Certainly Andy Williams, the guy who sings that Christmas song about “the most wonderful time of the year,” has never traveled in December with kids, and it shows. Taking a trip with little ones is stressful in and of itself, but add in holiday crowds, inclement weather, and general unpredictability, and your holiday plans can potentially be ruined before you even arrive at your destination.

But the good news is some things about traveling with kids are within your control, like how you entertain them en route to your home for the holidays. Here are a few screen-free ideas and tips that will keep your kid off their tablet and busy, particularly if you’ll be road tripping for Christmas or Hanukkah this year on a longer-than-you’d-like car ride:

• Create a road trip “surprise box.” Inspired by this mom blogger’s idea, pack each of your kiddos a box full of items for the trip that they can’t open until they get in the car. What you put inside depends on your child’s age and interests, but some general items include fidget spinners, mess-free coloring books or water activity pads, and poppers.

• Play old-school games. Board games can be impossible to play in a moving car, so play games instead that don’t require any pieces, like the license plate game, where you search the road for plates from various states, I spy, 20 questions, or the good ol’ “I’m going on a picnic.”

• Follow along on the map. Little kids may be fascinated by the GPS (my son loves to look at how many minutes are left each time we’re driving), but have the kids be involved in the mapping too. Print out a map ahead of time of your route, and ask your kid to mark off each stop with stickers as you go. This helps them understand how much time may be left of the ride.

• Take advantage of the weather. That frost on the window doesn’t need to be a driving nuisance. Have your kids use their fingers to turn the car windows into art, or engage in a game of window tic-tac-toe. Snow on the ground? Put on your boots and stop along a viewing point on the highway to snap some amazing scenic pics of the whole fam.

• Make snacking easy. To avoid an abundance of wrappers all over the car and your kid asking you every ten minutes for another nosh, invest in a snack spinner type gadget, which has storage for five different snacks and prevents spillage.

• Try “active” rest stops. Of course, bathroom, lunch and gas breaks are encouraged along your journey, but use rest stops as an excuse to stretch your legs and let your kids get their sillies out too. A stopover at a nearby playground may delay the trip slightly, but it could make the remainder of the trip more enjoyable if kids have a designated time and place to let out all that restless energy.

• Snap some photos. Invest in an inexpensive kid’s polaroid camera, and encourage your kid to document the trip. The wins here are that they’ll be busy looking for subjects to shoot along the way, and you’ll get to see the excursion through their lens.

• Listen to audiobooks or podcasts. It’s hard to get the whole family to agree on a music playlist for a long trip, so compromise by listening to kid-friendly audiobooks or podcasts the whole family can enjoy. May we suggest Starglow Media’s “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” podcast? This is especially timely given the Nov. 22 release of the Wicked film. 

What’s your favorite screen-free road trip hack for kids?

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