If your social media feeds look like mine, they’re probably filled with other families doing “Christmas” or “Holiday” themed activities.
And if you’re anything like me, your reaction to these is double-fold.
Yes, it’s so cool that these other families are doing that, and they look like they’re having fun while doing it. At the same time, you’d much rather lay on the couch or do something else that may not be picture-perfect but feels comforting. After all, family time is family time, regardless of what activities we may or may not do together, right?
Here are some ideas for activities that are meant to be easy on parents while spreading the holiday cheer in the meantime.
Snow Play
This is a minimally involved activity where you get to sit inside and make the hot cocoa! The headache might be finding everyone’s gear (boots, gloves, hats, warm clothes) but once you’ve got everyone squared away they should be ready for fun! If properly dressed and by a certain age kids can spend a really long time outside, even in the cold winter. Let’s be honest, we’re thankful for any amount of time we can get the kids playing outside. If you’d like to, get a few accessories and exponentially increase their fun! Brick molds are popular as are sleds.
Simple Holiday Crafts
Ramp up the holiday cheer by serving hot cocoa, playing Christmas music on low, and if you’d like do a small craft related to the holidays. Pinterest has a million ideas of small simple crafts to do with kids of all ages, or check out this post. Take lots of pictures during everything and you’ll have memories to look back on this day forever!
Baking Cookies
This is a favorite in a lot of households for a lot of reasons. It’s warm and indoors which Is a plus. Kids can touch the dough and get interactive with it. Precut cookies take the guesswork out of how much to put on the cookie sheet. And of course, everyone’s got to love using the cookie cutters and related accessories. This is another activity where Christmas music could be played to enhance the mood.
To start, of course, you’re going to have everyone wash their hands. Place the cookie dough on the sheet(s). Using plenty of flour throughout handling the cookies works best I’ve found. If you use a cookie cutter, try and preserve the space available in the cookie sheet. That way you can make the most cookies possible!
While they’re baking, it might be a nice time to try a variety of activities. Board games might be fun for some families, but for others, they might bring out too much conflict and competition. In this case, we just find an alternative activity. Puzzles are a nice quiet activity to do together or even card games. It’s also a nice idea to look at photo albums and explore the memories everyone has from the past. Whatever you do, don’t forget to snap those pictures and record these memories.
Try our favorite frosted sugar cookie recipe here.
Here are some inspirational ways to enjoy the holidays without the stress and with all of the memory-making included.
Sure my family will be doing other things too, but these are the simple holiday activities that both kids and parents appreciate.
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