Christmas interview questions for kids
A Christmas interview is a short list of questions you ask your child every December, the same ones each year. It works like a birthday interview: one year’s answers are sweet, and a few years of them side by side show you how much has changed. How Santa gets in without a chimney is a different story at three than at six.
Below are 15 questions, a few things to notice for children under three, a swap list for families who don’t do Santa, and a free printable. Daysake also sends one question each Friday, picked for your child’s age.
the wrapping paper, not the present. scrunched it up and smoothed it out for ages
How a Christmas interview works
- Same questions every year. The comparison is the point. Add a new question if you like, but keep the old ones.
- Spread it over December. No sit-down needed. Ask one while you put the lights up, one in the car, one at bedtime.
- Write the exact answer. Toy names spelled the way they’re said, the wrong reindeer facts, all of it. Don’t fix anything.
- “I don’t know” counts. Write it down and move on. Next year it will be something else.
- Start at about three. Many children can manage short back-and-forth questions around then. For younger ones, write what you notice instead (below).
The 15 questions
Ask them in any order. The helper line under each is for you, not for reading out.
- What’s the best thing about Christmas?
Start here. Keep it light. - What do you think Santa does the rest of the year?
Let the theory run as long as it wants to. - How does Santa know what you want?
Ask in the days before Christmas. - If there’s no chimney, how does Santa get in?
A favorite in homes without one. - What are you hoping for this year?
Write the list the way it comes out, made-up toy names included. - If we got a surprise present, what would you pick?
Different from the list above, often. - If you could give anyone in our family any present, what would it be?
Write down who it’s for, too. - How many sleeps until Christmas? How can we make it come faster?
Ask when the counting starts. - What’s your favorite thing we do at Christmas?
Whatever comes out is a family tradition now. - What’s the yummiest Christmas food?
Easy to ask at the table. - Which Christmas song do you like best? Can you sing a bit?
Write the words as sung, not as written. - What do you think reindeer eat?
No looking it up together until it’s written down. - What should we leave out for Santa?
Ask again on Christmas Eve and see if it changed. - Who do you want to see this Christmas?
It’s fine if the list is one name, or the dog. - What do you remember from last Christmas?
If nothing comes, that’s an answer too. Next year you’ll have this year’s sheet to remind them.
For the littlest ones
Under three, the interview is yours. Write a line about what you notice, with the age, and next December you’ll have something to put next to it.
- What does your child do first with a present?
- What does your child make of snow, if there’s any where you are?
- Which song gets dancing from the first few notes?
- What on the tree, or anywhere in the house, gets reached for first?
- Who gets the biggest smile this December?
picked up snow in a mitten and handed it to me. kept handing it to me
If your family doesn’t do Santa
Some families skip Santa, and some celebrate a different holiday or none. Swap questions 2, 3, 4, 12, and 13 for these:
- What’s the best present you’ve ever given someone?
- Why do you think people put lights up in December?
- What makes a day feel special?
- Who should we make something for this month?
- If you could make up a new holiday, what would happen on it?
If you’d rather leave holidays out completely, the New Year’s interview for kids asks about the whole year instead, and you can ask it in the last week of December. For any other day of the year, try these questions to ask your kids, by age.
Free printable
All 15 questions on one page, with answer lines and spaces for the name, date, and age. Print a new one each December. No sign-up.
- US Letter PDF (US and Canada)
- A4 PDF (UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand)
Keeping every year side by side
Paper works for one year. By the third December, you’re hunting through drawers for the first two sheets, and nobody wrote the age on them.
In Daysake, each answer is one page. The date and your child’s age go on by themselves, and around this time next year the home screen brings back what you wrote under “This time last year.” When you want it on paper, download everything as one PDF and print it, or see how to turn quotes into a book.
Write each answer as you hear it. Daysake adds the date and age, and every Friday there’s one more question picked for your child’s age.