Jingle bells are one of my favorite sounds of the season! The traditional song is one of the first carols we teach young kids (my daughter already likes yelling the “hey” part), and we introduce bells to them as soon as they can shake their fists! There are many beautiful children’s books that have used the traditional song to tell a Christmas story.

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Jingle Bells by Iza Trapani uses the rhyme and rhythm of the song, while expanding the lyrics to take readers on a tour of the world. Jill Howarth’s Jingle Bells is a beautiful board book which illustrates the song with bright and colorful pictures and includes bells for kids to ring. Jingle Bells: A Magical Cut-Paper Edition by James Lord Pierpont uses beautifully detailed cut paper artwork to accompany the song lyrics. Jingle Bells (Little Golden Book) by Kathleen N. Daly follows a group of adorable animals while they go on a sleigh ride and help Santa deliver his toys.

All of these stories are beautiful additions to a Christmas story library. There are many fun and educational activities that can be used with any of these stories!

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Test your fine motor skills with jingle bells

Jingle Bell Balance– Jingle bells can give kids a chance to work on their fine motor skills while also being festive! Set up a foam block and stick golf tees into the top of it. I covered ours in wrapping paper to make it more festive. Have kids balance jingle bells on the tops of the tees. You can make this a competition between kids by seeing who can balance all of their bells first. You could also put blindfolds on kids, or have them spin around a few times, and then see if they can balance them.

Our Jingle Bell Balance

Jingle Bell Maze – This is a great STEM activity to encourage kids to be creative and use their problem solving skills. Using a base plate for Lego blocks, add walls of Legos to create a maze for kids to run a jingle bell through. Once they have mastered your maze, give kids their own base plates and have them build their own mazes to run the bells through.

Magnet Play – Jingle bells provide a fun opportunity to let kids experiment with magnets. Place a bunch of bells into an empty plastic bottle. Give kids magnets and encourage them to move them around the outside of the bottle to make the bells move. For older kids, you can also set out a variety of jingle bells and magnets and let them explore and play with them. See how many bells they can collect on a magnet. This would also be a fun addition to the jingle bell sensory bin that we previously did.

Use jingle bells to create festive artwork

Jingle Bell Painting – You can also use jingle bells to create art! Tape a piece of white paper to the bottom of a foil pan. Pour a bit of paint into the corners of the paper and add some bells to the pan. Have kids pick up the pan and roll the bells all around so they pick up the paint and roll across the paper. For our project, I used red paint on white paper, and then cut the resulting artwork into candy cane shapes!

Our Jingle Bells Painting!

Jingle Bell Shake Game – This is a fun game to get the whole family up and moving while having a great time! To prepare for the game, you will have to cut holes in either end of a few empty tissue boxes and thread a long ribbon through each one. You will need enough ribbon to tie the box around people’s waists. Place a bunch of jingle bells into the boxes and tie them around your kids’ waists. Start playing some Christmas music and see who can shake, shimmy and dance their bells out of the boxes the fastest! This will lead to a lot of fun and laughter!

There are so many fun activities and beautiful storybooks involving jingle bells. Get into the holiday spirit with some festive fun and games!

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