The cost of Christmas can be overwhelming. From the gifts to the decor to the seasonal food, it feels like you’re swiping your card every other minute. If your holiday budget is strained but you still want to have a wonderful Christmas season, we have some no-spend Christmas activities for you.
Not everyone will be able to do all of these no-spend Christmas activities. Some require a car, others call for a stocked pantry, and some might be inaccessible, depending on where you live. However, everyone can find a few free activities on this list to make their holiday memorable and magical.
Take a Christmas Lights Drive
Hands down, one of my family’s favorite and completely free things to do during the Christmas season is to drive around our neighborhood and admire people’s Christmas lights. Some areas have special streets that go all out and attract visitors from miles around. However, assuming at least some of your neighbors embrace the Christmas spirit, you can see stunning lights without driving too far.
If you don’t have a car, you can also bundle up and walk around. Bring steamy mugs of hot chocolate with you to stay warm. We also love to crown a winning house that we thought had the best decor!
Build a Snowman or Fort
There’s only one requirement for this no-spend Christmas activity: snow. Whether you have children or not, building a snowman or snow fort will always be a classic no-spend Christmas activity. If you haven’t done this since you were a kid, let me tell you that it’s tougher than we remember but worth it.
It’s cool if you have a corncob pipe, a carrot nose… and two eyes made out of coal, but a few sticks or rocks will do the trick, too. As far as a fort, I recommend starting with the walls and packing the snow tightly. Make sure you have gloves and hats to stay toasty!
Craft Christmas Decorations
The list of Christmas decorations you can craft is endless. And you can likely make an assortment of decorations without spending a cent. Things like popcorn garlands, citrus garlands, pine cone decor, paper snowflakes, salt dough ornaments, paper ornaments, wall-mounted “Christmas trees,” and more.
If you have scissors and glue, the world is your Christmas oyster. If you have paint, glitter, and other crafting materials, you can deck the halls with loads of handmade decorations. And decorating for Christmas is a free, festive activity in itself!
Bake Christmas Treats
You don’t have to break the bank at the grocery store to bake holiday goodies. In fact, some of the very best Christmas recipes use just a handful of the most basic ingredients, like these 4-ingredient Christmas cookies!
There are so many options for cakes, loaves of bread, brownies, bars, cupcakes, and beyond. The odds are good that you have all the ingredients you need already in your kitchen. You just have to find the right recipe and get baking.
Watch a Christmas Movie Marathon
One of the best no-spend Christmas activities is a Christmas movie marathon. We’re not just talking about throwing on an Xmas movie one night. We’re talking about hunkering down for a full-on marathon of all your favorite holiday flicks. Maybe you watch all the Santa Clause movies in one sitting or have a claymation movie viewing.
But you can also mix and match movies, going from Home Alone to It’s a Wonderful Life to Elf. We recommend picking a theme or category for the movies, such as “North Pole” or “comedies” to make it a comprehensive experience. Hunker down with blankets and pillows, turn on the Christmas lights, mix the hot cocoa, and enjoy! For free!
Enjoy a Game Night: Christmas Edition
You can have a lively game night with a Christmas twist without opening your wallet. Replace your Monopoly pieces with little candy canes or Christmas figurines. Play Cards Against Humanity with a rule that the Christmas-siest answer is the winner. Draw a Candyland board with Christmas candies and treats. Or just host a game of poker and make everyone wear Santa hats!
Other fantastic and more DIY options are Christmas Bingo and Christmas trivia. These games pair well with your movie marathon. Ask trivia questions about Christmas movies or Christmas in general. Make Bingo cards with Christmas movie cliches or traditions. For this no-spend activity, let your imagination run wild.
Craft Handmade Christmas Cards
While Christmas cards are somewhat of a dying tradition, we’d like to change that. But forget about the one-size-fits-all Christmas cards you can get at Walgreens. They’re often overpriced and impersonal. Instead, take time to make and handwrite Christmas cards for the people you’re closest to.
You can draw, paint, collage, glitter, or just write heartfelt messages. These cards will mean much more to people than the mass-printed cards, and you get a chance to express your gratitude for the people you love genuinely. And that’s what the season is all about!
Ice Skate or Sled
Tubing at a ski resort or skating in Central Park might not be free, but you can probably find a free frozen pond, public skating rink, or snowy hill to make these winter traditions a no-spend situation. If you don’t have any sort of ice skates, skating might not work for you.
