125 Activities To Keep Kids Busy Indoors When It’s Cold
We have fun winter activities for preschoolers, toddlers, young kids and more.
Every winter, it's easy to mourn the carefree, warm, adventurous days of summer. With incredibly brisk weather, it's sometimes not an option to spend much time outdoors, especially with young kids whose winter gear doesn't always stay put.
Oftentimes, families feel holed up indoors with cabin fever. This means parents and families everywhere are wondering about the best winter activities for kids—including yes, fun indoor winter activities to keep kids busy.
So, how can families keep kids entertained, even when it's too cold outside to go to the playground? There are plenty of innovative winter activities for kids to keep the whole family from going stir-crazy—from indoor scavenger hunts to holiday-themed crafts. Here are 125 winter activities for kids!
Here at Parade.com, we're all about sharing products we love with our audience. When you make a purchase on an item seen on this page, we may earn a commission, however, all picks are independently chosen unless otherwise mentioned.
125 Winter Activities For Kids
1. Download in-home family scavenger hunts from Let's Roam.
Let's Roam
Let's Roam is an adventure and tour company that first started out as a way for travelers to tour new cities. Since the coronavirus pandemic began back in 2020, the interactive, subscription-based app has exploded in popularity for its in-home, family-friendly scavenger hunt options. Each kid-friendly scavenger hunt is designed to help children and families bond, explore their home, learn, and of course, connect with each other. All it requires is a phone, a team and, of course, your house!
2. Make a "Boredom Bucket"
A Boredom Bucket is a fun craft with the goal of keeping the boredom blues away. It's part craft, part strategy, as the first step is to gather a bunch of popsicle sticks and write on them, paint and decorate them. Each popsicle stick should have a different boredom buster written on it in Sharpie. Examples include "do a puzzle," "break out the flashcards," "one hour of computer time," etc. That way, when it looks like kids are about to whip out the "I'm boooooored," you simply direct them to the Boredom Bucket!
3. Check out the new UNO app
The beloved, family-friendly card game is now officially an app. The entire family can play a round (or two or three) of the card game virtually. No cards necessary!
Related: Crafts for Kids
4. Make underwater scenes with SLIMYSAND
View the original article to see embedded media.
For the toddler that loves sensory play, SLIMYSAND's Magical Mermaid sand comes in three colors—purple, blue glitter, and pink—and is a parent-approved, mess-free approach to at-home slime. The kit comes with super stretchy and malleable cloud slime that will keep kids engaged and enthralled for hours. And if mermaid colors isn't your child's thing, SLIMYSAND also has constuction, dinosaur/galaxy, sweet treats, and classic castle options for its sand kits.
5. Grow your own mushroom farm
View the original article to see embedded media.
Back to the Roots has plenty of other at-home, indoor gardening kits if growing a mushroom farm isn't your family's thing, but this one is a fan-favorite amongst kids because, well, mushrooms are interesting! One hundred percent organic and non-GMO, it takes just a bit of tender love and care to bring this vegetable (or fungi?) to life. As an educational activity, it will also teach kids about hard work, gardening and, eventually, cooking!
6. Make bracelets
View the original article to see embedded media.
Back in the days of summer camp, one of the top activities that kept kids entertained was bracelet-making. Whether it was with the old staircase technique or beads, bracelet-making as an activity takes a while and requires a lot of effort and attention. It's the perfect thing to offer up when Mom or Dad has to take a phone call!
7. Start a podcast
View the original article to see embedded media.
Whether you start a podcast as a family or encourage the kids to work on this project together, podcasting is an excellent skill for kids to work on. Podcasting not only teaches children important communication skills; it also gets them to work on their speech and pronunciation, and hone their tech skills when it comes to recording and editing. A lot of professional (and amateur) podcasts were born out of the first quarantine; why not give your child the opportunity to do the same?
8. Excavate
View the original article to see embedded media.
There are plenty of excavation kits out there for kids with big imaginations and a penchant for digging, but we love the Dig It Up Discoveries: Puppies kit from MindWare. Just as we all loved watching the candy eggs in our oatmeal transform into dinosaurs as children, your kids will enjoy digging through each bone to discover a puppy play figurine inside.
