As the holiday season draws near, you’re sure to be busy making your list and checking it twice.  Between balancing your budget with your children’s wish lists, battling the shopping malls for the best bargains, planning family gatherings, decking the halls, preparing holiday meals, gift wrapping, and more, it’s easy to see how Christmas can come and go without the time to slow down, take a breath, and enjoy the holiday season with your family.  

If you’re looking for ways to stop and smell the gingerbread this year while creating some precious memories that can last a lifetime, here are a few simple and fun holiday activities that will ensure your entire family has a holly jolly Christmas!

“Remember that Carol” is a simple game that both kids and adults will enjoy as they go from person to person each taking turns announcing a Christmas carol that they remember and singing a verse from it.  A great game to entertain your children at home or to pass time on the road while traveling for the holidays, it will have your family making beautiful music together in no time! 

Christmas Charades is fun for the whole family!  Just have everyone write out 2 or 3 common holiday-themed items, characters, or decorations, etc. on small pieces of paper.  Fold them all up and place them in a bowl, and then take turns drawing out one at a time and acting them out for all to guess.

Holiday bedtime stories.  Dedicate 5 minutes each night throughout the month of December to read your child a bedtime Christmas story book.  Let your little ones take turns picking out which book you will read each night.  You can let your children choose one or two new Christmas books each year to add to their collection. 

Christmas Gift Hunt.  If you like to open a gift early on Christmas Eve, or hunt for presents on Christmas day, you can create a memorable fun way for your children to receive their gifts by making a simple Christmas holiday hunt.  You’ll need to prepare ahead and hide a trail of simple holiday clues that when solved will lead your child from one clue to the next until they ultimately reach and uncover where their “treasured” Christmas gift has been stashed away.  If you don’t have time to make your own clues, inexpensive pre-made print ‘n’ play Christmas hunts are available online for both children and adults at Treasure-Adventure.com.  Simply download, print, and play instantly! 

Deck the halls!  Make holiday decorating a group effort.  Take time to work with your children to make a few simple personalized holiday projects that can be displayed in your home or be given as memorable and unique gifts to friends and family such as painting ceramic angels or holiday candles, making ornaments or homemade candy canes, coloring and cutting out Christmas designs and applying them to windows, stockings, sleds, and other traditional holiday decor, or making a wreath together with everyone contributing.  There is an endless array of Christmas craft kits you might take advantage of or just grab your construction paper, glue, scissors, glitter, garland, and crayons, and make your own holiday decorations. Your kids will love this family craft time and beam with pride as they get to show off their special creations to holiday visitors.

Finally, make Christmas eve all about family time.  Turn off the TV and video games, turn on the Christmas tree lights, and play an old-fashioned family game or just come together as a family to talk and enjoy each other’s company. 

It takes only a little time and creativity to bring your loved ones together around a few special holiday activities and make your own Christmas traditions and lasting family memories of the joyous holiday season together.

Christmas is about family. Here is a collection of five crafts that you can make as a family to teach the true meaning and symbols of Christmas. Children will learn to identify Christmas using their five senses: sight, sound, smell, taste and touch. Pick and choose the activities you think your family will best enjoy, and spread them throughout the season. Start new traditions. Most importantly, use the activities to talk as a family.

Sight Activities:

Make holly wreaths out of green felt or construction paper:

Materials: paper plate, scissors, three shades of green felt or construction paper, old newspaper, glue gun and glue (or craft glue), red beads (optional), 1 inch thick red ribbon tied into a bow (optional.)

Fold a paper plate in half and cut out the center. Discard the center piece. Make a pattern of spiny holly leaves using old newspaper, and use a fabric pen to trace the shape on three different shades of green felt. (You can also use green construction paper.) Use a glue gun or craft glue to attach the holly leaves to the paper plate ring, alternating colors. You can glue red beads in triangular bunches of three to the leaves if you want to add berries. Attach the optional bow at the top or bottom of the wreath.

The holly wreath, hanging on a door or over an archway, makes a fine visual symbol Christmas. The circle is a symbol of brotherly love. Demonstrate to your children how the circle never ends, just like our love for each other shouldn’t end. In olden days when all other plants died under the snow, the holly stayed green, giving hope that life would come again. The red holly berries represent Jesus’ blood, which gave man hope of life after death. The bow is symbol of unity, which families feel at Christmastime. Red is the color of sacrifice. Talk about these meanings with your children as you make the wreath. Every time they see it hanging will be a reminder to them of the true meaning of Christmas!

Sound Activities

Jingle Bells:

Ask your children to close their eyes. Move away from them. Have them try to walk to you with their eyes closed. Then repeat the activity, but this time ring a jingle bell. Bells ring out to lost sheep and guide them back to safety. Jesus is sometimes called the Good Shepherd, guiding every child to safety. You may want to tie the jingle bell to a branch of your Christmas tree, or attach one to your child’s shoelace to remind them of the Christmas season.

Smell Activities

Scented Orange Ornaments:

Materials Needed: several small to medium oranges or tangerines, 1 bottle whole cloves, wire and cutters, 1 inch (or thicker) ribbon, tied into a bow.

Gently make a vertical surface cut at each quarter of the orange. Carefully poke the wire through bottom of the orange and push through the top. Secure by twisting the wire into a circle, thus holding the orange in place. Dry the wire with a paper towel if it got juicy. Push in cloves, thorny end first, along the cut grooves of the orange. Slide the bow down the wire until it tops the orange, and fold back the wire to secure on a tree branch.

This ornament will fill your home with fresh citrusy, gingerbread smells and can also be wrapped to be given as a gift. Gingerbread has been associated with the holidays since medieval times, when the crusaders brought citrus fruits and spices back from the Middle East. At first it was too expensive for anyone but the lords and ladies of the castles to eat. Today it can serve as a reminder that baby Jesus was the prophesied king.

Taste Activities

Decorate Christmas Cookies:

Using your favorite sugar cookie recipe and a variety of cookie cutters, spend an afternoon baking up a batch. Frosting, cake decorating supplies and candy can be used for embellishment. Make a plate to take to a neighbor, or hang the cookies on the tree. Of course, you must eat a few! Cookies and apples were used as the first Christmas tree ornaments in Germany, where they came to symbolize the fruits of redemption.

Touch Activities

Candle Lights:

Candles have long represented Jesus Christ on Christmas, and have been used on Advent wreaths, lightstocks (Christmas Pyramids), Christmas trees, or single candles at the window. Light a candle and have your children hold their hands up close enough to feel the warmth. Although winter is traditionally a cold season, Christmas activities with your family bring warmth into the heart.