Once fall arrives, the calendar seems to fill up overnight. There are pumpkins to carve, costumes to plan, Thanksgiving preparations to finish, Christmas traditions to enjoy—and children who still need something fun to do while we handle it all.
I love a cozy family movie as much as anyone, but I do not want a screen to be the only thing keeping my children entertained throughout the holiday season. That is why I keep a few simple, screen-free activities ready for slow afternoons, rainy days, road trips, restaurant waits, and those busy moments when I need 20 quiet minutes to finish dinner.
The good news is that keeping children occupied does not require an elaborate craft setup or a cart full of new supplies. A printer, crayons, child-safe scissors, glue, and a few things you already have at home can provide weeks of seasonal fun.
Below are 15 easy screen-free fall and holiday activities you can use from the first cool days of fall all the way through Christmas.
Why Screen-Free Holiday Activities Are Worth Preparing Ahead
The holiday season brings plenty of excitement, but it can also interrupt normal routines. Children may be home for school breaks, traveling more often, attending family gatherings, or waiting while adults cook and prepare.
Having a few activities ready gives them something enjoyable and purposeful to do without handing over a tablet every time boredom appears. Depending on the activity and your child’s age, they can practice:
- Fine motor skills through coloring, tracing, cutting, and drawing
- Early problem-solving with mazes, matching games, and puzzles
- Letter and number recognition
- Creativity and storytelling
- Independent play and quiet-time skills
- Gratitude and family connection
You do not have to turn every activity into a formal lesson. Let children color outside the lines, invent silly stories, or complete a page in their own way. The goal is simple: happy little hands, less pressure for parents, and more meaningful time away from screens.
Create a Simple Fall Activity Basket
Before trying the ideas below, put together a small activity basket that you can grab whenever you need it. You can use a plastic bin, handled caddy, or even a large zipper bag.
Add a few basics:
- Washable crayons and markers
- Colored pencils for older children
- Glue sticks
- Child-safe scissors
- Blank paper or a sketchbook
- Stickers
- Printed coloring and activity pages
- A clipboard or hard writing surface for travel
Keeping everything together makes screen-free time much easier. You will not have to search for supplies while your child is already bored, and the same basket can travel from the kitchen table to Grandma’s house.
15 Easy Screen-Free Fall and Holiday Activities for Kids
1. Go on a Fall Color Hunt
Choose four or five fall colors—such as red, orange, yellow, brown, and green—and ask your child to find something outside that matches each one. Younger children can simply point to the items. Older children can draw or write down what they find.
If you cannot go outdoors, turn it into an indoor color hunt using clothing, toys, books, or household objects.
2. Sort and Count Leaves
Collect a handful of fallen leaves and sort them by color, shape, or size. Then count how many are in each group. This is an easy way to add early math practice to a nature walk without making it feel like schoolwork.
Always supervise young children outdoors and check anything they collect before bringing it inside.
3. Make a Fall Nature Collage
Use leaves, small twigs, paper scraps, and fall-colored tissue paper to create a seasonal collage. Children can arrange the pieces into a tree, pumpkin, turkey, or an abstract picture of their own.
For toddlers, prepare larger materials and handle the glue as needed. Preschoolers and elementary-aged children can plan and assemble their own designs.
4. Set Out Seasonal Coloring Pages
Coloring is one of the easiest activities to pull out while you cook, work, or prepare for a holiday gathering. Rotate the theme throughout the season: leaves and pumpkins for fall, friendly characters for Halloween, turkeys for Thanksgiving, and Santa or Christmas trees in December.
To make familiar pages feel new, offer different materials. Try crayons one day, dot markers another day, and watercolor paints when you have time for a little extra cleanup.
5. Complete a Halloween Maze
Mazes give children a clear challenge and do not require much explanation. Place a printed maze on a clipboard with a pencil or crayon and let your child help a character reach the pumpkin, candy bucket, or other Halloween destination.
If your child gets frustrated, trace the route together with a finger before using a pencil.
6. Try a Halloween Connect-the-Dots Page
Connect-the-dots activities combine number practice with the surprise of revealing a picture. After connecting the numbers, children can color and decorate the finished Halloween image.
For younger children who are still learning number order, sit nearby and help them find the next number instead of completing the page for them.
7. Play a Pumpkin Matching Game
Draw or print pairs of pumpkins with matching faces, shapes, letters, or patterns. Cut them into cards, turn them facedown, and take turns finding the pairs.
Use fewer pairs for toddlers and preschoolers. Add more cards when playing with older children or as a whole family.
8. Invent a Silly Halloween Story
Give your child three seasonal words—such as pumpkin, bat, and broom—and ask them to create a story using all three. Children who are not writing yet can tell the story while you write it down. Older children can use a printed writing prompt and illustrate the story afterward.
