Best fun activities for kids to celebrate Onam 2025

New Delhi: Like every year, Onam 2025 has filled everyone’s hearts with joy and renewed energy. From adults and kids, to visitors and tourists, all feel alive and exuberant in Kerala during this time. And why not! It is a vibrant festival that offers a myriad of cultural experiences. The legendary snake boat races, the spectacular tiger dance, the elegant thiruvathirakali, the vibrant pookalam, and the grand feast called Sadhya – all of these are the highlights of the festival that bind everyone together in preserving the culture and heritage.

Celebrated in Chingam Masam to mark the arrival of the Malayalam New Year, the return of benevolent Demon King Mahabali, and a prosperous harvest, the 10-day-long festival is also known as Kolla Varsham. This year, Onam began on August 26 and will end on September 6. The festivity is also an apt time to engage the kids in fun Onam activities to help them understand its significance. Let’s explore.

Here is the list of Onam 2025 fun activities for kids to gain cultural knowledge and history entertainingly and engagingly.

1. Happy Onam drawings and posters

Children love to get engaged in creativity through colours and crayons. Bring them vibrant sheets, drawing books and colour pencils. This Onam fun activity will not only unleash their imaginative mind but is also a great way to wish the family, friends and other loved ones.

2. Flower garlands and strings of leaves

Flower garlands and strings of leaves are the crucial elements of pookalam, or flower carpets, and eco-friendly decorations during the celebrations. Let your kids make these items to welcome the spirit of King Mahabali and embody the festive ambience.

3. Paper art and crafts to decorate home

During Onam, people decorate their homes with paper lanterns, door hangings called torans, butterflies, wall decals, and paper pookalam. Kids will love to make these tiny items involving colourful papers.

4. Rangoli making contest

Rangolis elevate the aesthetic aspect of the home with their vibrancy and visual appeal during the Onam festival. Organise a rangoli-making competition for the kids in your family, neighbourhood, or school and let them have a fun-filled moment. Honour the best ones with a thoughtful reward or gift.

5. Decorative elephant wall hangings

Making wall hangings incorporating essential Onam symbols, such as the elephant, is a thoughtful idea. Let your kids sit together with paints, paintbrushes, sequins, glue, paper, pencils, and scissors to make elephant wall hangings.

6. Vibrant flower pookalam

Let your kids help you in making a pookalam, where a variety of flowers are needed to decorate the home and welcome guests. It will not only inculcate cultural knowledge and values but will also fill their hearts with pride and a sense of responsibility.

7. Paper boats for Onam fun

Kerala’s snake boat race is legendary and spectacular during the Onam festival. Let your kids get indulged in mini boat racing in their own way, where family friends and neighbours can enjoy and cheer. So, teach your children to make paper boats this Onam.

8. Mask making related to Onam activities

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Another Onam fun activity for kids is making masks related to various cultural activities. They can make a tiger mask for Pulikali or a tiger dance, or a mask depicting Demon King Mahabali.

Onam fun activities for kids are a great way to pass on the culture and heritage of Kerala to the younger generation. So, let your children laugh and learn while sitting together. Happy Onam!