5 Simple Ideas to Actually Enjoy the Holiday Season

Thanksgiving is over and the Holiday Season is well underway. Are you having fun yet? The Holidays are a great opportunity to have fun with your family. However, the season is short and there is a lot to do – gift buying, baking, wrapping, Holiday parties, decorating, and writing and addressing cards, to name a few. Don’t let the stress of the Holiday Season overwhelm you! After all, the Holidays are all about family.

To inspire you, here are some fun ideas to try with your family to relax and actually enjoy the Holiday Season. 

Holiday Game Night. Pick a evening, put your favorite Holiday jammies on early, and have fun playing some games. We like to set up the game by our Christmas tree to admire the ornaments while we play. You can give away prizes for the winners – candy canes, tiny stockings, or “coupons” to go shopping with Mom, get out of the dishes, or be the first to open gifts on Christmas Eve. Make it a tradition to play a new game every year. Read 5 Ways to Make Family Game Night More Fun for inspiration.

Have Fun Giving Back. Teach your kids the importance of helping others, especially during the Holiday Season. Help pack Christmas Care Packages for the troops. Buy gifts for local families in need. Bake cookies for a local nursing home. Make bird seed “ornaments” with pine cones, peanut butter, and bird seed to decorate trees outside and feed the birds in winter. You can do the same thing every year or take turns picking a new charitable activity. Here's how to Teach your Kids the Importance of Giving Back.

Organize a Neighborhood Caroling Party.  Remember how much fun you had Christmas caroling as a kid? Why not host an old-fashioned, fun Caroling Party for your neighborhood?  It’s easy and gets everyone in the Holiday Spirit. Pick a night, invite all of the neighbors to meet in someone’s driveway, print out some song sheets, and have wagons full of hot chocolate to keep everyone warm. Then after caroling, invite them in to look at your fabulous Holiday decorations and serve cookies.

Make a Gingerbread House. Every year my kids love decorating Gingerbread Houses. If Grandma and Grandpa are visiting, we always wait and do it with them. We usually buy the kits where the pieces are already made and all we have to do is decorate. (Saves a huge amount of time!) We even use old Halloween candy as additional decorations for the house to get rid of the “less than desirable” candy that the kids never ate. There are so many different shapes and kits these days that everyone can be as creative as they want. Here are some Gingerbread House ideas to get you going.

Make an Ornament. If you are a crafty family, make a different ornament together every year. Put them on the tree or give them as gifts. Don’t forget to mark the year on the ornament. (If you make a different ornament every year, don’t forget to put the kids’ names and dates on somewhere. When your kids are grown, you can give them all of their ornaments in a box to decorate their own tree.) Familyfun.com has some cute homemade Christmas ornaments for kids to make.

I hope this inspired you to plan some fun to keep everyone in the family smiling and enjoying the Holiday Season. 

Want more ideas for Holiday-inspired Family Fun and Traditions? Check out  www.chocolatecakemoments.com.