This is especially fun when every family member creates a different story using the same three words.
9. Create a Gratitude Turkey
Cut a simple turkey body and several feather shapes from construction paper. Ask your child to name something they are thankful for, then write one answer on each feather.
Toddlers might name favorite people, foods, toys, or pets. Older children can add a reason beside each answer. Display the finished turkey where the family can enjoy it during November.
10. Work Through a Thanksgiving Puzzle or Maze
Set out a Thanksgiving-themed maze, word search, or matching page while you prepare dinner. Choose the page based on your child’s current skill level: simple matching and coloring for little ones, then word searches and writing activities for children who can read independently.
This is a practical activity for the kids’ table, a classroom celebration, or a quiet moment after dinner.
11. Let Kids Help With Holiday Preparation
Children often enjoy participating more than being told to go play. Give them a safe, age-appropriate job such as placing napkins on the table, sorting unbreakable decorations, making place cards, or putting stickers on gift tags.
The job may not be done perfectly, and that is okay. Participation can become part of the holiday memory.
12. Design Christmas Cards
Fold blank paper into cards or print Christmas coloring pages that can be turned into greetings. Children can color the front and dictate or write a short message inside.
Send the cards to grandparents, teachers, neighbors, or relatives who live far away. This turns a quiet-time activity into a thoughtful gift.
13. Draw the Perfect Christmas Day
Ask children to draw or write about their perfect Christmas day. What would they eat? Who would be there? What games would they play? What traditions would make the day special?
This type of prompt encourages imagination and can also help parents learn which parts of the holiday matter most to their children.
14. Make a Holiday Travel Pack
Before a car ride, flight, or long restaurant wait, place several printable pages in a folder with a small pack of crayons. Include a mixture of coloring pages, mazes, connect-the-dots, matching games, and age-appropriate word searches.
Avoid giving children every page at once. Hand out one or two at a time so the activities stay interesting longer.
15. Hold a Family Activity Night
Choose a few printable games and let everyone join in. Children can race through an age-appropriate maze, work on a matching game together, color at the same table, or take turns answering seasonal writing prompts aloud.
Add warm drinks and a simple snack, and you have an easy family tradition without planning an expensive outing.
Want All the Activities Ready to Print?
You can absolutely create seasonal activities one at a time, but sometimes the most helpful option is having everything ready in one place.
The Ultimate Screen-Free Fall & Holiday Activity Bundle for Kids includes 200 printable pages designed to keep children learning, creating, and having fun from Halloween through Christmas.
You will receive three separate PDF activity books: a 95-page Halloween book, a 45-page Thanksgiving book, and a 60-page Christmas book.
Inside the bundle, you will find:
- Halloween activities
- Thanksgiving games and worksheets
- Christmas coloring and activity pages
- Mazes
- Word searches
- Connect-the-dots pages
- Matching games
- Writing prompts
- Educational activities
It is an instant digital download formatted for US Letter paper, and you can print the pages as many times as you need for personal use. There is no physical product to wait for in the mail.
The variety makes it easy to select activities that fit different ages and abilities. Use simple coloring, matching, and guided pages with toddlers and preschoolers, then offer word searches, puzzles, and writing prompts to older children.
Get the 200-Page Screen-Free Fall & Holiday Activity Bundle here.
Easy Ways to Use Your Printable Holiday Bundle
Once you download the PDF, you can use it throughout the season instead of printing everything at once. Here are a few easy options:
- Print five pages each Sunday for the week ahead.
- Keep several pages in your purse or car for unexpected waits.
- Add selected activities to your homeschool or preschool routine.
- Place pages at the kids’ table during holiday gatherings.
- Use them for rainy days and quiet time.
- Bring a folder of activities on Thanksgiving or Christmas trips.
- Let children choose one page whenever they ask for screen time.
- Print extra copies for siblings or a family game night.
For reusable activities, place selected pages in plastic sheet protectors and use dry-erase markers. This works especially well for mazes, matching exercises, tracing, and connect-the-dots pages.
A Simpler, More Meaningful Holiday Season
Children do not need every moment of the holiday season to be scheduled or picture-perfect. Often, the simplest activities—coloring beside you while dinner cooks, finishing a maze at Grandma’s table, or creating a handmade Christmas card—become the moments they remember.
A little preparation now can give you easy screen-free options for the busiest months of the year. Start with the ideas above, keep a small activity basket within reach, and give yourself permission to choose simple fun over complicated plans.
If you would like 200 Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas activity pages already organized for you, download the Ultimate Screen-Free Fall & Holiday Activity Bundle for Kids and start printing your favorites today.
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