Jolly Festive Winter Walks

Meander your way through local residential streets to ooh and aah at the designs (and discuss electricity bills!). Then have a family vote on your favourite. You could even drop in a note to that house to say how much you appreciate their efforts – read more here about a family who do just that!

Keep the kids busy whilst you stroll with a scavenger hunt.

Use our free printable lists below for young children here, or just look for the rainbow (i.e. a different item for each rainbow colour) or the alphabet.

Our unique take on the scavenger hunt! Don your gloves and hats, and head out for a stroll in your local area to see if you can spy 12 Christmas wreaths, 11 twinkling lights, 10 Christmas trees, etc.

Cross each item off on our free printable as you go along.

Plan a route around all your local friends’ homes and take a trip out to drop off your Christmas cards. This is a great activity for practising map skills with children.

And, if you don’t have that many friends locally, why not drop cards into your neighbours or local care homes instead?

Seeing the Christmas Lights on the street and the festive store window displays is one of those classic seasonal activities we remember from our own childhood. Why not continue the tradition with your family?

Take a stroll along your local High Street, or head to a nearby city for a spot of Window Browsing. The adventure is only improved by being out in the dark! Take a winter picnic along – hot chocolate and cookies, or a flask of soup and some bread rolls – to ensure everyone stays happy and warm.

There are so many beautiful Christmas decorations that can be created from items found on a woodland wander. So, head out with your loved ones to gather pine cones, holly sprigs, greenery and much more to design your own ornaments, wreaths and garlands. Just be sure not to take flowers from private land or uproot plants that could be endangered!

A variation on the classic iSpy game.

Everyone chooses a colour and, as you stroll, you keep tally of whose colour was most popular for Christmas trees or houses you pass.

You could do Team White Lights and Team Multi-Coloured for this as well.

This is the perfect activity for combining some Christmassy crafting at home with festive winter walks!

Decorate some rocks at home with Christmas patterns and then hide them in your local area for others to find on their winter walks!

Head out to spread some seed for the birds in your local park, or make a bird feeder Christmas Cake to hang on a branch. Then, hide out nearby and watch to see who comes for some lunch!

Muddy Days have a great Christmas Cake recipe for you to use > here.

Hang the stars on branches of trees on a walking route near your home. Then, repeat the route with your loved ones in tow and have them search for the stars and complete the activities as you go around.

Help make your local area look fabulous over the Christmas season by doing a session of litter picking.

What’s more, litter pickers make great Christmas gifts for kids and are great for developing those motor skills and hand-eye co-ordination!

See if you can spot a great place for an elf house, maybe an opening at the base of a tree, or a hole in a wall. Use things you find nearby to decorate the entrance so that any passing elf will be sure to step inside and enjoy a special new resting place!

Turn your festive winter walks into craft adventures! Create your own unique wrapping paper by completing bark rubbings of trees with interesting patterned-bark in festive colours.

Why not make a sign out of twigs and other things you find for other people enjoying a stroll? Write Merry Christmas or Happy New Year in the undergrowth and see if anyone spots your design. You could end up a celebrity on your local Facebook group!