Related: Free Learning Apps for Kids
9. Start a YouTube channel
View the original article to see embedded media.
In similar ways that working on a podcast can foster valuable creative skills in children, starting a YouTube channel also has a ton of creative benefits. To really get their creativity flowing for their newly-launched YouTube channel, check out the Green Screen Production Kit from HamiltonBuhl. Who knows? With an amateur background in video editing, your kid might just go into video production or broadcast journalism once it's time for college!
10. Make no-bake whipped cream snowflakes
Now that it's colder outside, it's the perfect time to snuggle up on the couch with some hot cocoa. Though kids love hot cocoa, even a cup of the chocolate stuff a day might start to get monotonous, so spice it up with a creamy twist on the fan-favorite beverage. All you need is some Cool Whip, a pan lined with tinfoil, and holiday-themed cookie cutters. According to this recipe from NoBiggie.net, simply spread the Cool Whip over the tinfoiled pan and freeze for at least an hour. Once the whipped cream reaches a somewhat-congealed consistency, use the cookie cutters to cut out fun, winter-themed shapes. Then, pluck the whipped cream snowflake (or whatever cookie-cutter shape it is!) into your hot cocoa.
11. DIY winter-themed glitter jars
Glitter jars have become more and more popular in recent years. The point of the glitter jar is to fill any kind of jar with water and glitter and when kids feel upset, angry, or anxious, they take a few minutes to relax by watching all the glitter inside the jar settle down after shaking it up. To make a winter-themed glitter jar, use different colors of glitter—dark blue, light blue, silver, and white to represent snow and ice—and if you want, you can even throw some fun novelty items in there. Little penguins, snowflake erasers, maybe even a rubber Olaf!
12. Bake cookies
Baking cookies is always a welcome activity come this time of year!. There are a ton of different cookie recipes out there to try—sugar, chocolate chip, snickerdoodle—so this one should keep your whole family busy for a while.
13. DIY glue icicles
Don't worry—these icicles are totally harm-free. After all, they're made of glue! Choose the colored construction paper of your choice for the background, then help your preschooler practice making a straight line of glue horizontally across the top of the page. (You can even draw a straight line in pencil, using a ruler, to help hone your child's tracing skills.) Once the straight line of glue is done, have your child stand the paper upright and watch the magical icicles form. The glue will drip, creating the illusion of icicles.
Once the glue is totally dry, encourage kids to back with crayons, glitter, markers and stickers to finish out the winter scene.
14. Bring the spa to your home
View the original article to see embedded media.
OK, not literally, but in this imaginary playtime scenario, you're the client and your kid is the one doing the pampering. Hopefully, you'll get a halfway decent massage out of this game and kids will love Love Your Look Salon & Spa Playset from Melissa & Doug.
15. Try your hand at monkey bread
Monkey bread had a moment recently. And now that it's wintertime, you and your whole family can try your hands at monkey bread again, only with a winter-esque twist: Snowflake Monkey Bread! We're specifically loving this pull-apart recipe from the blog Half-Baked Harvest.
16. Cross-stitch, but with a shimmery twist
View the original article to see embedded media.
Cross-stitching is the latest trend in DIY boredom busters. It's part cross-stitch, part paint-by-numbers, but with colorful resin rhinestones that result in a dazzling mosaic of diamond art. It's as fun for grown-ups as it is for kids.
17. Try Aquabeads kits
View the original article to see embedded media.
If cross-stitching is not your thing, why not try a similar thing but with plastic beads? Aquabeads keep kids busy for a long time because it takes a lot of hand-eye coordination and concentration skills to arrange each bead in the perfect spot. Once each color bead is in the appropriate spot (based on the template underneath), spray your creation with water, and after it dries, you'll have a beaded version of your favorite characters from Frozen.
18. Bring the adventure of Escape Room to your living room
Bring all the problem-solving and team-bonding aspects of the adventure home with an at-home Escape Kit. Featuring different kid-friendly themes like pirate treasure or superheroes going head-to-head with a nefarious villain, you'll be sure to have a blast.
