Schools are closed. Your children are home, unoccupied, and excited about the holidays. It’s endearing; you love them to bits, but it’s nearly driving you insane. So, what do you do?
Holidays are an excellent opportunity to strengthen your bond with your children. It doesn’t have to be scary. But you must be creative, present, and intentional in creating lasting memories and traditions. Besides, kids are easy to please.
So, get your kids off the screens, get your hands dirty, and create new traditions with your munchkins. Below is a comprehensive list of fun and exciting holiday activities for your children.
1. Baking.
Turn your children into little chefs and let them bake their hearts away. You can create an artistic atmosphere and allow them to make creative items with dough. They can bake cookies, gingerbread men, and snowballs.
Baking is a fun activity for the entire family. As a parent, you get to dress them up in mini-chef hats and aprons and watch them adorably handle their pint-size baking tools. You can read the recipe together while teaching your children to take and follow instructions.
To keep things interesting, you can sing along to their favourite holiday songs as you bake. The best part is that they get to spend time with you and make a mess while asking you a million questions that you will answer diligently because you are a good parent!!
2. Indoor Games.
Children love games. It’s all they think about. Playing outside with friends, inside with siblings, and even on their phones. So, imagine the smile on their faces when you introduce indoor games as part of their holiday activities!
You can create a fort in the living room and pretend it’s a castle with a king and queen. It’s fun and lets you see a glimpse of your children’s interests. Alternatively, you can play board games, create indoor slides, or conduct puzzles and treasure hunts.
3. Movie Night.
The best memory from my childhood is when we would all cosy up in the living room and watch a holiday special—a Home Alone Marathon or Lord of the Rings!! It felt warm and safe.
Children are like canvas papers; they soak up everything they hear and see. Therefore, to create lasting traditions with your munchkins, start when they are still little. Movie night is an excellent place to start.
Prepare snacks such as popcorn, crisps, mini pizzas, and refreshments, then pick your child’s favourite movie and watch it together. You can also introduce your feel-good film to your children and let them get to know you better. After all, it is the little things that matter most.
4. Create Decorations.
Turn your living room into a class of arts and crafts. Occupy your kid’s time for hours with controlled decoration projects. You can create ornaments with paper wrappings, charts, coloured paper, cinnamon sticks, bows, and ribbons.
If you are a daredevil, bring out the glitters, glue sticks, and markers and let the little ones run wild. You can also help them decorate the Christmas tree, decorate the lights, and hang artificial flowers around the house.
It can get chaotic, but it’s all worth it. Besides, they will likely help you clean up if they have fun. You can also hang some of your baked goods, such as gingerbread men, as ornaments. But only for a day!
5. Donating Items.
As a parent, you can best instil lasting values in your children during the holidays. Before receiving new toys and clothes, have them go through their play items and pick out gently used things that can comfort an underprivileged child.
This teaches them essential virtues such as kindness, compassion, and gratitude. Show them how to be caring and emphatic to others by giving their time and affection and gently using items for the less fortunate.
Take them to a soup kitchen and let them serve. Let them learn what it means to be part of something bigger than themselves. Visit children’s homes with them so they know that the world doesn’t revolve around them and that they can be kind people, too.
6. Attend a Production.
If you have school-going children, you can be sure they will have a holiday performance. Show up, show out, and support them. Bring out a camera, document everything, and take all pictures—and I mean all, even the awkward ones!
It melts any parent’s heart to see their children participate in any production, even if all they do is play a tree. Bring your other kids and let them cheer on their siblings. Alternatively, you can take your children to watch other people’s productions, like the Birth of Baby Jesus in church Christmas carols.
7. Holiday Camps.
If your children are relatively active, signing them up for summer school or holiday camps is always a good idea. You can enrol them in football, science, and dance camps depending on their interests.
Holiday camps give your children an edge over their playmates and classmates when school resumes. They allow them to meet new friends and interact with old ones.
Camps are a great source of fun and keep children occupied and productive during the holidays. Especially if you work through the holidays, they are an excellent way to ensure your children are in a social and safe environment.
The Take Away.
As depicted above, you can do numerous fun and exciting things with your children to ensure a memorable and festive holiday. Don’t fear a little mess, and let your creativity guide you. It is the best chance to instil fundamental life principles, values, and traditions in your child.
What special activities did you do with your parents when you were younger? Please leave a comment below!
Wishing you and your family a creative and festive holiday season!!♥
Mourine Warui is a media and communication expert and seasoned writer. Her goal is to empower and offer solutions to everyday girl’s problems while provoking candid and authentic conversations. Other goals are to provide inspiration and entertainment to readers through creative, thought-provoking and edgy stories.
