Christmas Bucket List
One December activity per card, from clove oranges and peanut brittle to lights trolleys and sock snowball fights.
- Time
- 10–30 min
- Players
- One or more people
- Best for
- December weekends, holiday visits and nights in with friends
- Deck
- 100 ideas in 5 categories
How to use these Christmas bucket list ideas
- Pick a category from the menu under the card, or keep “All categories”.
- Read the idea on the top card. If it sounds like your kind of December, give it a date on the calendar.
- Swipe the card away, or tap “Next idea”, for another. Ideas do not repeat until you have seen the whole category.
- Tap the heart to save an idea on this device, or tap “Make a 10-idea list” to print it and pin it up as this year’s Christmas bucket list.
When to make a Christmas bucket list
December fills up fast, and the parades, the ballet and the lights tours come and go in a few weeks. Choosing a handful of ideas early turns “we should do that this year” into dates you can actually keep.
The last weekend of November
With the decoration boxes still in the closet, draw from every category and heart the ten that fit your December, from a clove orange to a seat at The Nutcracker.
When friends or family come to stay
Hand the phone to a guest and let them pick from Out and about or Cozy nights in, whether that means a lights trolley tour or a sock snowball fight after dinner.
The quiet days after the 25th
When the gifts are open and nobody has plans, Cozy nights in and Baking and treats fill an afternoon: a radio play, a pan of toffee, a letter to open next December.
Ways to use this Christmas bucket list
One card a day until the 25th
Starting December 1, draw one card each morning. Do the small ones that day and give the bigger ones a weekend, so the month fills up with one thing at a time instead of one frantic week.
A list everyone in the house picks from
After dinner, let everyone at the table heart their two favorite cards. Make a 10-idea list from the hearts, print it, tape it up by the calendar and tick off each idea as the month goes on.
Plans for a group of friends
Before the holidays get busy, each friend draws from a different category until one card sounds right. You end up with a shared plan: one outing, one thing to bake, one kind act and one night in together.
Tips for a Christmas list you actually finish
- Look up dates for anything in Out and about in November. Ballet performances, parades, fun runs and lights tours run on fixed nights, and popular nights can fill up early.
- Pair a Baking and treats card with a Giving and kindness card, so the brittle, toffee or cookies you make have somewhere to go.
- Leave a few Cozy nights in ideas for the week between Christmas and New Year’s, when the outings are over and everyone is still around.
All 100 Christmas bucket list ideas by category
The complete list, grouped by category. The cards above draw from the same list, so you can read ahead here and pick there.
Decorating and lights
Wreaths, garlands, paper stars, clove oranges and a few strings of lights in surprising places.
- Build your own wreath on a wire ring from evergreen clippings, then hang it on the front door.
- Make a paper chain with one link for every day until the 25th and tear one off each morning.
- Fill a big glass jar with the ornaments that never fit on the tree and set it on the table.
- Tie a small red bow on every houseplant in your home for the month.
- Fold paper stars from old book pages or sheet music and hang them in a window.
- Put a single electric candle in every front window, the old-fashioned way.
- Lay fresh pine and cedar branches along a mantel or shelf so the room smells like a forest.
- Paint a pile of pinecones gold and silver and heap them in your biggest bowl.
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- Lash five straight sticks into a star with twine and hang it on the door.
- Wrap the trunk of one tree in the yard in lights, from the ground up as high as you can reach.
- Put lights somewhere unexpected this year, like a bookcase, a bathroom mirror or the kitchen shelves.
- Press cloves into an orange in swirls and dots, then hang it with ribbon so it scents the room.
- Set up a tiny tree on your desk at work and invite coworkers to add one ornament each.
- Stitch a felt stocking for a friend who has never had one, with their name on the cuff.
- Give the tree a name the day it comes home and write it on a tag at the top.
- String a garland of cinnamon sticks and wooden beads for the mantel.
- Mix salt dough, cut out shapes, bake them hard and paint your own ornaments.
- Swap the everyday towels, pillow covers and doormat for December ones until New Year’s.
- Tie ribbon bows every few steps along the stair railing and weave greenery between them.
- Write one word that sums up your year on a plain glass ornament and add it to the tree.
Baking and treats
Linzer cookies, peanut brittle, candied peel, warm cider and other things to make in a December kitchen.
- Bake linzer cookies with raspberry jam peeking through a little star cut in the top.
- Simmer strips of orange peel into candied peel and dip half of each one in dark chocolate.
- Bake a tray of thumbprint cookies with three different jams and see which one goes first.
- Make old-fashioned peanut brittle and break it into shards for little gift tins.
- Bake a round of shortbread and score it into wedges with a fork before it cools.
- Warm a big pot of apple cider on the stove with orange slices, cinnamon and star anise.
- Bake snowball cookies and roll them in powdered sugar twice, once warm and once cool.
- Make caramel corn and pack it into paper cones for a movie night.
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- Bake a dark, sticky gingerbread loaf and cut thick slices to eat with tea.
- Put together an overnight French toast bake so holiday breakfast only needs the oven.
- Bake stained-glass cookies by melting crushed hard candy into windows cut in the dough.
- Make homemade marzipan and shape it into tiny fruits and vegetables.
- Build a pavlova wreath from meringue and top it with red berries and mint leaves.
- Bake chocolate crinkle cookies and watch the powdered sugar crack as they rise.
- Frost a pan of brownies green and stand little cookie trees all over the top.
- Make fruit jellies from real juice, cut them into squares and roll them in sugar.
- Bake a pull-apart monkey bread in a ring pan for a slow December morning.
- Bake spiced speculoos cookies and press a pattern into each one before baking.
