Christmas Camp IN

Stake out family fun with an indoor camp out under the Christmas lights, your little ones are going to have the best Christmas of their lives!

Cozy up this holiday season with a Christmas camp out in your family room—complete with shining stars, a comfy tent, snacks, s’mores and a glowing campfire where you can spin yarns all night long. 

Sleep in sheer comfort

Create a sleeping oasis by draping sheets or gauzy curtain sheers over the backside of a couch, a large table or a clothesline tied to some heavy furniture. Add white string lights to the outside of your tent for an extra-starry night.

No room for a tent? Just roll out the sleeping bags around your campfire for a night under the stars (i.e., your Christmas tree lights).

Make indoor s'mores

No camp out is complete without marshmallows, graham crackers and lots of chocolate. Create this deliciously gooey concoction with the help of the broil setting on your oven. After all, you’re all warm and cozy indoors—why not make s’mindoors? Try this indoor s’mores dip recipe.

Light a fire

If you don’t have a crackling fireplace to gather around, make your own glowing campfire:

Gather a wide, shallow container, a few strings of Christmas or fairy lights (we used several strands of battery-operated LED lights), some birch logs and some baling wire. Form your wire into flame shapes, and wrap your lights around the wire so the lights are close together. Stand the flames up in the container and hold them in place with the birch logs.

String along stars

Create a starry night with this easy garland you can hang above your tent. Just cut out star shapes from different metallic and glittery papers and attach them to a string. The lights from your tree and campfire will give them a cheerful glow.

Set the scene

No camp in is complete without breathtaking scenery. And if you haven’t taken your family Christmas photo yet, now is the time! Cut out some large triangles from poster board and paint them nice shades of majestic purple. Then add some white snowcaps to the tops out of the poster board scraps. Attach them to the wall with painter’s tape. Then you can set up a rustic bench in front of the mountainous backdrop for a scenic holiday pic.

Make it cozy

Warm your insides with our yummy hot chocolate recipe, and keep your hands comfy with this easy-to-make mug cozy. Wash and dry an old wool sweater to felt it (use a sweater you’re willing to part with). Cut it into strips that fit the height of your mugs and then sew the ends of the strips together at the corners. (Leave the center parts open so they will fit around the mug handles but can be removed when washing the mugs.) Sew jingle bells, pom-poms or other decorations to the top handle areas for a festive finish.

More Ideas

• For more sustenance throughout the night, try our reindeer crunch and trail mix recipes.
• Braid leather strips into bracelets or tackle some friendship bracelets out of embroidery thread to keep your hands busy while you trade stories.
• Scatter stuffed animals and potted plants around the room for some woodland ambiance.
• Bring flashlights and teach each other shadow puppets, or send Morse code messages to each other from across the room.
• Cut out paper snowflakes and hang them from the ceiling. Paint them with glow-in-the-dark paint so you can see them when you turn out the lights.
• Play “I spy” with ornaments on the tree.
• Watch old home movies or look through photo albums of Christmases past.