Guide

Christmas Activities for Seniors in Assisted Living

Front Porch Puzzle Press · November 5, 2026

Christmas in a senior community is a season, not a day. It starts with the tree going up after Thanksgiving and runs through Christmas Day, when staffing is thin and some residents go home with family while others have no visitors at all. This guide is for activity directors in assisted living, nursing homes and memory care, and for senior center staff. It covers twelve Christmas activities, each with a set-up time and supply list, a stations-style party, a plan for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, and how to adapt everything for dementia, low vision and wheelchair users.

For the rest of the month (the December calendar, Hanukkah, the first day of winter and New Year's Eve) see our December activities for seniors guide. This page is just Christmas.

In 2026, Christmas Eve is Thursday, December 24 and Christmas Day is Friday, December 25. Book choirs, school groups and entertainers in November; the first three weeks of December fill up fast.

Group activities

• 1. A carol sing with song sheets. Ten or twelve old carols that everyone knows: "Silent Night," "Joy to the World," "O Come, All Ye Faithful," "Deck the Halls," "Jingle Bells," "We Wish You a Merry Christmas." Print the words in large type and hand out jingle bells to anyone who would rather shake than sing. A pianist is lovely; a good recording works too. Set-up: 15 minutes. You need: large-print song sheets, a speaker or piano, a basket of jingle bells.
• 2. Name that carol. Play the first few seconds of a carol or a Christmas standard and let the room call out the title. Familiar music reaches residents who rarely join word games. Set-up: 20 minutes to build a playlist. You need: a speaker and a list of 20 songs, half carols and half 1940s and 1950s Christmas hits.
• 3. Christmas picture bingo. Pictures (a stocking, a candy cane, a sleigh) instead of numbers, called slowly with each picture held up. It works for mixed groups and for residents who can no longer read the card. Our Christmas picture bingo has 200 different cards, enough for a dining room. Set-up: 15 minutes. You need: printed cards, chips or felt markers, small wrapped prizes.
• 4. Christmas trivia in teams. Two or three tables, questions read aloud and written on a whiteboard. Our free Christmas trivia for seniors includes a carol round, and our trivia page has more. Set-up: 5 minutes. You need: printed questions, a whiteboard and thick marker, a bell for each team.
• 5. A wish book afternoon. Old department-store Christmas catalogs are a gift for reminiscence. Many have been scanned and put online; print a few pages of toys, kitchen gadgets and clothes from the 1940s and 1950s and ask what was on each person's list, and what they actually got. Set-up: 20 minutes. You need: 10 to 15 printed catalog pages in color, magnifiers.
• 6. A seated gift swap. Everyone brings (or is given) a small wrapped item, and a short left-right story moves the gifts around the circle. Nobody has to stand, and nobody has to steal. Our guide to hosting a white elephant gift exchange explains the left-right version. Set-up: 15 minutes. You need: one small wrapped gift per person (lotion, socks, candy), a left-right story.

Crafts and decorating

• 7. Trim a resident tree. Put a tabletop tree on a sturdy table at seated height, so residents in wheelchairs can reach every branch, and let them do the decorating instead of watching staff do it. Set-up: 15 minutes. You need: a 3 to 4 foot artificial tree, shatterproof ornaments, ribbon instead of tinsel, LED lights with the cord taped down.
• 8. Holiday memory ornaments. Each person writes (or dictates) one Christmas memory on a paper ornament: a gift, a food, a person, a church service. Hang them on the resident tree or a wall display. Visitors stop to read them all season. Set-up: 10 minutes. You need: ornament shapes cut from card stock, a hole punch, ribbon, dark felt-tip pens.
• 9. A paper chain countdown. One link for each day to Christmas, made in a group session and hung in the main hall. Tear off a link each morning at a short gathering. Set-up: 10 minutes. You need: pre-cut strips of red and green paper, glue sticks or a stapler.
• 10. Wrapping gifts for the grandchildren. Many residents miss wrapping presents for their own families. Set up a wrapping table with pre-cut paper and pre-torn tape, and let them wrap gifts that families drop off. Set-up: 15 minutes. You need: wrapping paper cut to size, tape dispensers or pre-torn pieces, gift tags, a large-print name list.