Related: Home Science Experiments for Kids
19. Video chat on Airtime
For those who need to feel connected to others while indoors, there's Airtime, a real-time video chat social platform that allows groups of people to be together and do things together while online. You can watch YouTube videos and episodes of TV shows together as well as listen to music and share memes on the platform.
20. Host a living room dance party
Dance parties are extremely underrated (IMHO) and with KIDZBOP's perfectly designed dance party playlist, it takes all the work out of DJ'ing your own living room groovy get-down.
21. Make homemade hand sanitizer
Though DIY-ing your own hand sanitizer might seem like a dire situation to us adults, kids view it as just another fun DIY! After all, anytime you make something from scratch, it's essentially a do-it-yourself project or craft. This family-friendly homemade hand sanitizer recipe from Weelicious is a great way to mix work with pleasure. After all, we need hand sanitizer during this epic cold season, but making it is actually kinda fun.
22. Discover the ocean with 10 hours of relaxing oceanscapes
You don't need to leave your house to get educated... or to meditate. And luckily, OceanX combines the two with a YouTube video clip that edits together 10 hours worth of serene oceanic sounds and oceanscapes. Watch, listen to it, meditate to it, fall asleep to it—whatever works for you and your family!
23. Make a storybook
View the original article to see embedded media.
Foster your child's imagination during quarantine with this adorable write-it-yourself hardcover storybook. Inside the box is a storybook ready to be made into whatever your child can dream up. It comes with a spinnable story generator to help kids craft characters, emotions and establish a setting, and kids can pencil in their own drawings and designs with markers and stickers.
24. Grow a garden of crystals
View the original article to see embedded media.
Growing a garden of crystals is not just an artistic DIY, it also inadvertently teaches kids about chemistry. Grow crystals on ceramic figurines, accessory charms and fuzzy sticks while learning about the crystallization process from the poster full of chemistry facts. Though the kit includes metallic paints, coloring dyes, beads, and bags of aluminum powder, the workstation is relatively mess-free and encourages creativity, observation skills, and fosters an interest in both science and art.
25. Join the Young Scientists Ocean Club
View the original article to see embedded media.
OK, it may not be a real club but the Young Scientists Club Ocean Animals Card Game features 80 different card games and an activity poster that makes learning about the ocean's most interesting animals super fun. You can play in four different ways: BINGO, a memory game, Guess the Animal or trivia.
26. "Paint" with mess-free glitter dots
View the original article to see embedded media.
Especially with the little ones, coloring and painting can be messy activities. But with Crayola's new Sparkle Charms kits, toddlers can basically customize their own jewelry with spill-free glitter dots. With a similar effect to glitter glue or paint, kids can simply press glitter dots into the jewelry, then squish them in. The result? It looks like glitter paint and you have no paint on your tables, floors, or child's fingertips!
27. Take turns solving riddles
Kids love a good riddle and for your benefit, we've compiled 101 of them for you.
28. Learn about dinosaurs
View the original article to see embedded media.
School might not be the way it used to be but if your kids are getting bored and you prefer they check out an educational activity, teach them about dinosaurs! The Young Scientists Club Prehistoric Animals Card Game makes it easy to help teach your kids about prehistoric creatures while educating yourself at the same time!
Related: Games for Kids
29. Play BINGO
The best part of BINGO is that it can be played indoors with your friends and family! Just download a few DIY BINGO boards from Pinterest or buy them from Etsy.
30. Tell the future with Frozen characters
Remember these fortune tellers from your middle school days? Well, pop a few of the characters from Frozen on there and kids nowadays love them, too! This idea comes from Disney.com itself, so all you have to do to play is print it out then fold along the lines. Download the Frozen fortune teller here.
31. Hone those STEM skills
View the original article to see embedded media.
The Drilling Construction Playset challenges children to hone their hand-eye coordination and motor skills to use a real, working toy drill to build a rescue helicopter.
32. Make macaroni snowflakes
It's not hard to do. Just simply hot glue a bunch of macaronis together in the shape of a snowflake! Pure boredom-busting genius!
33. DIY a snowglobe
View the original article to see embedded media.
