Christmas is such a special time to spend with the family. It brings everyone today, sparks joy and refreshes us as we finish up a year together. One of the best things about doing the holiday season with little ones at home is getting to watch their excitement and joy for everything this season has to offer. There really can feel like there is magic in the air when you have kids as part of Christmas.
To help you make this season even more special, we have put together a list of things you can do with the kids in the lead-up to Christmas. The focus of this list is on getting to spend quality time together as a family and to remember the meaning of the season.
It can be so easy to get caught up in the craziness of Christmas and get to the end of the year and feel like you didn’t get to make those special memories with the children in your life. So this list is about making sure you can schedule in the time to spend together an make those memories together.
This list has been made for parents, grandparents, aunties, uncles, foster carers, and family friends to all do! There are ideas here that can be great for memories to be made with the many relationships that are in a child’s life.
Let’s dive in!
Don’t forget to share with us how these activities go so that we can hear about the memories that you got to make!
1 – Take a holiday card photo
You don’t have to pay to get a photographer for this. You can actually just set up your phone on a tripod and hit record to record a video. Then get the family in front of the camera and just do silly things together. You can laugh at each other, giggle together, cuddle, and the video will record all these little cute moments. Then you just go through the video and screenshot all the moments you loved. Then throw this onto a Christmas card program online that you can order for about $10 and wallah, you have your Christmas cards and photos to cherish forever.
2 – Decorate a gingerbread house together
You can get great gingerbread house sets from the supermarket, or can also google how to make one yourself from scratch. It is a great time to be able to be creative together and can become a fun tradition with the kids each year.
3 – Write letters to Santa
If you have chosen to believe in Santa in your family, then you could sit down with the kids and write letters to Santa together. The kids can decorate the letters and post them to Santa. Then you can keep these letters each year somewhere safe and give them to your kids when they turn 18 as a sweet keepsake.
The address for Santa is; 123 Elf Road North Pole, 88888
4 – Have a hot cocoa night. ☕
Invite the grandparents or other friends over and set up a hot chocolate bar where everyone can make their own hot chocolates. Then curl up and watch a Christmas movie together. Just because we aren’t in the Northern Hemisphere doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy some of their favourite traditions like this one.
5 – Make a popcorn garland!
Christmas decorations are getting more and more expensive, but you can make your own great decorations, which look amazing and also are a great bonding time with your child. These garlands can be hung anywhere in the home and your child is going to be proud whenever they look at them. All you need is some string, popcorn and cranberries.
6 – Make holiday cards and send them to your family & friends.
You can purchase some thick A4 paper from a store like Kmart or Woolworths and cut them in half and fold into cards, or even white cards that are already folded and then go to town decorating in writing cards. Depending on how young your child is, you may need to do the writing, while they do the decorating, but this is a great activity you can do together that helps them to value those in their life that they love and show them love and appreciation.
7 – Track Santa together
This is a great one, especially for the grandparents to do with the grandkids each time they visit you. From December 1st you can log onto the below website and track where Santa is going, right up until Christmas Eve.
https://www.noradsanta.org/en/
8 – Donate your kid’s old toys
This is a great activity to teach your children the value of what they have and also have a conversation about how some other children don’t get toys for Christmas. It also helps to clean out the kid’s cupboards before they get new toys this Christmas.
9 – Adopt an elf on the shelf…
Only take on this tradition if you dare… There is nothing worse than getting into bed after a big day and realising you forgot to move the elf and now have to get up and find a good hiding spot for it! The concept behind Elf on the Shelf, is that he moves each night to a different location and gets up to something mischievous overnight. Then in the morning the kids get the joy of running around to find where the Elf got up to in the night. Is he sitting on top of the fan, hiding on the bookshelf, or squashed in the shoe box?
You can get second-hand Elves at op shops or online at eBay.
10 – Host Christmas Karaoke!
Love Christmas carols? Get everyone together and sing along to some festive tunes.
11 – Go to the store to buy a gift for someone in need
You could put together a gift box for someone in your community that you know of that could use some extra Christmas joy in their life this season. Getting the kids involved in this activity can help to teach them how to be generous and think of others during this season.
As you can see, there are so many fun activities you can do this season to spend time together in the crazy busyness and do some fun things while you are at it. Maybe you might find something that you really love and make it a family tradition!
Make sure to send us a message if you have any other ideas of things we could add to the list of fun Christmas activities to do as a family.