- Pipe red-and-white swirled peppermint meringues and bake them low until crisp.
- Make a pan of buttery toffee, cover it with melted chocolate and scatter chopped almonds on top.
Out and about
The Nutcracker, parades, lights tours, craft fairs and other outings that only happen this month.
- See a live performance of The Nutcracker, even a small local production.
- Watch a local theater’s stage version of A Christmas Carol.
- Sing holiday songs door to door on your street with a few friends and a printed song sheet.
- Ride a holiday lights trolley or bus tour that loops through the brightest parts of town.
- Buy every gift at a local craft fair from the person who made it.
- Get to the holiday parade early with folding chairs and a thermos to claim a curbside spot.
- Sign up for a holiday fun run and wear jingle bells on your shoes.
- Pick out a poinsettia at a local greenhouse in any color but red.
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- Make a trip downtown to see the animated holiday windows at a big department store.
- Book a holiday-themed escape room with friends and try to break out before time runs out.
- Paint a mug at a pottery studio in December and drink cocoa from it all season.
- Shop the December 26 sales for next year’s wrapping paper and lights.
- Watch a holiday movie at a drive-in or outdoor screening, bundled in blankets in the car.
- Catch a holiday improv or comedy show at a small local theater.
- Take a day trip to a town with a holiday name, like Santa Claus, Indiana, or North Pole, Alaska.
- Watch a holiday ice show at a local rink and pick a favorite routine.
- Join a group bike ride where everyone wraps their bike in holiday lights.
- Take a group photo in front of the biggest decorated tree in town.
- Walk through the lobby of a grand old hotel when it is decked out for December.
- Join a holiday trivia night at a local café or community hall.
Giving and kindness
Small, cheerful ways to brighten the season for neighbors, friends, local workers and even the birds.
- Leave a basket of snacks and water on the porch for delivery drivers during the busiest weeks.
- Tape a thank-you card to the trash can for the crew who collects it every week.
- Write a holiday letter to an old mentor or boss about one thing they taught you that stuck.
- Pay for the hot drink of the person behind you in line at a café.
- Send holiday cards to three people you have lost touch with, each with one line about a shared memory.
- Organize a gift exchange for your street or building with a small spending limit.
- Leave a little wrapped gift on a neighbor’s doorstep, ring the bell and slip away.
- Give away decorations you no longer use through a local swap group so they shine somewhere else.
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- Hang a garland of seeds and orange slices on an outdoor tree as a gift for the birds.
- Join a local Christmas Bird Count, the yearly winter bird census done by volunteers.
- Invite a friend over and teach them the one holiday recipe you know by heart.
- Return stray shopping carts in a busy parking lot on the last weekend before the 25th.
- Drop off games and puzzles you no longer play at a community center that runs game nights.
- Bring a box of homemade treats to the staff at your local library.
- Knit or crochet a scarf for the friend who is always cold.
- Write warm, specific reviews for five local shops you love before the year ends.
- Do one small kind thing every day from December 1 to 24 and jot each one on a calendar.
- Give a friend a handmade coupon for an evening of help, like hanging shelves or painting a room.
- Leave a wrapped book you loved in a neighborhood book-sharing box with a note inside.
- Buy at least one gift at a charity shop so the money goes to a good cause.
Cozy nights in
Holiday movies, homemade games, crafts and silly contests for evenings at home with friends or family.
- Turn thrift-store sweaters into ugly holiday sweaters with felt, pompoms and a glue gun.
- Watch one holiday movie from each decade, oldest first, over a week of evenings.
- Watch a holiday movie with the sound off and make up all the voices yourselves.
- Write a holiday story as a group, each person adding one sentence before passing the notebook.
- Play charades using only holiday movie titles.
- Write a funny one-page newsletter about your year to tuck into holiday cards.
- Crochet a set of little white snowflakes to hang on the tree while a movie plays.
- Hum holiday songs one at a time while everyone races to name them.
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- Make a snow globe from a jar, a tiny figure, water and a pinch of glitter.
- Make your own crackers from paper tubes, each with a paper crown, a joke and a tiny gift inside.
- Lie on the floor under the lit tree and look up through the branches for a few minutes.
- Draw your own holiday board game on a sheet of cardboard and play the first round.
- Hold a holiday karaoke night in the living room with a hairbrush for a microphone.
- Write a letter to yourself to open next December and seal it in the decoration box.
- Perform a holiday radio play, with sound effects made from whatever is in the kitchen.
- Stick a holiday character’s name on everyone’s forehead and take turns asking yes-or-no questions to guess it.
- Fill out a bracket of sixteen holiday movies and vote on each matchup until one wins.
- Watch a holiday movie from another country in its own language, with subtitles on.
- Hold an indoor snowball fight with rolled-up white socks after dinner.
- Hold a speed-wrapping race where everyone wraps the same size box and the neatest wins.
Frequently asked questions
How many Christmas bucket list ideas are there?
There are 100 ideas, 20 in each of five categories: decorating and lights, baking and treats, out and about, giving and kindness, and cozy nights in. The cards and the list on this page use the same set.
Is there a Christmas list for couples?
Yes. Christmas date ideas are written for two people planning December dates, from tree trimming to holiday baking for two. The ideas on this page work for friends, family, housemates or coworkers, and they are different from the date ideas.
Is this list only for December?
Almost every idea here is tied to the holidays, so December is when they fit best, with a few for the days right after the 25th. For things to do from the first snow to the last cold week of February, use the winter bucket list.
What should we play after the Christmas bucket list?
Try Christmas trivia for a cozy night in, or Christmas questions for a party or a long dinner. Both use the same card stack, with answers or open questions instead of things to do.