You can pick up everything you need at the local dollar store—or if you're not leaving the house right now, check out DIY snowglobe kits on Amazon. We recommend using a mason jar, sugar and flour as snow, and adding a few winter-themed trinkets like snowmen or Santa Claus. If you want an authentic snow globe, consider one of the kits above or add water and glitter and turn your mason jar upside down. Otherwise, the sugar and flower trick works well!
Related: Origami for Kids
34. Make a Snow Volcano
The Snow Volcano Experiment from Growing a Jeweled Rose uses baking soda, vinegar, and (optionally) food dye to entertain kids and teach them about chemical reactions.
35. DIY Snow Window for Sensory Play
If you have a toddler, sensory play is big for them right now, but it's totally understandable if you're running out of ideas. Transform any window in your house into a Snow Window to aid in your child's sensory play. In the tutorial from No Time for Flash Cards, they use everyday household items like Q-tips and cotton balls to make DIY snowflakes, snowballs, and snow. To make sure your window isn't totally ruined by this sensory play game, make sure to apply contact paper to the window first.
36. Teach children (and pets!) about mindfulness
Breethe
Breethe is a meditation and mindfulness app (available on both iOS and Android) that just launched a Press Paws Collection that kids might think is hysterical but could also benefit from. The Press Paws Collection is the first collection of veterinarian-approved pet-specific audio tracks designed to create calming and safe experiences for pets to relax and adjust. Kids might not be so receptive to learning how to meditate but incorporate the family dog (and they might just be willing)!
37. Check out the new Jackbox Party Pack 7
From everybody's favorite Jackbox Games, the new Jackbox Party Pack 7 is the latest party pack to launch. It costs $29.99 and features games like Quiplash 3, The Devils and the Details, Champ'd Up, Talking POints, and Blather Round. All games can be played at home with your crew!
38. Play holiday-themed trivia
Download Christmas-themed quizzes to test your family's knowledge on the holiday season or check out this giant collection of holiday-themed trivia questions.
39. Play Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes
The instructions of the game are, well, included in the game name. Everyone playing has to keep talking so that, dramatically, nobody explodes while diffusing the digital bomb. The game is available on iOS and Android and to win, you have to get out of each virtual room alive without the digital bomb going off.
40. Make sparkly snow slime
As all parents know, do-it-yourself slime is the ultimate boredom buster and all-around lifesaver for parents.
41. Make snowflake pizza
Host a regular ole' pizza night at home but make sure to get creative when adding the cheese. As in, have your kids make snowflake shapes out of the shredded cheese and shake a bit of grated parmesan cheese on there too for an even snowier appearance.
42. Do a winter-themed word search.
There are tons of winter- and holiday-themed word searches available for free on the internet. You can start here for different levels of word searches or run a simple Google search of your own.
43. Go (wax paper) ice skating
For some fun indoors, we recommend wax paper ice skating, an idea originally published at the blog Little Family Fun. Rip off a few sheets of wax paper (two for each person) and glide around the tile as if you're ice skating.
44. Make snowy suncatchers
Using coffee filters, make snow-themed suncatchers with dark blue and light blue watercolor paint. For an added snowy effect, you can also paint on some silver and blue glitter glue. But don't add too much glitter; the light from the window won't catch as much through the globs of glitter glue.
45. Make a life-size gingerbread man
Have each kid lay down on top of a giant roll of brown craft paper and trace their outline. Then, let them go to town decorating themselves as a giant gingerbread boy (or girl!) with stickers, markers and whatever else.
46. DIY a winter-themed sensory bin
Fill a plastic bin full of shaving cream and mix in blue food coloring and silver glitter for an added wintry effect. Now, toss in some fun items that kids will enjoy digging around in the sensory bin for: snowman toys, plastic or rubber snowflakes, and whatever else you can find on Amazon or at the dollar store.
47. Make a maze out of tape
Using masking tape, map out a maze of sorts on the carpet. Kids can't get out of the maze until they figure it out and don't hop over or run into any of the tape barriers.
