Holiday Activities

Today’s fun and play is kids Christmas movement activities. December is such a busy month we sometimes end up being like the Gingerbread man, on the run. Let’s start there. Gingerbread men can be boys or girls. 

In the Gingerbread man, a little old lady makes a gingerbread man cookie, but the cookie jumps out of the oven and runs away. He calls to everyone chasing him, “Run, run as fast as you can. You can’t catch me, I’m the gingerbread man.” If you have access to a big safe space outside, like a yard, playground or park, dress kids for the weather and let them go out and pretend to be the gingerbread man. They can run and run as fast as they can.

Gingerbread kids needs someone to chase them, so you may need to call from the sidelines with suggestions of who’s chasing them. “Now, it’s the farmer chasing the gingerbread man.” You can make up lots of chasers not just the ones in the story, like the farmer, the cow, the horse, the sheep, the goat, the bunny, the dog, the cat, the elephant, the bus, the train, the dentist, and anything else. This should wear off some energy and give kids a chance to move their bodies vigorously. A hallway inside a house will do if the weather outside is frightful. Of course, you can chase if you need to move too.

Kids can also pretend to be the reindeer pulling Santa’s sleigh. They fly around. But what if the reindeer aren’t available? What would happen if Santa needed kangaroos? The kangaroos would hop around. Name some other animals and ask kids to show you how those ones would pull the sleigh. Elephants would take big steps. Dinosaurs would take huge ones. Bunnies are smaller than kangaroos so bunny hops would be pretty small. Fish or whales would swim the sleigh. Birds also fly around while horses gallop. Once the kids, or you, need a break, suggest turtles, who pull the sleigh very, very slowly. These can be done inside the house on a mat.

Some other kids Christmas movement activities and ideas for movin’ and groovin’ could be to move like toy soldiers. They march around. The train in The Little Engine That Could had to climb a steep mountain and it was such hard work to pull all the cars full of toys. For this, kids need to move like they are pulling a heavy load. How does Santa move with a sack that’s full of toys? Elves scurry back and forth. For a rest, Christmas trees stand as tall as they can be and stay very still.

Adults may not need vigorous physical activity, but kids do. Could these kids Christmas movement activities be part of the fun and play at your house today?