But even if you don’t have a sled, then a piece of sheet plastic, a garbage can top, outdoor cushions, a laundry basket, or something similar can work as a sled in a pinch. Listen, if you want a no-spend Christmas, you have to be thrifty and resourceful! And zooming down a snowy hill on a piece of cardboard is as thrifty as it gets.
Sing Christmas Carol Karaoke
We’re not going to recommend you go Christmas caroling around your neighborhood. Not to be a Grinch, but we don’t think many people appreciate strangers knocking on their door at night and holding them hostage with holiday tunes in 2024. But you can belt out your favorite Christmas songs from the privacy of your own home.
Either have a Christmas carol party all to yourself, sing with family, or host a full-on karaoke night. You don’t even need a karaoke machine, just YouTube and perhaps a hairbrush for people to croon into.
Volunteer Locally
This is one of the most popular no-spend Christmas activities. During the season of giving, the best thing you can do is give your time to help those in need, whether that’s helping homeless people stay warm, snuggling with animals at the shelter, or organizing donated toys for kids.
No matter where you live, there are opportunities to volunteer in your area. Volunteer alone or do it with friends and family. This activity can seem intimidating or daunting, but once you do it, you’ll love the warm, fuzzy feeling it gives you.
Attend a Local Event
Most places have free events during the holiday season that you can attend without dropping a penny. Attend live nativity scenes, holiday pageants, local plays, church services, and Christmas parades. Believe it or not, communities will host free Christmas parties, family photoshoots, shows, tree-lighting ceremonies, and more.
Free events are hard to come by, but the season of giving tends to spur this kind of generosity. A quick “free Christmas events near me” search will likely reveal plenty of no-spend opportunities.
Visit a Christmas Market
A free local event you can count on in most places is a Christmas market. Many towns and cities host at least one Christmas market or bazaar during December, and you don’t need to spend money to enjoy them.
You can wander around the different stands and see the interesting crafts and goodies people bring to sell. These markets often have a cozy, festive vibe that is delightful. And if you have a few extra bucks, grab a hot cocoa to keep you warm!
Make Ugly Sweaters
Ugly Christmas sweaters are a brilliantly hideous tradition that many look forward to each year. You can order pretty awful ones from Amazon or thrift funky ones, but you can also craft your own from weird stuff around your house.
The only thing you need for this no-spend Christmas activity is a sweater you’re willing to sacrifice in the name of Christmas. After you have that, it’s just about finding strange bits and bobs to tack on. Use ribbons, old ornaments, garlands, stickers, glitter, and just about anything else. Our strategy is to find Christmas decor we don’t love anymore, like old Christmas throw pillow covers or holiday kitchen towels, and repurpose them.
Visit a Christmas Tree Farm
If you live in the desert or on a tropical island, this activity might be out of reach. Sorry! But for those of us who live in milder climates, Christmas tree farms are usually easy to come by.
You don’t have to buy a tree to enjoy the whimsy and holiday spirit of a Christmas tree farm. Most are happy to let you meander around the farm for the fun of it. You can take pictures and enjoy the scenery. If there are absolutely zero Christmas tree farms around you, try to find a sparse pine forest that offers the same vibe.
Have a Holiday Photoshoot
You don’t need to spend money to capture beautiful Christmas moments. If you want photos to remember this holiday season, skip the professional shoots and do a festive photoshoot on your own.
You can take pictures with friends, family, or even strangers! Don your best holiday gear and grab your phone. You can also bring props like candy canes or Santa hats. Take pretty photos, silly photos, or anything in between, and have a blast doing it.
Write Letters to Santa
If you have kids, writing letters to Santa should be one of your quintessential no-spend Christmas activities, but if you don’t have kids, we still think it’s a lovely idea to do this. Writing a letter to Santa is a sweet way to embrace the nostalgia of your childhood, get into the Christmas spirit, treat your inner child, and reflect on the year behind you or the year ahead.
You can write about what you’re grateful for, what you want, if you’ve been naughty or nice, and anything else that comes out of your pen. Consider this a Christmas journaling exercise.
Sleep by the Tree
While this might not be the most exciting no-spend activity on the list, it does have a warm Christmas vibe. Choose one night when you need extra Christmas magic and set up a comfy sleeping situation near your Christmas tree.
You can use sleeping bags, air mattresses, comforters, pillows, and anything else that will make it cozier. Fall asleep to your favorite Christmas movie or drift off while admiring your twinkling ornaments. For kids, Christmas Eve is the perfect night to do this, so they can try to catch a glimpse of Santa.