48. Break out the summertime tent
Sure, camping is more of a summertime activity for most families but if you bring the tent into the living room, you can also bring some of that fun with you into the winter months. Don't have a tent? You can make a fort or cuddle up in sleeping bags!
49. Make indoor s'mores
Speaking of camping, who says s'mores have to be exclusive to summer? Make microwavable s'mores using chocolate bars, graham crackers, and marshmallows, but add a wintry twist by adding edible silver glitter to the marshmallows and chocolate. When finished, it should look like the kind of s'more Elsa would eat!
50. Use fruits to make edible paint
Delicious! Who knew you could make paint out of fruits like lemons, strawberries, oranges and more. Just check out this recipe and tutorial from The Realistic Mama.
51. Create an indoor hopscotch area
Like the masking tape maze above, you can make a hopscotch court on just about any floor of the house with tape, or you can color-block it by taping down different colored construction papers to the floor.
52. DIY Masking Tape Gingerbread House
Who says gingerbread houses have to be edible? Obviously, an edible gingerbread house is inherently more delicious, but a non-edible one can still be fun! Make an outline of a gingerbread house on the floor using masking tape, then give kids temporary craft supplies with which to decorate it: streamers, stickers, confetti and various toys.
53. Try SOLO Cup bowling
At the end of a hallway, have kids make a tower of red SOLO cups. Then, take turns sending tennis balls (or any other kind of ball) down the hallway.
54. Color coordinate LEGOS and other toys
If The Home Edit, taught us anything it's that color-coordinating isn't just for toddlers learning the different hues of the rainbow. But still, preschoolers love this educational little game: Place one piece of red, green, yellow and blue construction paper on a surface, then give children different colored LEGOs and other little toys. It's their job to coordinate each item to the appropriate color of construction paper. It will keep little minds (and little hands!) busy for hours!
55. Make your couch into an indoor obstacle course
Create challenges with pillows, blankets, indoor trampolines, toys and whatever else you have laying around the house.
56. Create a long jump
Using masking tape, mark out a few different lines of tape on the ground. Challenge kids to see how far they can jump forwards, backwards and sitting down, and how far they can stretch their fingertips beyond their feet.
57. Paint a chalk wall
OK, so this one is a somewhat permanent activity but with the help of your kids, pick a blank wall in either their bedroom or a playroom to paint with chalk paint. Once it's dry, be sure to leave chalk nearby so kids can go to town with their chalk artwork.
58. Use masking tape to make a track
For toy cars to vroom around on the floor!
59. Don't Let the Balloon Touch the Ground
The rules are easy enough. Blow up a few balloons and challenge kids to keep them up in the air. All the jumping around will keep them warm and after a few minutes, burn them out.
60. Make a masking tape spider web
It's like when all your gold necklaces get tangled but except, the kiddie version. Find a "prize" of sorts and attach a bunch of sticky tape to it. You can either make it into a sphere, like an L.O.L. Surprise! Doll or make a spider web of masking tape with the prize stuck in the center. Either way, unraveling the tape will keep kids busy for a long time.
61. Play catch with cups
Like beer pong (but for kids and, of course, without the beer!) have kids toss a ping-pong ball back and forth across a room. Only, they have to catch the ball in a red SOLO cup!
62. Challenge kids with the Cotton Ball Crawl
An awesome boredom-busting idea from Parenting.com, simply dump a pile of cotton balls on the floor in one room. Give kids a spoon and challenge them to remove each cotton ball one at a time, creating a pile in a different room. If they drop the cotton ball, they have to start over!
63. Make yoga into a game
A winter-themed game, that is! Get all bundled up—we're talking winter coat, scarf, hats, gloves, you name it—and do some challenging balance poses from yoga. Each time one of you falls over from lack of balance, you have to take away a piece of warm clothing. Or, you could always do it in reverse: Each time you fall, add a piece of warm clothing!
64. Play hot potato
Get a real potato (or other fruit or veggie of your choice) and look for a "Hot Potato" video on YouTube. The songs will have natural breaks and whenever the music cuts, whoever is left holding the potato (or random fruit or veggie) is out.
