Military Holiday Magic: Crafting Joyful Moments for Kids
Written by Poli Dimitrova
The holidays are just around the corner, and we’re already counting down the days until Christmas! While the holiday spirit fills the air, this time of year can also bring extra challenges for military families. No matter what your personal situation is, our kids are always our top priority. Bringing a bit of extra magic to the military holiday season isn’t hard. From fun military activities to engaging in military crafts, there are simple ways to enhance the military holiday magic!
Creative Holiday Craft Ideas
What’s Christmas without some fun creative holiday crafts? Put on some Christmas music, make hot cocoa, and bring out the craft supplies. Not only will you be spending quality time together as a military family, but you’ll also create fun mementos to cherish each year. You’ll wonder where the time has gone and how quickly your children are growing!
Handprint and Footprint Art
Holiday handprint and footprint art is a favorite in our family — keepsakes for me and fun messiness for my son! Using non-toxic child-safe paint, we capture his handprints and footprints. Depending on the season, we transform them into reindeer, snowmen, Christmas trees, ghosts, spiders, leaves, and more. The best part is that no one expects them to be perfect — the messier, the more creative they look and the results are always charming.
Once you have your creations, use them as personalized decorations or gifts for family members. For, military families spending the holidays apart, these military crafts are a heartfelt way to stay connected despite the distance!
Pro Tip: No matter how much you try, there’s always going to be a mess. This military activity is perfect right before bath time to keep your house a little cleaner!
Homemade Ornaments
Creating homemade ornaments is a great military holiday craft for older kids. Start with a walk to collect some pinecones. Once you are home, get your craft supplies out and let your imagination do the work. Paint pinecones green, add a wine cork at the base, and you have mini pinecone Christmas trees.
For a quick and easy activity, use toilet paper rolls and transform them into cute and funny snowmen with some color and glitter.
Salt dough handprint ornaments are perfect for those with little babies as they make incredible keepsakes for years to come. Here’s a simple recipe:
- 2 cups of flour
- 1 cup salt
- 1 cup water
- Knead for about 10 minutes
- Cut a circle with a cookie cutter and press in your baby’s handprint
- Use a skewer to make a hole to hang the ornament after
- Bake for about 2 hours or until they feel firm at 250°F
For a clean look, leave the dough as is, or paint the handprint with acrylic.
Indoor Military Family Activities
We’ve been blessed to live in California where it’s almost always sunny, and we even get to spend the winter holidays outside. For the few days of the year when it rains, though, I’ve compiled a list of indoor military family activities to keep our toddler occupied and happy.
Here are some of my top suggestions:
Holiday Storytime Corner
Set up a cozy reading nook with pillows, blankets, and a stack of holiday books. A tent with Christmas lights can add extra magic. This time of year, we enjoy stories about togetherness, love, and hope. We love to cuddle up and spend some mindful quality time together reading through books.
If your family is separated due to deployment, I strongly recommend adding a book or two celebrating military families. United Through Reading offers an app that allows active-duty members to record themselves reading a story, which could then be shared with their children back home. This is an excellent way for military families to stay connected at storytime across the miles!
Interactive Holiday Games
When you can’t get out of the house but need to burn off the kids’ energy, a Holiday Scavenger Hunt might be a great idea. You can make it a bit more challenging for older kids by creating a checklist of holiday-themed items to find around the house.
For younger toddlers, you can use some tape and sticky notes to create fun and exciting holiday games. Draw some Christmas items on a large paper, match them on small sticky notes, and have your child match each one!
Last year, when my son was one, he was more interested in the wrapping paper than the presents themselves. A great idea is to wrap some of your child’s toys in Christmas paper and let them tear it apart to find the “prize.” I guarantee they’ll be entertained for a while.
Pro Tip: When my husband is gone, and my son keeps asking for “Dada,” I bring out a few printed photos of them together. I leave these with his toys, and he loves to carry the photo of “Dada” around, either “reading” to him or taking him on a journey around the house as they “play” together.
Outdoor Fun and Military Holiday Community Engagement
No matter how cold it gets, one of the best ways to create joyful moments for your kids this holiday season is to get outdoors!
Snow Play
Snow-based activities would only be possible for some, but If you’re lucky enough to have cold weather and a chance for a white Christmas, don’t miss out on the fun! Build a snowman, have a snowball toss, and make snow angels. Let your kids get silly — even taste the snow! An hour spent outdoors in the snow is a magical way to relive your childhood, this time through your children’s eyes.
Pro Tip: Unfortunately, we don’t get snow here in California, but we still get into the holiday spirit. By late November, many houses in our neighborhood are decorated with lights, and we love taking evening walks to admire them. Maybe it’s worth a try for you, too?
Join in Military Holiday Community Events
In mid-October, our base calendar fills up with fun events and holiday military activities. The best part? They’re often free or low-cost, so you don’t need to stretch an already tight holiday budget. Tree lighting celebrations, Winter Wonderland Workshops, and Santa Drive-Thrus are some of our favorites! Check your installation’s event calendar to stay up to date on all the exciting holiday military activities. These events are worth joining to foster a sense of belonging within your military community.
What Really Makes the Holidays Magical
As a gentle reminder this holiday season: whether your table was overflowing with food, the tree was stacked with presents, or the days leading up to the holidays were filled with crafts and activities, everything your children really need is your time and attention. They will probably not remember every little of the small details, but what they will always hold onto and carry with them is the comfort and warmth of a simple hug from you!
ASYMCA’s Support for a Brighter Military Holiday
The holiday season can look different for military families — some may be facing deployments or separation from extended family. Either way, it can be a challenging time, and it’s easy to lose a sense of holiday magic. The Armed Services YMCA (ASYMCA) understands the needs and struggles of military families and always steps up to sprinkle a bit of joy. During the holidays, their Operation Holiday Joy program works hard to reach as many families as possible and make their military holiday extra joyful by distributing toys and food baskets. Be sure to check your branch location for all the programs available to military families.
