Christmas Movement Activities for Kids Free Printable

Many of the traditional Christmas activities we enjoy involve a lot of sitting down. Christmas crafts, decorating cookies, and holiday movie nights are all sedentary activities for kids. Why not release some energy and get your kids moving with a fun game of Santa Says? These Christmas Movement Activities for Kids are a lot like Simon Says, but with holiday themed movement activities and lots of Santa themed fun.

Christmas Movement Activities for Kids

I’ve put together a printable list of Santa themed Christmas Movement Activities for Kids you won’t want to miss this holiday season! There are 20 holiday themed gross motor activities to enjoy in lots of fun ways with your kids this season.

Download and print this festive list. Then, check out all the ways you can get moving with your kids this Christmas.

Santa Movement Activities for Kids

How about a fun game of Santa Says for Christmas? Do your kids like to play Simon Says? I often use it to keep my children occupied and relatively quiet in waiting rooms.

This Christmas, you can enjoy this holiday version wherever you are. Just download, print, and slip this Santa Movement Activities printable in your purse for a quick holiday themed game wherever you are.

Choose one person to be “Santa.” all other players stand facing Santa. Then, Santa tells them what they must do. For example, “pose like a Christmas tree” and “make a snow angel on the floor” are some of my favorites. (Although you might not want to use the snow angel activity in the waiting room).

Remind your kids to only do commands that begin with “Santa Says.” If Santa says, “Santa says pretend to throw a snowball,” then all the other children must pretend to throw a snowball. But, if Santa says “pretend to throw a snowball” without saying “Santa Says,” it’s important not to do the activity. If you do, you’re out.

Keep scrolling to download your printable Christmas Movement Activities for kids. Plus, get more great ideas for using this festive list in the classroom and at home.

Christmas Brain Breaks for Kids

Preschool Circle Time Santa Activity

This printable Christmas themed Santa Movement Activity list is perfect for playing Pass the Movement in your preschool classroom. This circle time game is a super fun way to help your preschoolers practice important gross motor skills while building cognitive skills too.

To play Pass the Movement, you’ll need to designate a leader or be the leaders yourself. The leader chooses a few movements from the Santa movement list and passes them along to the next person in line.

Everyone else must keep their eyes closed while the two players that are “passing movements” communicate. In the end, the last player shows the whole group the movements they learned and everyone decides how well they match the original movements.

This game is a super fun Christmas activity for building gross motor skills similar to the game of telephone but without the words.

Christmas Gross Motor Activities

You’ll get the giggles watching your preschoolers pass on funny holiday movement activities like:

Jump for joy
Pretend to ride a sleigh
March like a toy soldier

Another fun spin on this preschool Santa movement activity is to have the last child say aloud what they think they are doing in the movement. You might be surprised to hear that “pretend to ride a sleigh” looks a lot like “walk a dog” to some preschoolers.

Christmas Movement Activities for Physical Education

This Santa Says printable movement activities list is also perfect for your physical education classes this holiday season. You can have students complete each movement as part of a Christmas warm up.

Then, try some of these other fun Santa Movement Activities for PE classes or large groups of kids:

Snowman Movement Games

Snowman Down

Spread out several hula hoops (for a group of kids, I use about 15 hoops) with a 2-liter bottle in each hoop. The bottle is your “snowman.” Assign one child to each snowman, as a protector. Snowman protectors guard their own snowmen against others and use snowballs to knock over other snowmen.

When a snowman falls, everyone must yell “SNOWMAN DOWN!” If your snowman is down, you’re out. The last snowman guard standing is the winner.

Grinch Christmas Game

Christmas Carol Tag

The Grinch hates Christmas and he hates Christmas carols too! In this fun movement game, he’s “it” and he’s chasing down anyone with holiday spirit. If the grinch tags you, you are frozen and you lose your Christmas spirit. Don’t worry, you can get it back if another kid comes to unfreeze you by singing the first line of a Christmas carol with you loudly.

Elf Training

Elves have to work hard to help Santa deliver all those presents on Christmas Eve! With this movement activity, you can help your kids practice gross motor skills and build strength as they work together in elf teams.

Set out lots of beanbags and balls of yarn along a designated line to serve as “presents.” Several feet from the line, arrange buckets (one for each team). Each team of kids lines up beside their bucket and uses a scooter, wagon, or skateboard to ride over to the present line and pick up a gift. Then, they ride back to put the present in their bucket.

Once all the presents have been collected, the team with the most wins. You can create certificates for elves who “graduate” training as a fun reward for the winning team.

Looking for even more Christmas themed gross motor games? Don’t forget to download the list of festive Santa Says movement activities for kids to enjoy this holiday season.

More Christmas Gross Motor Games

One movement activity on this printable list is “pretend to throw a snowball.” Why not add in even more gross motor learning fun and have a fake snowball fight indoors? You can also use wadded up paper or cotton balls for ammunition. It’s a fun twist on a real snowball fight that you can enjoy indoors with your little learners this holiday season. Plus, it’s great physical exercise and good for working motor movement.