65. Teach kids how to do a card trick
Not sure how to do a card trick yourself? Check out this tutorial for some of the best kid-friendly card tricks, then share the magic by teaching others.
66. Paint snow... literally
From the blog Busy Toddler comes this awesome recipe for do-it-yourself snow paint. First, you need actual snow so if it's not cold enough to precipitate by you, pin this one for later or check out the alternative: painting ice cubes. Fill a container with snow from outside, then fill several plastic bowls with water and food dye. Using paintbrushes, kids will love simply painting the snow!
67. Paint ice cubes
If you don't have snow covering the ground near you, there's an alternative to the above activity. It's painting ice cubes! Also from Busy Toddler, fill a container with as many ice cubes as possible, then add in bowls of different paint colors. Give the kids paintbrushes and let them go to town painting ice!
68. Set up target practice
Empty water bottles and paper towel rolls make awesome targets but if you want something more authentic, have your kids help you make a conventional red target circle out of craft paper. Once the DIY part is done, you can get to the game! Kids must hit the target with Nerf shooters or by throwing a ball or bean bag at the target.
69. Make a Wiggle Jar
The idea for the Wiggle Jar comes from Home School Share. Basically, you write a bunch of different move-your-body activities on pieces of paper, then fold them, and add them to an empty jar. You can write things like "dance for two minutes," "do one push-up," "stand on one foot for 10 seconds" and "push against the wall for 30 seconds." Whenever one of your kids needs to get "the wiggles out," have them pick an energy-busting activity from the Wiggle Jar.
70. Turn the laundry basket into a hoop
Kids can take turns chucking balls, bean bags, or other soft toys into the laundry basket as if it's a basketball hoop. To make things harder, have them back up after each time they score.
71. DIY play-doh
All it takes are a few household items you probably already have in your pantry.
72. Make an un-meltable snowman
To make an indoor-friendly snowman who will never melt, we recommend getting white pom-poms and a glue gun. Other versions of this include a snowman out of rolls of toilet paper, cotton balls, or even fruits like apples or oranges! (Although the fruit snowman won't melt, he definitely will mold... eventually.)
73. Turn an old Amazon box into a puppet theatre
The blog Our Whimsical Days has a tutorial on how to do this and if you need puppets, too, check out your sock drawer!
74. Make a city out of cardboard
Why recycle it when you could upcycle it? Use old cardboard boxes to make an entire city, town, or village. Check out the blog Barley and Birch for inspo.
75. Set up different activity stations
Say the dining room is the craft station, the kitchen table is the sensory table station (with supervision) and the living room is a free-play station. You can definitely get more creative and more specific than this with your stations, but the key here is to set a timer and have the kids rotate. That way, no one can get bored of just one activity as they're always switching.
76. Play a drawing game for non-artists
View the original article to see embedded media.
You don't have to be good at drawing to rock Sketchy Tales. In fact, the worse you are, the better your score.
77. Turn dinner into a sensory activity
Adapted from the blog Messy Little Monster, this sensory activity requires food dye and pasta cooked al dente. Just dye some spaghetti a few different colors and place in a bowl. Kids will literally scream out loud as they dip their hands in each bowl of colored pasta!
78. Make your own kinetic sand
Why buy the stuff when you can make it yourself at home? Check out the tutorial at Mom Dot.
79. Turn play-doh into fossils
Kind of... Use different artifacts around the house—like coins, baby teeth, and toy cars—to leave imprints in the play-doh. Then have kids guess what the fossil is of! Check out the full idea at The Soccer Mom Blog.
80. Make a list of winter animals vs. summer animals
What animals native to your neighborhood leave during the winter? And what animals do you typically spot outside the window during the winter? Compare and contrast the lists!
81. Make ice cream in a bag
You'll need heavy whipping cream, vanilla extract, sugar and a whole lot of willpower to make this DIY work, but once the ice cream's done, it's well worth it. Check out the full recipe at Growing a Jeweled Rose.
82. Create your own bouncy balls
No need to go to the dollar store to get bouncy balls ever again! (Side note: Is that where bouncy balls come from? Honestly, no idea. They just appear in places.) Anyway, learn how to make your own with borax, Elmer's glue, water, and optionally, glitter with this tutorial from Life's Carousel. To make it extra wintry, add blue food dye or use blue-colored glitter glue.
