Sing Mad Libs-Style Christmas Carols
Sing Mad Libs-Style Christmas Carols
We all know why family holiday traditions are important -- they help your little unit feel extra close and make the days feel extra fun (even magical) for your kids. Whether you’ve got a new(ish) family and are looking for new ideas or you’re just sick of the same old cookies-and-carols routine, we've got fun, creative traditions you can make your own.
Sing Mad Libs-Style Christmas Carols
Print out copies of your kids' favorite Christmas carols or Hanukkah songs, but blank out some of the words. Then play Mad Libs: have your kids pick any adjective, noun or adverb and fill in the blanks. "Oh what fun it is to ride in a one-horse open sleigh" becomes "Oh what fun it is to dance in a three-dragon open cave." We guarantee giggles. Take it one step further and serenade the neighbors: if they’ve got a sense of humour, of course. (For an even easier way to play, buy a book of pre-prepped holiday Mad Libs:Christmas Carol Mad Libs: Very Merry Songs & Stories.
Invite Santa to Your House
Invite Santa to Your House
The lines to snap a photo with Santa at the mall are ridiculously long -- and when it's finally your kid’s turn, Santa doesn't exactly have time to chat. The solution? Do what American mom Cherlyn Feirabend did: "I invited friends and family to our house for a potluck breakfast and a visit from Santa," she says. "I didn't intend for it to become tradition, but the first time we did, it was such a hit, I knew it would [stick]."
Yep, there are Santas for hire all over the country: a quick search online should lead you to a reputable agency. Then follow Feirabend's lead and set up a tripod with a camera and have Santa spend quality time with each of the kids. Take tonnes of shots, email them to the moms later and send everyone home with a goody bag.
Wrap Up Your Holiday Books
Wrap Up Your Holiday Books
Want to celebrate all season long, and spend some sweet quality time together? "Take each of your holiday books and wrap them in holiday paper," says mom Meg Cox, author of The Book of New Family Traditions, who slips a wrapped book under the tree every day during the holiday season for her son to find at night. "Even though it was a book he had read before, having it wrapped makes it seem new and exciting, and we snuggle on the sofa and read that book together," she says.
Adopt a Tradition from Your Heritage
Adopt a Tradition from Your Heritage
Look to your heritage for tradition inspiration: Make an ornate Nativity scene like they do in the Middle East. Have a party with pinatas like in Mexico. Or have your little girl wear a wreath of (flameless) candles on her head, like in Sweden. Or try a cultural dish: Danish roast goose, Grecian leg of lamb, Irish oyster stew, Jewish latkes, sweet Czech Christmas bread or an Italian pastry.
Give Your Tree a Different Colour Theme Each Year
Give Your Tree a Different Colour Theme Each Year
Let's face it, most of our Christmas trees are a hodgepodge: random ornaments, lights we grabbed from the drugstore, a star that Grandma passed down. This year, try something different: Keep the classic white lights, silver tinsel and gold ornaments, but do the rest of the decorations in a fun colour scheme: think pink and blue, or orange and yellow! Even if it's just a tabletop tree, your kids will have more fun finding (or making!) ornaments in the wacky colours.
Have an 'I'm Thankful' Jar
Have an 'I'm Thankful' Jar
Each day, ask your family members to think of something they're thankful for, write it on a piece of paper and put it in a jar. At the end of the month, pull out the papers and read out what you've all been grateful for all season long.
Create a Scavenger Hunt
Create a Scavenger Hunt
Putting gifts underneath the Christmas tree or next to the fireplace is so obvious -- turn finding them into an adventure by creating a scavenger hunt. If you've got toddlers or preschoolers, make fake footprints and write 'clues' from Santa that lead to the presents. For older kids, write out riddles they have to decode, like "Hot dogs are good and popcorn is fun, with one push of the button the cooking is done," which will lead them to the microwave, where you've hidden a gift.
Play Hooky With Your Hubby
Play Hooky With Your Hubby
Take a weekday this month and play hooky. Take the baby to daycare (or grandma's) and do something fun together: just the two of you, like the "old days." It could be holiday shopping, looking at decorations downtown, drinking wine at a hotel lobby near a fireplace, sipping hot chocolate at a coffee shop... you get the idea. Do anything that makes you feel good and gives you both a chance to enjoy the season; and each other.
Make Cookies with a Different Theme Each Year
Make Cookies with a Different Theme Each Year
Shake up your annual cookie-baking tradition each year: let kids pick a cookie cutter they love and take it from there. If your 3-year-old picks a duck, do a barnyard theme. He picks a fish? Go with a cool, blue under-the-sea motif. (Who cares if they don't immediately scream "holiday"?)
Catch the Reaction
Catch the Reaction
Pass around the camera and take a photo of each person's face as he or she opens a gift. Print out the picture, then put it in an album with the description of the present -- and the person’s reaction -- next to it. Have fun writing silly captions: "Luke, cringing at this year’s pair of hand-knitted bright orange wool socks from Aunt Marge" or "Woo hoo -- Sponge Bob!"
