Cheap/easy ways to make Christmas magical?

[Squashberry]

Hello,
Has anyone got any ideas to make the next couple of weeks really Christmasy and really fun. Feel like I've really let DCs (5 and 7) down this year. We haven't been to any grottos or shows. Baked some Xmas cookies after school today, but that only took a little while. Hoping to find some Xmas crafts to do. Really short of cash, but want to go out and do christmassy stuff and get them excited. Any ideas ofnthings to do, places to go, arts and craft ideas that won't cost loads?

Are any schools or youth/church groups doing a panto near you?
Paper chains, paper snowflakes.
Gather ivy, holly, etc and make wreaths.
Make snowglobes with empty jam jars, a plastic ornament and a bit of glitter and glycerine.
Stick on a Christmas film and watch it all together with mince pies.

We like going out after dark to look at all the lights on houses. Go into town and look at the lights there and find the nativity scene that the council put in a different unoccupied shop window each year. Buy paperchains from the newsagent and make them while listening to Christmas music. Cut up folded circles of paper to make snowflakes for the window. Make reindeer food out of oats and glitter. Write cards for neighbours and get DCs to post them through their letterboxes.

Go to a big garden centre and let them choose one tree ornament each.

Christingle /Carol services
Garden centres with lots of lights etc
Cheap crafts - make snowflakes, paint cards, paint decorations (hobby craft have a lot)
Read Christmas stories together
Dance to Christmas music

Get a man you know to ring up and pretend to be Father Christmas. Preferably a man you don't see often so your DC won't recognise his voice.

My brother does this every year for my DC. His number is in my phone as "Father Christmas" along with a google image of the man himself. I "brief" my brother by email before hand, DC are 5 & 8.

You could made Christmas
Pomanders from oranges and cloves? Kids
Love doing it, very easy and makes the house smell amazing. My 7 yo and 3 y o had a nice time making theirs at the weekend and they keep on smelling them when they go past!

The free portable North Pole videos are good

My son and I are ranking all the houses Christmas lights as we go around ... We take detours especially to look for new ones /see our favourites

The NSPCC letter from Santa is actually free, and it's nice.

I take each of mine out separately for a little shopping trip to choose presents for their siblings. Then they wrap and label them. It's a nice bit of one on one time

(My three year old bought the other three a smiggle rainbow pencil each - they are token gifts but the fun is in the time together)

On Christmas eve stick a laptop on if you have one and start watching NORAD Tracks Santa from about midday, live streaming of Santa as he passes through each country as it reaches midnight.

Honestly? We never do a lot of organised stuff. They get plenty excited just opening Advent calendars, talking to one another about Christmas and doing their school crafts and Nativity plays. I like to keep Santa distant and magical, not testing their logic with phonecalls or shop-Santas - and how crazy expensive are they these days! :O - and... actually I can't think of anything else. I don't do elves, or C-Eve boxes, or whatever else Pinterest is flogging. Kids don't need all that soft-focus Facebook-worthy stuff. Do it if you personally enjoy it and it comes naturally to you, but it's shouldn't be something you force yourself to do.

As mentioned above, we do very small traditions, like buying a new ornament at the garden centre (I read a lovely idea once that you then give them 'their' ornaments they chose when they move out, so they have a box ready for their own tree) and we have some Christmas books that only come out in December - Night Before Christmas, The Snow Queen, the Raymond Briggs stories, The Nutcracker and some others. I teach them the carols (they don't learn them in school), and play the traditional Christmas songs (I rarely take them to crowded shops, so they don't necessarily hear 'White Christmas' or Slade without my Spotify list!) We keep the Christmas films for December only, and I have the siblings choose a gift for each other (I like to use the whole gift-giving thing as an opportunity for them to think about others, carefully - hopefully avoiding those 'What on earth have they bought me?' type scenarios seen in other MN threads.)

Walks. Lights. Tree. Songs. Just keep it simple and anything else is a bonus. Too many bells and whistles and you'll exhaust yourself and, worse, feel a need to outdo yourself next year.

We had a lovely hour at a local church last weekend, looking at their 'Christmas tree festival' before putting our own tree up. We also had a really nice trawl around the charity shops (mainly to find their nativity costumes)and I let them buy a few decorations/ Christmas ornaments each which they have put around the house.

Cousins are coming for Christmas and DD is planning to put on a 'show' with them. They are all under 7 so I'm imagining youngest toddler as baby Jesus being born in a stable full of dinosaurs, fairies and Spider-Man!

We'll make a Lidl gingerbread house this weekend and gingerbread men/ shapes to ice.

I don't think money needs to be spent to do the magic.

As above, we keep Christmas books in the decorations box so they only come out in December.

Yes, we keep our Christmas books and DVDs under my bed, they reappear every year on the 1st December.

Use your library for Xmas books and DVDs. They may have some Xmas activities running.

Go out for winter walks in local woods. Take hot chocolate with you and collect some holly. Maybe pine cones too which can be decorated with glitter.

Give them a few coins to put in a charity box. Kids often feel good at being able to help others.

Wilko have some reduced Christmas crafts if you have one nearby.

I don't remember going to any organised Christmas activities when I was little, but I remember adoring Christmas and still do!

Cover the house in tinsel and stick a Christmas film on - very festive!

My boy (3) is obsessed with 'helping' me wrap gifts and we sing along to Christas songs while we get the job done, it really feels more special and genuine than a tatty grotto and a sketchy Santa out in the cold and rain lol we're enjoying talking about the traditions involved in Christmas time and all our favourite parts. It's what you make of it Op, not the shops

Kids love the tradition of Christmas, those things you do year after year that they start to look forward to and join in with as they get older. To me that is the magic of Christmas.
We do the following (all low cost or free)
Reusable advent calendars (wooden house which I add chocolates to and a felt one)
Christmas baking; sugar cookies with icing and decorations, chocolate log, trifle
Christmas crafts; paper snowflakes, few cheap craft kits such as felt ornament or hama beads or find one on pinterest
Decorate the house (and their bedrooms with a bit of tinsel), put the lights up
Decorate a gingerbread house, buy a kit, after displaying for a day or two it makes a cheap on the go snack for outings or walks.
Have hot chocolate with marshmallows
Watch a few favourite movies with popcorn
Play some board games
Take a walk or drive to see the best Christmas lights in the neighbourhood (you can do a scavenger hunt list too eg spot one snowman, two reindeer).

Decorate a gingerbread house.
'Stained glass window' biscuits
Coconut ice and other homemade sweets

Lay out a landing strip on the lawn for Santa using tea lights in jam jars.

Make paper chains.

Singing christmas songs is lovely and free.

Carol service at the local church maybe?

Local walk to look at lights can be nice.

Xmas books from the library to read together. Or find an Xmas film on the TV to watch together with a bag of popcorn.

My kids spent a happy afternoon constructing their own nativity scene from their lego and playmobil figures, making a manager out of foil and so on.

Make xmas cards out of whatever you have in the house - cut stars out of foil, use cotton wool for snow, or just draw and paint.