Holiday Hacks to Keep Your Kids Engaged and Busy

The holiday season is here, and while this joyful time brings with it family gatherings, festive meals, and treasured traditions, it can also present a unique challenge—keeping your kids engaged and entertained during those long days at home. Luckily, there’s a wealth of digital resources that provide the holiday hacks you need to keep your kids engaged and busy all season long.

Even better, many platforms offer free trial periods so you can experiment before committing. You can find many of these trials conveniently listed on freetrials.com, making it easy to find just the right fit for your family.

Below, we’ve rounded up a list of educational, entertaining, and interactive services that promise to keep your kids happily occupied. Whether you’re looking to sneak in some learning, spark their creativity, or simply keep them moving, these holiday hacks have you covered.

Let’s Talk About Screen Time Concerns

While digital tools can be a lifeline during the holidays, it’s important to acknowledge the concerns around too much screen time. According to the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, children between the ages of 8 and 12 spend on average four to six hours a day looking at screens, while teens can rack up as many as nine hours. With numbers this high, it’s crucial to make each moment count.

Instead of resorting to passive viewing or repetitive gaming, use the holidays as an opportunity to turn screen time into a purposeful learning experience. Choose services and apps that introduce new skills, encourage creativity, and spark curiosity.

By making these intentional choices, you ensure that your child’s daily screen time is not only engaging and fun but also educational.

To further ease your mind, follow these tips:

Set Boundaries and Discuss Responsible Usage: Make it clear that devices are tools for exploration, communication, and personal growth—not just a way to pass the hours.
Set Clear Expectations: Let your kids know which days and times they’ll be able to access their new apps, games, and magazines.
Mark Your Calendar: Put the free trial end date on your calendar to avoid accidental charges. If the platform isn’t the right fit, cancel before the trial ends.
Rotate Activities: Try out one service at a time to prevent overload. When a trial ends, move on to a new one to keep things fresh and exciting.

Educational and Entertaining Apps

When you’re looking for the perfect blend of education and entertainment for your kids, the right apps can make all the difference. Designed to engage young learners through playful exploration, these platforms often include age-appropriate curricula, interactive games, and progress-tracking tools.

They transform everyday screen time into an opportunity for personal growth, problem-solving, and skill development—all without feeling like homework.

Best of all, many of these services offer free trial periods, so you can assess which apps truly spark your child’s interest and cater to their unique learning style before making a long-term commitment.

Amazon for Kids

Amazon’s kid-friendly ecosystem, anchored by Amazon Kids+ (formerly FreeTime Unlimited), offers a treasure trove of fun, including:

Audiobooks
eBooks
Movies
TV shows
Educational apps
Games

Your child can read their favorite stories, watch age-appropriate videos, and learn at their own pace. Test Amazon Kids+ risk-free to see if their selection meets your little one’s needs.

ABCmouse

ABCmouse is a digital learning platform that makes grasping the fundamentals of reading, math, science, and art entertaining for younger learners. With a structured curriculum woven into fun activities and interactive lessons, your kids won’t even realize how much they’re learning.

Check for a free trial to see if ABCmouse clicks with your child’s interests.

CodeSpark

For kids eager to explore the world of coding, CodeSpark turns learning programming basics into a game. Through playful puzzles and story-driven challenges, children learn logic and critical thinking skills. With a free trial available, you can let your child test-drive their coding curiosity before deciding to invest further.

Enriching Reading and Imagination

Reading doesn’t have to be a chore—it can be a passport to countless imaginative worlds. By choosing resources that combine captivating narratives with interactive elements, you can spark a genuine love of literature in your children.

It doesn’t matter if they’re exploring digital magazines packed with puzzles and stories, browsing through an eBook collection that fuels their curiosity, or following along with audio narratives, each experience encourages them to think critically, develop empathy, and expand their vocabularies.

These platforms nurture a lifelong appreciation for reading but also inspire kids to create their own stories, crafts, and imaginative adventures—all from the comfort of your home.

Highlights Magazine for Kids

For over 75 years, Highlights has been inspiring young readers through engaging, age-appropriate content that sparks curiosity, creativity, and confidence. Their flagship magazine—available in both print and digital formats—brims with:

Captivating stories
Poems
Riddles
Brain-teasing Hidden Pictures® puzzles

All of these are carefully designed to keep kids entertained while building essential reading and critical-thinking skills.

Beyond the core magazine, Highlights also offers specialty clubs, puzzle books, and skill-building activities that help nurture a well-rounded love of learning. From preschoolers just discovering their first letters to older kids eager to tackle tricky brainteasers, Highlights provides a positive, character-building reading experience.

By adding a subscription to your child’s reading list, you’re not just providing entertainment—you’re opening the door to a lifetime of curiosity and imaginative exploration.

Cosmic Kids Yoga

When cabin fever hits, Cosmic Kids Yoga helps keep your child active and mindful. Imaginative yoga sessions use storytelling to turn exercise into a fun adventure.

It’s not just about fitness; it’s about creativity and relaxation during a hectic holiday season. Many streaming services hosting Cosmic Kids Yoga content offer free trials, so explore your options and give it a try without any upfront costs.

Digital Entertainment and Gaming

Video games and digital entertainment often top the wish lists of young audiences, but these platforms can offer more than just eye-catching graphics and high scores. The right games encourage problem-solving, strategic thinking, hand-eye coordination, and teamwork—all while delivering the kind of engaging content that keeps kids immersed for hours.

Family-friendly gaming services and apps introduce challenging puzzles, creative building scenarios, and interactive stories that transform screen time into an educational journey.

Parents can also rely on robust parental controls and curated game libraries to ensure each digital adventure is age-appropriate, safe, and enriching.

Prime Gaming

If you have older kids itching for a bit of gaming time, consider Prime Gaming, part of an Amazon Prime subscription. It offers a rotating selection of free PC games, in-game content, and rewards.

Some families may already have Amazon Prime, but if not, you can grab one here and test the waters to ensure the content is appropriate and enjoyable for your kids.

Other Family-Friendly Gaming Options

Beyond Prime Gaming, there are family-friendly subscription services like Nintendo Switch Online or Apple Arcade. These platforms provide a library of kid-appropriate games that blend fun and learning.

Look up their free trials to find the perfect gaming fit that encourages strategic thinking and problem-solving, all while keeping the holiday mood upbeat.

Balancing Screen Time with Offline Fun

Although digital platforms are fantastic for keeping kids busy, finding the right balance is key. Pair some of these online resources with offline activities:

Reading-Inspired Crafts: Take a short story from Highlights Magazine and turn it into a craft activity. Your child can recreate characters with construction paper or act out scenes in a homemade puppet show.
Learning Reinforcement: If ABCmouse introduced a new math concept, reinforce it with a “store” game at home where children “buy” and “sell” imaginary items using their newly learned math skills.
Yoga Adventures in Real Life: Let your kids try out Cosmic Kids Yoga sessions and then have them invent their own short yoga stories, performing their routines for the family.

By blending the convenience and variety of digital tools with hands-on projects, you’ll keep the break balanced, enriching, and fun.

Holiday Hacks: Explore Free Trials the Whole Family Will Love

The holiday season doesn’t have to mean restless kids or over-stressed parents. Thanks to our holiday hacks you can turn downtime into meaningful and engaging activities.

Ready to Begin? Start exploring the range of free trials available today.