83. Design a pom-pom wall
With a bit of masking tape, craft paper, paper towel rolls and creativity, create a few tubes and pockets by taping paper and paper rolls to the wall. Kids can then experiment with pom-poms by dropping them into the tubes the same way you would with marbles, according to this idea from Toddler Approved. Alternatively, you could also cut out the bottom of empty water bottles and tape them onto the wall instead.
84. Build a robot
View the original article to see embedded media.
Now more than ever, STEM toys are highly coveted and this build-your-own robot kit is perfect for kids who need a bit of mental stimulation while it's too cold to go outside.
85. Blow ice bubbles
Technically, this isn't an indoor activity, but you can open a window and blow a few bubbles if you still want to try it out. When temperatures are below freezing, blowing bubbles results in ice bubbles that look like something right out of Frozen.
86. Try the sticky ice experiment
Can you lift an ice cube using nothing but a piece of string? Fun and interactive, this experiment also teaches children about science. Use a bit of salt to melt, then refreeze the ice with the string attached.
87. Make winter-scented candles.
You could use peppermint essential oils to make your DIY candles smell like the holidays, or you could check out this crushed-up peppermint candle tutorial from Coastal Country to ensure your DIY candles smell like a winter wonderland.
88. Make Oobleck... then freeze it.
View the original article to see embedded media.
Observe how the mysterious substance reacts when frozen and then thawing out, too.
89. DIY a Snowstorm in a Jar
You'll need baby oil, white paint, Alka-Seltzer tablets, paper towel or tissue paper, a clear jar and, optionally, glitter and/or blue food coloring to make this DIY Snowstorm in a Jar idea from Mom Brite.
90. Build rainbow ice towers
It looks like magic, but really it's just science.
91. Tie-dye your Christmas stockings
It's undeniable that the biggest style trend of this year (beyond the general trend of loungewear) was tie-dye. Take that trend into the upcoming holiday season and tie-dye your own Christmas stocking with this DIY tutorial from Papier.
92. Play parachute
If this was one of your favorite games in the elementary school gym, you'll be happy to know that it doesn't take much creativity to recreate this game at home. Just pull a bedsheet off the mattress (preferably a king or queen, not a twin bedsheet!) and have the whole family join in.
93. Make your own faux snow
Making your own fake snow substitute isn't as easy as following a recipe. This tutorial from The Home School Scientist takes a scientific experiment approach by having kids try different kinds of faux snow—using different materials like baking soda, super snow powder, distilled vinegar and paper towels.
94. Make hot ice
All it takes is vinegar and baking soda to make sodium acetate—also known as hot ice! Check out the full tutorial at FrugalFun4Boys.
95. Put on a fashion show
Blast some tunes and have the kids walk up and down the "runway"—whether it's up and down the stairs or through the middle of the living room—wearing some of their favorite dress-up ensembles.
96. Toss together some Christmas Crack
Christmas Crack, which is also sometimes called Holiday Trail Mix or Christmas Chex Mix, is one of the best parts of the holiday season. And since it's just a mish-mash of different candies and snacks, it's the perfect holiday recipe for the kids to help with. Our favorite recipe—featuring Cheerios, Chex Mix, red and green M&Ms, pretzel sticks, and melted white chocolate—comes from What's Gaby Cooking.
97. Have a snowball fight
No, of course we wouldn't recommend bringing like, real snowballs into the house. Make your own with either bunched-up white paper or if you're super crafty, sew some with white fabric and stuff them with foam!
98. Create winter magic watercolor art
It's easy though it is as magical as it sounds. Using a white crayon, have kids draw a wintry image of their choice—maybe a snowflake, a snowman, or a message of "Let it snow." Then, kids can go over it with blue watercolor paint to reveal the white crayon artwork underneath. More details on this artsy craft at The Crazy Craft Lady.
99. DIY Moon Sand
All it takes to make do-it-yourself moon sand is two convenient ingredients you probably have laying around the house: baby oil and all-purpose flour. The mixture results in an interesting texture and hours of fun for toddlers who enjoy sensory play.
