I am getting a little anxious about Christmas break coming up. I am lucky enough to have off from Dec. 24th to Jan. 2, but so is my son’s daycare. What in the world am I going to do to keep him entertained? I mean, we can only go shopping so much, which he does love, but I’m sure he’ll get bored with that quite quickly. So far I’ve only come up with a visit to Grant’s Farm in St. Louis, but it’s only open in the evenings for their Christmas light display. HELP!!!
Entertaining a 2 year old over Christmas Break?
HMMMMM… I have a 2 year old granddaughter and she absolutely loves for us to go for walks, wash dishes, read and color… simple things, really but she does enjoy having the time spent with her. Mary
What does he normally do at daycare? Maybe you could ask and do some of the activities at home with him? 
Go to the appliance store and get a large box.
Cut various openings into large box. Insert multiple pillows. Insta-fort.
Open up cupboard to pots and pans. Give child wooden spoon. Place earmuffs in position. Insta-rock band. Hours of fun. Have Advil handy for side-effects.
Glue, plus paper and $-store cut-outs.
Playdoh.
Make Rice Krispie squares. Both of my children simply loved doing this at this age.
Washing dishes by hand. This is a blast.
Baths + soapy bubbles = minimum of 1 hour of fun if water is occasionally warmed up.
Library. Story reading.
Make Jello Jigglers.
Play Date.
But most of all, you really shouldn’t be entertaining your child the whole time. Kids really need to learn to play on their own. I didn’t realize this with my first child and I now pay for this by the fact that he will not play by himself.
Whereas, my daughter was often forced to spend the extra 5 - 10 minutes in her playpen while I was dealing with destructo boy… and she plays most awesomely by herself. When Destructo boy is gone, I can have a whole day to myself because she will entertain herself peacably. This was from the age of 3 on.
Last! Don’t expect too much of your time. 
Because it will feel long but then it will be over and you’ll be thinking… 
I love that child!
Put him in his bathing suit. Fill the tub with cups, boats, bowls, action figures, etc. Fill with water and tell him that he is going swimming.
Fill a tub/bucket/large pan with water and bubbles and let him play on the kitchen floor.
Go to the movie store and rent kid movies…you can rent all kinds of movies that are only 30 minutes…For quiet times.
Go to the library and check out some new books.
Play hide and seek. My dd LOVED hide and seek when she was 2.
Make forts…throw blankets over your table and crawl in.
Take walks. It’s cold, and they won’t be long, but the fresh air will be so beneficial!
Make sock puppets together and then do a fun puppet show.
Bake together. Two year olds love to get messy, so instead of mixing with a mixer, wash your hands extra good and mix up the dough/batter with your hands!
Go to a dollar store and buy one or two new toys…knowing that they won’t last more than a day or so.
HAVE FUN!
My dtr will soon be 3 and I have a 15 mo old too, home all day with them. Lately it’s all about playdoh. To mix it up a bit, do homemade peanut butter playdoh–no real recipe, but peanut butter, add powdered sugar and caro syrup to it. Too sticky? Add more powdered sugar. Too crumbly? Add more caro syrup. Then crEATe! Have fun, don’t plan too much and it will be less stressful for you!
Crafts, lots and lots of crafts. There are tons of crafts sites on the net, and most of them just require things you probably already have around the house.
Make a string of gingerbread men out of paper bags…
make a city out of empty milk/butter/jelly/whatever containers…
make a fort out of chair backs, blankets and pillows…
give him a big bowl of jello/rice/cornmeal and some small cups, spoons, trucks, etc and let him have at it. This works with a tub of water too- let him check out what kinds of things float and sink.
Get some butcher paper and let him draw roads for toy cars… you can use this with the butter tub buildings.
Get some large cookie cutters and let him make his own sandwich for lunch and then cut it into shapes…
cut a potato in half, carve a shape into it, and let him use it as a stamp with paint…
Aha! I found a playdough recipe I was given. I’ve not tried so I don’t know how good it is.
*2 cups of plain flour
*1/2 cup of salt
*2 teaspoons of cream of tartar
*2 tablespoons of cooking oil
*2 cups of boiling water
*Food colouring
- Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl
- Make a hollw in the centre of the dry ingredients.
- Pour the oil into the hollow.
- Add the boiling water and food colouring.
- Mix it until it forms a ball.
- Turn out onto a table and kneed well.
- Store it in the fridge an air tight container. (it should keep for 7-10 days).
Hi. When I was a nanny and the kids( a 2 yo and her twin 3.5 yo bros )were driving me crazy I would make edible finger paint. I made vanilla pudding per the instructions and added a little food coloring. They loved that the could lick there fingers clean when changing colors. And the clean up was a breeze each kid got a bowl of pudding when they were done painting with it!
Hereis a link with some more ideas
We also made some great forts out of sheets and blankets. They would have so much fun doing evertyhing in their forts. They always wanted to each lunch in them and the last week I worked there I let them. You would have thought I had given them the world with how exicted they got!
Back when my boys were small, we had simple entertainment, because I was a single mother.
Listen to music and dance
Get on the floor and play with cars or blocks or other toys in his toybox.
Color in coloring books
Play Chutes and Ladders
Read books together (Mother Goose rhymes are fun!)
Buy simple cookies, and decorate them with store-bought icing.
(We would buy white icing, and separate it into little plastic cups, and use different colors of food coloring for each cup.)
But, the main thing is to just relax and be together. Some times will be fun, and some times will be boring. He’s your little shadow…your buddy. He’ll love you no matter what. You’ll be fine!