Quiet and one-to-one activities

• 11. A Christmas puzzle folder. A large print word search, a scramble and a coloring page on a clipboard, swapped weekly, for residents who stay in their rooms. Our free Christmas word search printables come in an easier and a harder version. Set-up: 5 minutes per folder.
• 12. A read-aloud visit. Read "'Twas the Night Before Christmas," a chapter of a Christmas story or a familiar Bible passage if the resident would like one. A daily chapter, like those in our large print mystery advent calendar, gives a run of visits a shape. Set-up: none. You need: the book, and a quiet half hour.

A Christmas stations party (60 minutes)

Instead of one long program where everyone sits through everything, set up four tables and let residents move (or be moved) between them, or bring the stations to them. It suits mixed groups because each person can stay where they are happiest.

1. Carol corner: a volunteer with song sheets and a speaker.
2. Ornament table: holiday memory ornaments, with a staff member to write for anyone who wants to dictate.
3. Cookie and cocoa table: ready-baked cookies and warm (not hot) cocoa. Check diets and swallowing plans first.
4. Puzzle and picture table: Christmas word searches, the wish book pages and a few magnifiers.

Spend the first five minutes welcoming everyone, the middle 45 at the stations, and the last ten minutes back together for one carol everyone knows and a group photo for the newsletter. You need four helpers; family members and volunteers are often glad to take a table.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day

The days themselves are the hardest to staff and the most important to plan. Keep them simple, and put the plan in writing so whoever is on shift can run it.

• Christmas Eve afternoon: a carol service by flameless candlelight, with a reading of the Christmas story or "'Twas the Night Before Christmas." Invite a local church choir or your chaplain if residents want a religious service, and keep a secular carol sing for those who don't.
• Christmas morning: a small gift and a card at every place setting, so nobody comes to breakfast empty-handed. A stocking on every door works too.
• A call station: a tablet on a stand and a quiet corner, with a staff member to place video or phone calls to family who can't come in.
• Christmas afternoon: a classic movie with popcorn for residents still in the building, and a puzzle folder delivered to anyone in their room.
• Watch for the residents without visitors. They are often quiet about it. A staff member sitting with them over dessert matters more than any party.

Adapting for dementia, low vision and wheelchair users

• Dementia. Decorate in stages rather than all at once, so the familiar rooms stay familiar. Avoid decorations that look like food (fake candy, berries, ornament fruit), and keep holly and mistletoe out of reach. Turn off blinking lights and keep big parties short; offer a calm room nearby. Old carols and familiar routines work better than new games. Our dementia activities guide and easy printable puzzles have more.
• Low vision. Song sheets and puzzles at 16 point or larger, printed at "Actual size." Black text on white paper, not red on green. Seat residents near the front, with light behind them rather than in their eyes.
• Wheelchair users. Keep hallways clear of decorations and tape down every cord. Check that craft tables clear the armrests, put the tree at seated height, and bring station supplies to anyone who can't easily move between tables.
• Grief and the season. Christmas can be hard for residents who have lost a spouse or are newly moved in. Make every activity optional and let people watch without joining.

Christmas supply list

• Large-print song sheets, a speaker and a basket of jingle bells
• Picture bingo cards, chips and small wrapped prizes
• A tabletop tree, shatterproof ornaments, ribbon, LED lights and cord covers
• Card stock ornaments, red and green paper strips, glue sticks, hole punch
• Wrapping paper, tape, gift tags; one small gift per resident for Christmas morning
• Flameless LED candles for the carol service
• Dark felt-tip pens, clipboards and printed puzzle folders
• Cookies, cocoa mix and cups

Ready-made Christmas activities

The Front Porch Activity Club sends a new large print activity packet before each month starts, for $5.99 a month: a four-week calendar, word searches, a crossword, a scramble, a 20-question trivia hour, conversation cards, a group activity and a coloring page, reproducible for your facility. The December packet includes the Holiday Memory Ornaments activity described above, and members get every past packet plus each new month. For a one-time Christmas set, Christmas games for seniors has 30 large-print activities and a 45-minute party plan. For family parties and mixed ages, see our printable Christmas party games.

Planning around the holiday: Thanksgiving activities for seniors, December activities for seniors and January activities for seniors for the slow weeks after.

This guide is general information for activity planning. It is not medical advice. For questions about a specific person's health, memory or safety, talk with their doctor or care team.