents
- Wooden crates and festive shelving
- Reindeer and elf decorations
- Bells, ribbons and bows
- Snowy foliage
💡 Tip: You don’t need to decorate the entire room. Concentrate the Christmas magic around your main activity table and backdrop for maximum impact without turning decorating into another item on Santa’s to-do list.
Magical Christmas Party Activities
Which activity deserves a spot on the nice list?
From adopting cuddly reindeer and creating tiny Christmas worlds to making slime, jewelry and glowing lanterns, these hands-on Christmas party activities give kids something exciting to do and something special to take home.
1. Sleighing It: Host a Reindeer Adoption
Open the doors to Santa’s stables and let every little elf adopt a cuddly reindeer to call their own!
Arrange plush reindeer around your party table and let kids choose their new companion. They can dream up a festive name such as Jingles, Snowflake or Tinsel before making the adoption official with a certificate.
Add name tags, collars or little accessories to make the experience feel even more special. Best of all, the adoption activity doubles as a party favour, with every child taking their new reindeer home.
💡 Perfect for: Younger kids, plush-toy lovers and an imaginative activity with no mess and no stress.
2. Christmas Magic: Create a Christmas Fairy Garden
Let kids create a tiny Christmas world of their very own, filled with snowy forests, miniature elves and twinkling lights!
Give each child a bowl and a bag of sand and decorations, then fill the table with snowy foliage, tiny trees, wooden elves, reindeer and festive treasures for them to choose from.
They might create an enchanted elf village, a reindeer forest or a secret North Pole hideaway. Add tiny LED lights at the end and watch their miniature Christmas worlds glow!
💡 Perfect for: Hands-on fun and a festive creation kids can enjoy all Christmas long.
3. Sleigh Bells & Slime: Make Christmas Cookie Slime
Swap the cookie dough for slime and let little elves whip up their own squishy Christmas treats!
Start with a gingerbread-coloured slime base, then set out festive “toppings” for kids to decorate their creations. Add glittery sugar, colourful sprinkles and Christmas-themed charms to turn each batch into a slime version of a decorated Christmas cookie.
Kids can mix, stretch and decorate their slime before popping it into a container to take home.
💡 Perfect for: Slime fans who love sensory play with a sweet Christmas twist.
4. Jingle Bell Bling: Make Christmas Jewelry
Bring out the beads, baubles and Christmas sparkle for a jewelry-making station filled with festive flair.
Set out colourful bubblegum beads, Christmas charms, floating lockets, elastic cord and sparkling details so kids can design bracelets, necklaces or lockets of their own.
Younger kids can work with chunky beads and simple elastic bracelets, while older kids and tweens can create more detailed charm jewelry.
Once finished, kids can wear their Christmas creations for the rest of the party before taking them home.
💡 Perfect for: Jewelry lovers and mixed-age groups, with easy ways to simplify or level up the activity.
5. Glow-rious Christmas: Make Festive Lanterns
Turn simple mason jars into glowing Christmas lanterns with fairy lights, festive silhouettes and sparkling details.
Kids can create snowy forests, Santa flying across the night sky, reindeer silhouettes or colourful Christmas designs before adding battery-powered fairy lights inside.
Once the lights are switched on, the designs glow and become beautiful Christmas room decor.
💡 Perfect for: Kids who love crafting, decorating and watching their creations come to light.
⚠️ Safety Tip: Use LED fairy lights with securely enclosed battery packs, and always keep loose button batteries out of children’s reach.
6. Santa’s Little Sidekicks: Host an Elf Adoption
Santa’s workshop is hiring!
Transform your party table into a North Pole adoption station filled with plush elves waiting for their new homes. Let each child choose an elf, give their new sidekick a festive name and complete an adoption certificate.
You can even give each elf a tiny North Pole job such as Toy Tester, Cookie Quality Controller or Jingle Bell Keeper.
Once the adoption is official, kids can take their new Christmas companion home for plenty more festive adventures.
💡 Perfect for: Younger kids who love imaginative play and an activity that doubles as an adorable party favour.
7. Home for Christmas: Decorate Wooden Christmas Houses
Turn plain wooden craft houses into tiny Christmas homes bursting with colour and personality.
Set out wooden houses with paint pens, sparkly gems, festive picks, miniature decorations, beaded trims and other Christmas embellishments. Kids can create everything from a classic North Pole cottage to a colourful candy-covered house or snowy winter cabin.
The finished houses become special Christmas decorations kids can bring out again each year.
💡 Perfect for: Creative kids who love tiny details and giving Christmas their own colourful twist.
8. Tinsel & Tidings: Decorate Mini Christmas Trees
Deck the halls this Christmas, starting with the tree!
Give each child their own miniature Christmas tree, then set out colourful baubles, ribbons, bows, bells and ornaments and let the festive trimming begin.
Go merry and traditional with red and green, create a frosty winter wonderland or pile on enough colour and sparkle to rival Santa’s workshop.
