Fun Coupons Your Kids Might Love

Sharing a new family tradition

I didn’t expect to share another post here until January (family life is clicking along apace, as I’m sure it is at your house!), but as I prepped this item for my own family’s Christmas celebrations, it seemed too good not to share. So here we are!

At Easter earlier this year, our older kids asked for an egg hunt, and I wasn’t prepared - we had the plastic eggs, but nothing to stuff them with. In a stroke of inspiration, I scribbled a few fun “coupons” on scraps of paper and tucked them into the eggs.

They were ecstatic.

In the months since, they’ve loved trading in coupons for things like “you choose the movie on Family Movie Night” and “pancakes on a school morning.” I knew they’d be thrilled to find a restock in their stockings, and with a little longer lead time, I was able to upgrade the coupon design, too.

If you’d like to try something similar for your own holidays, I hope I can make it easy for you! Below is the full list of kid coupon ideas John and I brainstormed (and please add your own ideas in the comments!). Also, here is the PDF I created and printed for our family. (I used this template on Canva if you want to adjust the wording, or you can search for other designs there, too!)

For these ideas, we focused on tiny, simple experiences that don’t cost more than a little time. But, they’re ones that will hopefully bring our family closer together, remind our children how much we love spending time with them, and bring delight to all of our days. Pretty good for a little piece of cardstock and some quick work with the scissors :) Without further ado…

Fun Coupon Ideas for Kids

• Lunch delivery to school

• Alternative dinner (you get to eat something other than the family meal that’s being served)

• You pick the movie for Family Movie Night

• Choose the dessert for Family Movie Night

• Chicken minis before school

• Pancakes on a school day

• Stay up later than sibs to play a game

• Solo bike ride to the playground

• Add one item to the grocery list

• Family hide and seek

• Sleepover in a sib’s room

• Sleepover in parents’ room

• Pick what we have for dinner

• Something from the Dollar Spot (our kids loooooove this one)

• First in carpool line (not applicable for us, but I think it’s so fun!)

• Hot chocolate with breakfast

• Trip to the car wash

• Leisurely library trip

• You pick the Friday takeout

• Get to do one kind thing for someone else. You choose!

• Double allowance

• Ice cream run

• Choose the lunch after church

• Breakfast in bed

What would you add? Please share in the comments! Whether you use these in stockings, bundle a bunch of them together for a gift, or squirrel these ideas away for another occasion, I hope they bring your family delight!