Plan a Festive Scavenger Hunt
This is one of the best no-spend Christmas activities for kids, but adults can have fun with it too. Hide Christmas objects around the house and write clues to help the hunter find the items in a specific order. Christmas objects can be candy canes, ornaments, cookies, a gingerbread house, a Christmas sweater, poinsettias, snow globes, string lights, a little tree, and more.
If you’re stumped while trying to create the scavenger hunt, we recommend using a classic Christmas movie to inspire you. For example, you can use Frosty the Snowman as inspiration and hide items like buttons, carrots, pieces of coal, a top hat, a broom, and other related items. Maybe the grand prize at the end can be your Christmas movie marathon!
Craft a Christmas Playlist
Thoughtfully curated playlists are underrated. Far too many people default to the shuffle button, but crafting a playlist that ebbs and flows makes the listening experience a million times better. Take some time to collect your favorite Christmas songs and order them in a meaningful or pleasing way.
Our family loves a playlist that starts slow and then gets perky and then mellows out again, but you can create whatever kind of listening journey you want. Share the playlist with friends, family, or Spotify strangers, listen to it all December long (and maybe into January too), and throw it on at parties and hangouts.
Invent a Christmas Tale
These kinds of no-spend Christmas activities are not for everyone, but don’t knock it until you try it. If you don’t consider yourself a masterful writer or storyteller, you can do this with friends or with a Mad Libs-style approach.
You could write a Christmas story, act out a silly skit with loved ones, revamp a classic Christmas tale, or just spin a yarn as you go. Think of this like the Christmas version of telling ghost stories by the campfire, but the ghost stories are Santa stories and the campfire is a charming fireplace.
Read Christmas Classics
If the idea of conjuring a Christmas story is beyond daunting, you can read classic Christmas stories instead. This might be a nice reprieve from your movie marathons. No matter how old you are, you can read any Christmas book, even children’s ones or poetry.
Curl up with classics like A Christmas Carol, The 13th Gift, A Christmas Memory, The Nutcracker, A Redbird Christmas, Christmas Bells, A Christmas Story, Little Women, Skipping Christmas, or A Visit from St. Nicholas. Each of these works embodies the holiday season in their own special way, so it’s easy to find one that speaks to you.
Paint a Christmas Manicure
Christmas manicures are amusing, but they can be pricey, especially if you want intricate snowflakes and sparkly gems on your nails. But a Christmas manicure doesn’t have to be expensive if you have enough supplies to do it at home. If you like to paint your own nails and have a few festive nail polish colors, you can practice your art skills for free.
Play with different designs like candy cane stripes, snowflake details, pine trees, glitter polishes, gingerbread men, Santa hats, holly, and more. Maybe you can hone your skills by switching up your manicure every few days. By the end of the holiday season, you’ll be a Christmas manicure pro, and you’ll have saved hundreds compared to going to the nail salon.
Host a Regift Party
It’s safe to say that we all get at least one present every year that we don’t love, or even like. A regift party is the perfect way for people to get rid of these unwanted gifts without throwing them away. It’s like a fun White Elephant party or Yankee Swap, but you don’t have to buy a gift for the occasion.
We know a lot of guilt can come with getting rid of items that loved ones gave to you, and a regifting party can be a more pleasant way to purge these items. Just make sure you don’t accidentally regift something someone at the party gave you!
Have a Cookie Swap Party
A cookie swap party is another one of the best no-spend Christmas activities that involves getting together with friends and family. The idea is simple — everyone bakes cookies, usually a dozen or so, and then you can all trade sweets to taste what your loved ones have made.
You don’t have to limit yourself to cookies either. You can swap cakes, breads, bars, hot cocoa mixes, eggnog, and just about any other treat. Encourage your invitees to be resourceful with what they have available, so it can be a no-spend, thrifty swap for everyone.
Cook a Resourceful Feast
In case you didn’t pick up on it, we love to be resourceful. Cooking a proper Christmas feast can demand a fat budget, but not if you work with what you have.
You can turn old bread or croutons into stuffing, make gravy using Worcestershire sauce instead of turkey drippings, make a pie with the random canned fruit hiding in your cupboard, turn forgotten frozen veggies into yummy side dishes, and more. You’ll have to skip out on things like cranberry sauce and mashed potatoes if you don’t have the right ingredients, but with a keen eye and clever mindset, you might be able to create a decadent dinner without swiping your credit card.
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