💡 Perfect for: Hands-on Christmas fun that ends with a little tree to make their room merry all season long.
9. Crafty Christmas: Decorate Ceramic Christmas Trees
Start with a blank ceramic Christmas tree and let kids give this festive classic a completely unexpected makeover!
Set out colourful rhinestones, sparkling gems, fringe, feathers and decorative trims, then let kids dream up their own over-the-top creation. Cover it in rainbow jewels, wrap every tier in shimmering gold or go bold with bright colours and fluffy feathers.
With the tree as their blank canvas, there are no decorating rules here. The more colour, texture and Christmas sparkle, the merrier!
💡 Perfect for: Creative kids who love colour, sparkle and giving traditional Christmas décor a playful twist.
10. Sandy Claus Is Coming to Town: Make Christmas Sand Art
Who says Christmas has to be white?
Give each child a Christmas tree-shaped container and set out colourful sand ready for layering, swirling and mixing into their own festive design.
Stick with red, green, white and gold for classic Christmas stripes, or shake up Santa’s colour palette with pink, aqua, purple and rainbow combinations.
Once the final layer is poured and the tree is sealed, kids have a colourful Christmas decoration to take home and display.
💡 Perfect for: Younger kids who love hands-on creativity, bright colours and watching their Christmas tree take shape one layer at a time.
11. Oh Christmas Treat: Decorate Cookie Trees
Turn dessert into the activity with edible Christmas trees kids can stack, swirl, sprinkle and decorate!
Set out Christmas tree-shaped cookie pieces with icing, sprinkles, sugar pearls and colourful candies, then let kids build their own delicious Christmas trees.
Keep them snowy and simple or pile on the icing and sprinkles until they look like they’ve been decorated by Santa’s sweetest little helpers.
Once finished, kids can wrap up their cookie trees to take home or tuck straight into their handiwork.
💡 Perfect for: Kids with a sweet tooth and a Christmas activity that doubles as dessert.
Christmas Party Food & Drinks
Christmas party food doesn’t need to mean preparing twelve different themed snacks.
Choose one show-stopping self-serve food station and one easy drink station. Kids can help themselves, the food and drinks become part of the party experience and you’re not stuck in the kitchen while everyone else is jingling away.
1. All Aboard: Polar Express Popcorn Bar
Turn an everyday bowl of popcorn into a first-class Christmas treat with a Polar Express-inspired popcorn bar!
Fill sleigh crates with different popcorn flavours and mix-ins, then give each one a playful Christmas name such as Coconut Snowball, Prancer’s Peppermint or Jingle Bell Jumble.
Set out waffle cones or festive popcorn boxes and let kids scoop, mix and create their own Christmas combination.
Finish the station with train ticket labels and a festive railway backdrop to make it feel like the next stop really is the North Pole.
💡 Tip: Include a mix of sweet, salty and chocolatey flavours so there’s something on board for every little passenger.
2. Jingle & Mingle: Cocoa & Cupcakes
Warm up the party with a cosy Christmas pairing of peppermint-topped cupcakes and hot cocoa! Dress up store-bought red velvet cupcakes with crushed peppermint, then set out hot cocoa bombs beside a dispenser of warm milk and let the Christmas cheer pour itself.
It’s an easy way to serve something sweet and something warm without preparing a whole table of themed treats.
💡 Tip: Add sprinkles, crushed peppermint and a few festive extras if you want kids to decorate their cupcakes or dress up their cocoa.
Let the Reindeer Games Begin!
Keep the jingle bells ringing between activities with Christmas games packed with festive fun.
- Christmas Hot Potato: Pass a festive plush or Christmas pillow around the circle while carols play. When the music stops, whoever is holding it is out! Keep playing until one lucky player is left and wins a special surprise.
- Reindeer Relay: It’s time for reindeer training! Divide kids into teams and have them race through a simple course wearing antlers, jingling bells or carrying a sack of presents. First team to get all their reindeer across the finish line wins!
- Jingle Bell Freeze Dance: Crank up the Christmas carols and let kids dance, twirl and jingle around the room. When the music stops, freeze! The last one caught moving sits out until just one dancer remains.
- Christmas Pass the Parcel: Tuck little Christmas surprises between layers of wrapping paper and pass the parcel around the circle while carols play. Unwrap one layer each time the music stops until an extra-special prize is revealed at the very end!
- North Pole Scavenger Hunt: Santa’s workshop has lost a few things! Hide ornaments, bells, candy canes or other Christmas treasures around the party space and send kids racing to find them. For older kids, add clues and riddles that lead from one hidden location to the next.
💡 Tip: Set up a North Pole Photo Booth with elf hats, oversized candy canes, reindeer antlers and other festive props so kids can snap a few merry memories between activities.
Christmas Party Favours
Many of the activities in this guide double as their own Christmas party favour, with mini trees, Christmas jewelry, sand art, decorated houses, fairy gardens and glowing lanterns all giving kids something special to take home. But if you want to add a little extra Christmas magic, send kids home with one of these festive surprises.
