There’s so much to celebrate around Christmas, which makes it the perfect time to express love and affection toward your family. Whether your Christmas season is hectic, or it’s a time to be lazy, eat Christmas cookies and catch up on Hallmark movies, here are some fun and inventive activities to do with your family. Ask your entire family or just your siblings to participate but enjoy this season with a little love and laughter.
- Dinner is Served– Here’s a challenge, how many ways can you make a Christmas themed pizza? Think green and red ingredients, decorate your pizza with a manger scene (hint, peperoni make great faces for all the people who visited Jesus), craft an angel with yellow peppers as the halo. Then make a fruit pizza for dessert. Use a sugar cookie recipe as the base, layer on vanilla yogurt and top it off with strawberries and raspberries.
- Christmas Card Distribution –Decorate notecards with Christmas related scriptures and distribute them throughout town. Tape the Christmas Cards in public bathrooms, Stop Signs, on the windows of retail stores or coffee shops. People will see the scripture (and maybe even pick it up and take it home) reminding them of Christ’s birth.
- Decorate Christmas Cookies– Select a few family favorites to make together. Then, head out as a family to deliver them to all your neighbors. When you ring the bell, start caroling with some of your family’s favorite Christmas hymns.
Hot Chocolate Bar –Enjoy a sweet treat after dinner with an assortment of goodies to add to Homemade Hot Chocolate. We recommend extra chocolate sauce, marshmallows, whipped topping, caramel, sea salt, chocolate sprinkles, peppermint (candy canes), cinnamon and brownies. Simmer a big pot of Hot Chocolate (milk and chocolate sauce) so each family member can come back for seconds, thirds, or more as the evening progresses. This is a great way to enjoy something pleasant as a family when you all still have a lot of responsibilities to attend to (hello finals and Christmas present wrapping).
- Christmas Classics –Gather together and watch a favorite Christmas movie. Pop popcorn and indulge in some Christmas cookies and candy. Wear matching pajamas and have a roaring fire, then sit back and laugh or cry to an all-time fam. fav.
- Epic Snowball Fight – Oh, the weather outside is frightful, which means it’s the perfect time to head outside and have a massive snowball fight. If you have enough people in your family, split into two teams. Before it gets dark, have each team build a fort. Place a stocking between the two forts. As soon as the sun sets, put on glow sticks or flashlights and play “capture the stocking” in the dark. Whoever gets hit by a snowball has to go to jail until a teammate rescues him or her. The loosing team must fill the stocking FULL of goodies for the winners (who will naturally share the prize).
- Ornament – Draw names, then shop or create an ornament for that person. The ornament has to correlate with something that happened in their lives this year. Go shopping together to find the perfect ornament for each family member. Or, if you’re going to make ornaments, have a variety of craft supplies available and sit around the kitchen table listening to Christmas music and chatting. There are great DIY resources and sites to help you get ideas if you’re having a hard time thinking of something. When everyone’s done, let the recipient hang the ornament on the tree so the new decoration can be enjoyed.
- Give A Little – Volunteering or buying gifts for the less fortunate is a very apropos activity for this time of year. Rather than just going to a soup kitchen with your youth group, schedule an outing with your entire family. Don’t just rely on your mom to pick up a gift, shop for an entire family as a family. If you can, find a way to give that compliments the character of people in your family so you can more directly relate to what it might be like to receive help from someone just like you.
- Play Secret Santa –Why not play a game of secret Santa with your family? Make sentimental homemade cards and gifts and exchange them between one another throughout the month. On Christmas Eve, reveal who was whose Secret Santa!
Spending time with your family during the Christmas season is a great way to demonstrate your love. How we love others is a gift we receive from our family. With plenty of quirky and cute activities to do, you’re sure to have a heartwarming blast! Connect with us online and tell us what you and your family did together to celebrate the season by using the hashtag #FamilyFun.
