Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt

Quick answer: choose who is playing (pictures for little kids, words for readers, harder finds for older kids), how many finds and how many children, and the tool makes a different Christmas lights hunt for each child, from Santa and a reindeer to a house playing music. Tick finds from the car or print one sheet per page.

How to use it

Pick the level: little kids get a picture and a word for every find, readers get the words, older kids get challenges such as “icicle lights along a roof”, “a sign with a radio station to tune to” or “a word spelled in lights”. Choose 10, 15, 20 or 25 finds and up to eight children. With “same finds, different order” everyone hunts for the same things, so the race is fair; with “different finds” every child gets their own list. Tap a find when it is spotted, or print: each sheet goes on its own page with a line for a name. “New hunt” makes a fresh set, and the link brings the same set back, so a printed sheet can be checked at home.

What is on the lists

Every find can be seen from a car window or a sidewalk. Nothing asks a child to walk onto a lawn or touch a display: the lights are on people’s homes.

The finds are not only Christmas ones: a menorah, a palm tree in lights and a flamingo in lights are on the list too, for the neighborhoods and the warm places that light up for the holidays.

Worked examples

A drive with a 4-year-old and a 7-year-old. Little kids, 10 finds, 2 children, same finds: two sheets with the same 10 pictures in a different order. The first to tick all 10 picks the cocoa.

A walk through the neighborhood with three readers. Readers, 15 finds, 3 children, different finds: each child has their own 15, so everyone has something to shout about on every street.

Older kids on a long lights drive. Older kids, 25 finds, 2 children: “lights that blink in time to music”, “two houses next door that match”, “a house with more than one Santa”. Twenty-five of 29 makes it a hunt that lasts the whole evening.

Tips for a good lights hunt

• Go after dark: check tonight’s sunset in the Golden Hour & Sunset Calculator and leave once the sky is dark.
• The driver drives. A passenger reads the sheet out and ticks the finds on a phone, or the children tick their own printed sheets with a crayon.
• Look from the car or the sidewalk. Do not stop in a driveway, block a street or step onto a lawn for a closer look.
• Fewer finds for little ones: 10 with pictures is a good evening; 25 challenges suit a long drive.
• Print before you go, with a clipboard or a book to lean on in the back seat.

More for the season

Looking for more December plans? Try the December bucket list, or the Christmas experiences in New York if you are heading to the city’s lights. Driving somewhere snowy? Read winter road trips and the gear that makes them safe, and pack from the road trip essentials. For the rest of the year, the Scavenger Hunt Generator has nine more places, from the beach to the airport, and Road Trip Bingo has cards for every drive.