Hope you're having a magnificent week! Are your kids bored already for Winter break? Or do they need some time away from the video games? I’m here to share a couple of fun activities to bring joy and fun to your home.
1. Christmas/Holiday Scavenger hunt - kids and adults love a good scavenger hunt. Have them find 10 items around the house with clues like “Find something shaped like a candy cane, find something with Santa on it, etc.”
2. Bake & decorate - it’s always a fun time to bake cookies and decorate them as well as gingerbread houses. You can even make it a challenge for the best tasting cookie and most festive cookie with themes like Christmas tree, snowman, and even ugly sweater.
3. Swiper - I changed the name but the game’s the same. This is formally known as Rob Your Neighbor. Give each player a die (dice) and each time they roll a (six), they get to select/swipe a gift from another player (their neighbor).
4. Saran ball - this is always super fun where you put on oven mitts or socks on your hands and try to unwrap the Saran ball until the next player rolls a 5 on the die.
5. Holiday party on Christmas Eve & New Year‘s Eve - Yes this year is different and no this isn’t your typical average party, but you can call it that to get the kids excited. Your household can make hot chocolate, stuff stockings, watch holiday movies, play movie bingo, bake cookies, and play all of the games above. Throw on some matching pajamas or costumes to make it more fun.
6. HouseParty app - I definitely recommend that children be supervised on this app when in use to avoid entering any unchartered territory but this app is tons of fun for kids & adults! You can virtually link up with relatives or your favorite buddies, see their face on video, and play games like UNO, Karaoke, Trivia, Word Racers, and more!
7. Take Down the Tree - Sounds like a tedious task? Add a little fun to it for the kiddos. Make a challenge like “the person who takes off/collects the most ornaments off the tree wins!” or “who can roll up the ribbon the fastest and neatest?”. Have candy canes left on the tree? Get creative with them and make cool crafts with them. You can play the game of SPOONS with them (here’s a Pinterest link for a better idea of the game https://pin.it/7ex7pEV) Also, you can make nice Happy New Year cards and attach the candy canes to them and drop them off at a volunteer center or senior living facility to bring some holiday cheer to someone.
8. Classic Board Games - Remember games like Trouble, Connect Four, Checkers? This is the perfect time to whip those out and spend time as a family. They even have ways to play some online and compete against relatives or friends that are of course away for the holidays. What better way to connect. I‘ve even seen the “remix” to the game Guess Who where you can tape or glue on face pics of family members to cover the game people just to make it more fun, nostalgic, and relatable. “Are you Aunt Rita or Uncle Bernie?”
9. Fashion show - Got some new outfits for Christmas? Try them on and out on your own fashion show! It’ll be fun. Since we don’t have anywhere to go, we can at least prep for it right? Change your hairstyle with each clothing change, throw on a hat to accent. Whatever you choose, have a great time with it.
10. Paint - You can purchase a canvas for less than $5 or just use cardstock or cardboard to trace an image and paint it in with acrylic paint. I printed some fun coloring sheets like of Super Mario and other characters, put it behind the canvas so I could see through it and traced it. The kids had lots of fun painting the picture with colors of their choice. You can also find some pretty cool Virtual Paint Parties where the host artist guides everyone on the call through painting their custom masterpiece! Fun for all ages.
And if you’re looking to get out of the house, go for a drive to see all the beautiful lights. Make it a fun experience as I show in my video here.https://youtu.be/LFLjDQNntDc
Happy Holidays & Have a Happy New Year!
Yo! Mama Mesh