The holidays are a stressful time for everyone. Help kids learn mindfulness and relaxation techniques with these 23 reflective activities. Kids will color holiday mandalas, do kindness challenges, practice gratitude, create holiday scavenger hunts, and more! These easy mindfulness exercises teach kids coping skills to handle holiday anxiety and find moments of peace during a busy season. Both children and adults will benefit from taking time to pause and appreciate the little things.
1. Mindful Christmas Game
This mindfulness activity guides children to focus awareness on the present moment through sensory exploration of secret holiday objects. By noticing details of sight, smell, touch, hearing, and taste, kids develop an appreciation for the joy and wonder of the Christmas season.
Learn More: Dawn Selander
2. Christmas Yoga
This holiday season, engage preschoolers in fun and engaging mindful activities. From deep breathing to yoga poses and mandalas, these creative activities will ease busy minds and fit perfectly into holiday themes. Kids will delight in engaging in activities while developing essential mindfulness skills.
Learn More: Dawn Selander
3. Snowman Deep Breathing
Imagine calming your child with a fun snowman deep breathing exercise. Point to the snowman’s buttons, count, and breathe slowly in and out. This quick mindfulness strategy will help your child reset and reap the benefits of deep breathing
Learn More: And Next Comes L
4. Snowflake Calm Down Jar
On World Snow Day, invite your kids to make a calming glitter jar with blue glitter glue, silver glitter, and floating plastic snowflake stickers. As the snowflakes drift, encourage your students to relax. This fun project makes a beautiful piece of holiday décor and helps melt away stress.
Learn More: Always The Holidays
5. Hot Chocolate Breaths
Transport your kids to a cozy hot chocolate experience through playful breathing. With guided imagination, they’ll make hot chocolate, smell its aroma, and then cool it with slow breaths. This fun activity will teach mindful breathing to help kids focus, calm, and connect with their feelings and bodies.
Learn More: Calm Ahoy Kids
6. Dancing Snowflakes
Through this guided Winter meditation, your child will visualize dancing snowflakes and learn that, just like snowflakes that melt, worries are temporary. By the end of the meditation, your child will feel peaceful and loved by focusing on blessings and happy memories.
Learn More: Green Child Magazine
7. Mindfulness Activity Pack
The holidays are a stressful time for everyone. Help kids learn mindfulness and relaxation techniques with these 23 reflective activities. Kids will color holiday mandalas, do kindness challenges, practice gratitude, create holiday scavenger hunts, and more! These easy mindfulness exercises teach kids coping skills to handle holiday anxiety and find moments of peace during a busy season. Both children and adults will benefit from taking time to pause and appreciate the little things.
Learn More: Counselor Chelsey
8. Mindfulness Cards
Welcome mindfulness this Winter with 23 seasonal activities. Print, cut, and laminate cards that feature gratitude, movements, and more. Then, engage loved ones in interactive experiences through which they can appreciate Winter’s beauty. Our mindfulness activity set helps you stay grounded and keep the Winter blues at bay!
Learn More: Etsy
9. A Mindful Minute
Engage children’s senses with a mindful minute: a minute during which students can reflect on something and then share their insights. This focused awareness activity develops mindfulness skills so little ones can find beauty in the present moment.
Learn More: Elsa Support
10. Snowflake Breathing
Teach your students emotional management techniques like Snowflake Breathing. This physiological tool helps students de-stress and prepare their bodies and brains for learning by shifting from a stress response to a calm, focused state through guided deep breathing.
Learn More: Educalme
11. Calm Down Cocoa
This print-and-go Winter craft invites children to unwind with hot cocoa. As they decorate their mugs and compose calming messages, they’ll cultivate concentration and compassion. They’ll soon be on the hunt for more ways to fill their cup social and emotional cups.
Learn More: Our Mindful Garden
12. Christmas Calm Down Kit
Equip your kids for a calmer holiday season with a Christmas calm-down kit. This kit contains fidgets, sensory tools, coloring pages, and more. It will give your children coping strategies to help them handle big emotions and enjoy the most beautiful time of the year.
Learn More: The Chaos and the Clutter
13. The Gratitude Game
This November, invite your kids to recognize daily blessings by engaging in a fun gratitude game. Whether making thankful crafts, playing gratitude games, or starting a gratitude jar, these fun projects will help kids develop an attitude of gratitude to carry into the Thanksgiving season and beyond.
Learn More: Organize Your Stuff Now
14. Winter Mandalas
Create Winter mandalas- an engaging group activity inviting you to be fully present while intuitively collaborating to design nature-inspired patterns. Working with intention and accepting the unexpected serves as a metaphor for embracing the flow of life.
Learn More: Mindfulness Garden Games
15. Mindfulness Tracing
This Winter, invite your preschoolers to strengthen fine motor skills and create a calm atmosphere with seven free tracing pages. Download the engaging snowflake, snowman, mittens, and more, and then watch imaginations blossom as children trace, write, and color.
Learn More: Natasha LH
16. Resilient Deer In Winter
As Winter approaches, let’s prepare our minds like resilient deer prepare their bodies. Through mindfulness practices, young learners can face challenges with inner strength and peace. Let’s encourage our learners to tune into their breathing and connect to nature to build their brains and embrace a sense of calm.
Learn More: Here For You For Them
17. Sleigh Bell Meditation
Your learners can do a few mindfulness exercises with sleigh bells, including meditation! When the bell rings, students must focus on what is around them and calm their thoughts; remaining silent until the bell stops ringing.
Learn More: Erifily Nikola
18. Mitten Thoughts
This engaging counseling activity helps students recognize negative and positive thought patterns. Students match unhelpful and helpful thought ‘mittens’ and then create their own scenarios and thought pairs to develop social-emotional skills and build a positive mindset.
Learn More: The Responsive Counselor
19. Breathing Sticks
This mindful breathing stick project invites kids to make a simple craft to help them practice conscious breathing. Moving beads along a pipe cleaner while inhaling and exhaling will teach kids relaxation techniques that they can use whenever feeling stressed or anxious in the future
Learn More: Local Anchor
20. Mindful Presents
Gift wrapping is an incredible holiday mindfulness activity. You and your children can focus on the details while wrapping presents. Feel the crease of the paper, and listen to the slight crinkle as you fold it. Using your senses, you can easily practice holiday mindfulness by wrapping gifts!
Learn More: The New York Times
21. Relaxation Stories
Children will explore mindfulness through imagination exercises by focusing their attention on the present moment. This helps children develop skills to notice details, feel peace, and reduce stress and worry.
Learn More: Omazing Kids LLC
22. Guided Meditation
Through guided relaxation, we imagine floating to a cozy castle where we notice delicate details and feel calm. We see stars representing our achievements and feel immense peace and happiness. This mindfulness practice helps children relax, appreciate themselves, and face challenges bravely.
Learn More: Green Child Magazine
23. Snowflake Mandalas Drawings
Create stunning snowflake mandala drawings with your kids. This fun Winter art project teaches symmetry while producing beautiful works of art. Follow the step-by-step instructions to craft unique snowflake masterpieces.
This Winter-themed mindfulness resource will invite your students to explore mindfulness and how to practice it. They will reflect, observe closely, breathe deeply, and find inner peace through engaging activities.
Learn More: Counselor Chelsey
20 Worry Activities for Anxious Kids