Family-fun Holiday Activities (on a Low Budget)

Holiday mode activated!😁

With all the Black Friday deals and sales, you can feel the holiday season excitement (and unfortunately, traffic😓) start to build up as early as November. Then December begins and, in the rush of the holiday shopping, Christmas preparations, and with the one or two invitations you have accepted, you believe you have the holiday season all planned out. Biggest #scam ever.

The busyness of the days leading up to Christmas can be very misleading, having you believe you have it all figured out for the holidays. You even start the when-is-our-office-going-on-break-for the-holidays and the I-hope-I-don’t-have-to-be-at-work-on-the-24th-because-my-days-will-be-packed mood. Then a day or two after Christmas day itself, you realise what you really planned was just meals, a visit to family, and then considered family outing but that’s about it. Now here you are going through the rest of the days not sure what year it is, what day it is, and reacting to social media posts about how Christmas was more fun when you were a child.

No matter how old you are, you can still have a Christmas that is cheerful and filled with memorable moments. With everything going on, pandemic, (and also ‘economic surprises’) and all, thinking of fun things to do by yourself or with your family can be stressful. So, in the holiday spirit of giving and sharing, I am sharing some of my Holiday Activities with you.

The usual…

• Attend a Church service if there’s one
• Plan a holiday menu with new recipes.
• Wrap and deliver gifts
• Decorate a tree (or tabletop tree if you have young children)
• Visit friends and family
• Plan a family photoshoot (if that’s your kind of thing)

Now to my list… To make it more fun, bring out the Christmas accessories; Santa hats, funny glasses, whatever you’ve got. (Yes, I’m a big kid at heart….😁😁😁)

Take your family out or plan a family weekend away. Take your family out of town for a day or two, or weekend. Make reservations to avoid getting stranded. If you are staying in town instead, you can eat out, visit a ‘Santaland’ or even attend the family party in the park (family picnic). You could go out for a late afternoon/ early evening treat; seeing the ‘#LightUpTheCity’ displays would be a plus for the drive back home.

Have a Barbecue. Set up outdoors for a late afternoon to early evening barbecue, if you have concerns about being outdoors in the evening. Alternatively, you can set up to grill outdoors and eat indoors instead. Invite another family or a few friends over if you prefer that.

Have a movie night. Make microwave popcorn or regular homemade popcorn, order a pizza, spread some blankets on the floor (or couch, if you prefer that), get cosy and watch a family-friendly movie or animation. Instead of just sitting there, counting the seconds till your child falls asleep so you can binge on Netflix (😂) try to engage them. Pick whichever cartoon is the Mummy/Daddy-I-want-to-watch pick of the season, and occasionally ask your child what they think is happening; who the bad guy is, who the hero is, why the puppy is sad, all of it!

Have a Game Night (or day). This could be fun for your family and also for guests, if you are hosting. Bring out the Ludo, Monopoly, Scrabble or whichever board games you’ve got. You could also play charades or pictionary with ideas from the story Birth of Jesus and other Christmas-themes.

Arts and Crafts. Make DIY Christmas decorations together. Paper lanterns, Chinese lantern ‘snowball’, Christmas tree mosaic, and other art and craft projects can be great ways to keep your child engaged.

Bake with your kids. Try simple baking recipes: butter cookies, chocolate chip cookies, cupcakes or chips. If you are looking for fun ways to keep your child engaged outside of screen time this holiday season, try baking or cooking with them.

Treat yourself and your spouse. Give yourself and your spouse a treat; you deserve it. Go out WITHOUT the little or not-so-little ones; attend a live event, watch a stage play, have dinner, plan a spa day or couple’s massage for yourselves. Anything to de-stress.

Plan the year ahead. No, not the new-year-new-me mood or new year resolutions, actual planning. Reflect on the year and consider your faith walk, your finances, your relationships. Where are you now? Where do you want to be a year from now? Do you know what God expects of you in the coming year? How do you get there? How will you know you are there? Take time to reflect, be grateful and then plan the next steps. Write these down so you can refer to this list later. Do this periodically through the year.

Sleep! Yes, you read that right. With all the activities and events in the holiday season, it’s easy to get going on the adrenaline and muscle memory, and neglect rest. Make it a point to sleep in late some mornings and catch up on your rest arrears.

Try not to squeeze in EVERY SINGLE ONE of these activities into your holiday schedule. It will take out the fun and make everything feel more like work. Leave a few of these for later or the next holiday season. 😉

Merry Christmas!… May all your Christmas days be merry and bright!