- Portable North Pole Reindeer: Pop a plush reindeer into a mini North Pole mailbox for a fun surprise straight from Santa’s stables! Add a postage-style name tag and slip in a “special delivery” note from the North Pole for a keepsake that feels truly magical.
- Portable North Pole Elves: Hang elf-themed stockings from a stocking holder or garland, each one labelled with a child’s name tag. Tucked inside, a cheeky elf awaits, ready to keep an eye on things until Christmas Eve!
- DIY Christmas Wands: Every elf needs a little sparkle! In a Santa’s Secret Stash bag, tuck a wooden craft star wand along with glitter pots, Posca paint pens, ribbons and trims. Encourage kids to decorate their wands at home and cast a little Christmas cheer wherever they go!
- DIY Christmas Jewelry Kits: Let kids create and wear their own holiday bling! Fill Santa-themed bags with colourful beads and elastic, and add a festive name tag for a fun, personal touch.
💡 Tip: Add a touch of magic to every favour with “From Santa’s Workshop” or “Elf-Inspected” tags. Because Santa knows better than anyone that the magic is in the details!
Easy Christmas Party Plans
With so many magical ideas to choose from, it can be tempting to squeeze the entire North Pole into one party!
But a little Christmas magic goes a long way.
Choose one main activity (or two if you have the time), add something fun to eat and drink, then sprinkle in a few quick Christmas games between activities. Best of all, many of the creations can head home with the kids as their party favour.
Not sure where to start? Here are three easy Christmas party plans to get you started:
Santa’s Workshop Party
Turn your party space into Santa’s workshop with wooden sleigh crates and plenty of twinkling lights. Little elves can decorate their own wooden Christmas houses and trim mini trees, bringing a little North Pole magic to life.
Main activity: Decorate wooden Christmas houses
Second activity: Decorate mini Christmas trees
Game: North Pole scavenger hunt
Food: Polar Express Popcorn Bar
Drink: Hot Cocoa & Cupcakes Bar
Favour: Christmas Cookie Decorating Kit
The North Pole Party
Bring a little North Pole magic to the party with cuddly reindeer, glowing lanterns and plenty of Christmas cheer. Kids can choose, name and adopt their own reindeer, create a Christmas lantern and race their way through reindeer training before heading home with their new North Pole friend.
Main activity: Create Christmas Lanterns
Second activity: Reindeer Adoption
Game: Reindeer Relay
Food: Polar Express Popcorn Bar
Drink: Hot Cocoa & Cupcakes Bar
Favour: Elf-Made Holiday Bling Kit
Jingle All the Way Party
Turn up the Christmas carols and fill the party with colour, sparkle and plenty of hands-on fun. Kids can create sparkling Christmas jewelry, mix up festive slime and jingle their way across the dance floor before heading home with a little extra Christmas magic.
Main activity: Create Christmas Jewelry
Second activity: Christmas Slime
Game: Jingle Bell Freeze Dance
Food: Polar Express Popcorn Bar
Drink: Hot Cocoa & Cupcakes Bar
Favour: DIY Christmas Wands
Ready to Jingle All the Way?
From making Christmas slime and decorating mini trees to adopting cuddly reindeer and building tiny winter worlds, a kids’ Christmas party can be as crafty, colourful, cosy or sparkly as you want to make it.
The secret is keeping the setup simple.
Choose one or two hands-on activities kids will genuinely enjoy, add a couple of easy games and one self-serve food and drink station, then let their creations double as take-home favours.
With plenty to make, decorate, taste and discover, you’ll have everything you need to fill your celebration with merry little moments and Christmas magic from start to finish.
Christmas Party FAQs
What age are these Christmas party ideas best for?
These ideas suit a wide range of ages. Younger kids may enjoy reindeer adoption, mini trees and sand art, while older kids and tweens may prefer jewelry, lanterns and more detailed decorating projects.
How many activities do I need for a kids’ Christmas party?
One main hands-on activity plus one or two quick games is usually plenty. For a longer party, add a second activity or edible decorating station without packing too much into the schedule.
How can I plan a Christmas party for different ages?
Choose activities that can be easily adapted. Younger kids can use chunky beads or simple decorations, while older kids and tweens can tackle more detailed designs. You can also offer two activity stations and let kids choose their favourite.
Do I need separate Christmas party favours?
Not necessarily! Many of these activities double as built-in favours, with decorated trees, jewelry, lanterns, sand art, fairy gardens, wooden houses and adopted plush reindeer or elves all ready to take home.
Can I get matching party items?
Absolutely! Shop Inspired Party Co for coordinating fabric backdrops, sequin tablecloths, party tees and printables designed to bring your Christmas party together.
Let the Christmas Magic Begin!
We can’t wait to see what your little elves create!
Tag us @InspiredPartyCo and use #ChristmasPartyIdeas to share your festive celebration.
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