Have a Kids-Pick Day
Have a Kids-Pick Day
Can't decide on a new tradition? Let your kids think of one: help the children choose a meal they want to cook, an activity they want to do, or a song they want to sing. Make sure you do one thing from each child's list. (If they can't think of anything, offer a few of the suggestions we've mapped out here!)
Commemorate Each Year With a New Ornament
Commemorate Each Year With a New Ornament
This tip is perfect for time-strapped mamas who want a keepsake for years to come. "Each year, our boys get a new Christmas ornament," says Stephanie Vozza, author of The Five- Minute Moms' Club: 105 Tips to Make Mom's Life Easier. "Last year one of my sons chose an ornament of a drum because he plays in the school band. The other chose a hockey puck ornament because of his hockey team. When my boys get old enough to have their own homes, they will take these ornaments with them. I hope they share the story of why each was chosen with their own kids." And because malls are teeming with stores that sell ornaments, some under $5, this tradition is easy and affordable.
Make a Yearly Photo Ornament
Make a Yearly Photo Ornament
With online photo processing sites like Kodak Gallery and Shutterfly, it's super easy to make personalized holiday ornaments, even if you're not the crafty type. Doing it yourself is a breeze, too: Let your kids take the family photos themselves and hand-make ornaments using those pictures:they can glue on a popsicle-stick frame, old-school style. "It's okay if it's a close-up of someone's elbow the first year," children's singer Deborah Poppink says. "Ornaments are more than decorations; they're memories in miniature."
Give Back Together
Give Back Together
Part of the holiday spirit is giving to others, right? It's wonderful to teach our children to help those less fortunate. One mom we know has her child pick out 10 of his favorite toys at the toy store; she buys them and they donate them to Toys for Tots. One family volunteers at a soup kitchen. Another chooses a charity and each person gives part of their salary or allowance!
Get Creative With Chocolate Hanukkah Coins
Get Creative With Chocolate Hanukkah Coins
Celebrating Hanukkah? One mom puts chocolate gelt in her kids' slippers every night during Hanukkah. If you have older kids, try making your own gelt to play dreidel with -- it becomes a fun craft. Another idea: make a gelt box -- a cardboard box "piggy bank" -- for your kids' gelt, suggests Noam Zion and Barbara Spectre in A Different Light: The Hanukkah Book of Celebration. Or make felt change purses, perfect for storing all the gelt they receive this season.
Leave Behind Extra Santa
Leave Behind Extra Santa "Evidence"
Most kids leave cookies and milk out for Santa... and most parents make sure the glass of milk is empty and the cookie has a bite out of it. But go beyond the typical: Have Santa leave candy canes in the fridge next to the milk carton. "Show the children that Santa must have been thirsty and wanted more milk to go with the cookies you left him," says Poppink. And "wow, he left candy canes in the fridge to show how much he appreciated it!" Those extra touches can make your kids' day extra magical.
Send a Card to Someone Who Might Be Lonely
Send a Card to Someone Who Might Be Lonely
From military personnel to nursing home residents, there are many people who might not get much mail this holiday season. How about sending a parcel or lettermail to Canadian Forces abroad? Canada Post sends these packages and letters out for free, and though the deadline for guaranteed Christmas delivery is past, they will continue to deliver for free until December 2013. There's never a bad time to send a parcel.
Look here for more details:
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/commun/message/index-eng.asp
Put a New Twist On an Old-School Gingerbread House
Put a New Twist On an Old-School Gingerbread House
Sure, you can find some fun new ways to decorate your gingerbread house: Use cotton candy as chimney smoke or snow, make marshmallow-and-pretzel-stick snowmen, have Sour Patch Kids in your yard and a pond filled with Goldfish. Want a completely new challenge? Make something out of gingerbread that's not a house at all: maybe a train, a Santa sleigh, a robot or a snowman!
Write Letters to Each Other
Write Letters to Each Other
Instead of a Secret Santa, save money and write each other letters. They can be funny or sweet, short or long. The best part about this one? After you seal them, put them away until next year. Each holiday season, you'll enjoy reading the new ones from the previous year. (And if your kid can't write yet, drawings are just as good!)
Host a Holiday Craft-Making Party
Host a Holiday Craft-Making Party
At some point this holiday season, your home is going to be filled with construction paper Santas or glittery dreidels, paper snowflakes and popsicle stick ornaments -- so why not make creating those crafts its own celebration? Host a crafting party for your friends and their kids and supply the materials for each child to make one special holiday decoration.
More from iVillage.ca:
- Get Ready! 10 Best Advent Calendars 2012
- Winter Crafts for Children: 20 Easy Ideas!
- 23 Easy Cookie Recipes
- Winter-Inspired Baby Names for Boys & Girls
- Candy Land Gingerbread House
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