100. Make your own hand soap.
Why buy hand soap when you could make it yourself?
101. Color mix snow
Colored dye actually travels through snow and frankly, it's fascinating to watch. Bring some snow in from the outdoors and drip colored food dyes through different areas of the snow. Watch how it travels, mix the different colors and observe how they change.
102. Make a felt board of a snowy, wintry scene
All you need is felt!
103. Create an interactive winter wonderland
Make your own faux snow with this recipe, dump it into a plastic container, and then let kids go crazy with toy cars, trucks and excavating tools.
104. Do a color scavenger hunt around the house
Here's how it works: Draw a graph, kind of like a BINGO card, and then color in each square a different color. Then, kids have to roam around the house looking for something in each color category they can add to the BINGO sheet. First one to four in a row wins!
105. Play "Would You Rather?"
Take turns asking each other 50 different "Would you rather?" questions.
106. Create salt-painted snowflakes
All you need is white glue, any kind of salt, and liquid watercolor paints to make salt-painted snowflakes.
107. Play "I'm Going on a Picnic and I'm Bringing..."
It's a classic memory game that's often played in the car during long road trips, but it can be easily adapted as an indoor game. The first person starts by saying, "I'm going on a picnic and I'm bringing..." and then picks one item to bring to the picnic. The next person goes, saying what the first person said, then adds another item. It goes on and on until someone can't remember the picnic list!
108. Make paper snowflakes.
It's everyone's favorite elementary school craft that moonlights as a holiday decoration!
109. Create fizzing snowflakes
Fizzing snowflakes are made from baking soda, water and vinegar. To make them in the shape of a snowflake, buy some snowflake molds.
110. Make marshmallow snowmen
With a Sharpie, draw a face and decorate a snowman on a marshmallow. Just, don't eat them. If you want to eat your marshmallow snowman, make sure to get food-grade edible ink.
111. Create an ice rink for the toys
Toys should be allowed to ice skate, too! Just fill a small tray with water, freeze it, then kids can play with their ice skating toys.
112. Make a plastic bag snowman
Have kids fill a plastic bag with cotton balls, then draw a snowman's face on the bag. Kids can mush around the cotton balls, kind of like a sensory bag.
113. DIY a Winter Sensory Bin
Fill a plastic container with sugar and flour to make a snowy kind of scene. Add in faux flocked bottlebrush trees and then have kids add in their favorite toys for some sensory bin playtime!
114. Make an igloo out of toothpicks and marshmallows.
'Nuff said!
115. DIY polar bears out of TP
Who knew toilet paper rolls could be so cute?
116. Cook cinnamon sugar snowflakes
You'll need white tortillas, butter, white sugar and cinnamon.
117. Create a snowman mobile
Out of what else? A cut-up paper plate!
118. Download Christmas printables
There are a ton of different Christmas coloring book printables available to download on Etsy.
119. DIY Ice Rescue Lake
Animals, and other fun objects, are stuck in the icy lake and it's up to your kid to melt the ice and excavate what's frozen underneath. That's the game of DIY Ice Rescue Lake.
120. Make a snowflake out of beads and gems
Just hot glue them together once your child has designed their perfect snowflake.
121. Feed the snowman
Make a snowman out of an empty plastic bottle, then make it a game to "feed" him with cotton balls. Once he's full of cotton balls, his appetite will be gone!
122. Send a letter to a loved one
Or you know, to Santa himself!
123. DIY a glue snowman
Empty a bunch of glue onto wax paper, then add in buttons for eyes and the smile and a piece of orange foam for the carrot nose. (Maybe add a black foam hat, too!) Once the glue dries, you'll have a cutie little snowman.
124. Craft a fake Christmas tree
Out of cardboard! Let kids paint it green, string it with lights, and decorate it with DIY paper baubles!
125. Make shaving cream "snow"
Normally it's called shaving cream rain clouds, but for the sake of winter, pretend the precipitation is snow!
Looking for other ideas? Here are the best indoor and outdoor toys for kids.
