The upside of the holiday season: your kids get off from school and you get to spend more time with them! The downside?... you have to figure out how to entertain them! The holidays are stressful enough without having to either brainstorm a million ideas for entertainment or surrendering yourself to the screens. Hopefully these ideas will give you a jumpstart, but it will be even more effective to ask your kids what they want to do. If they’re too young to come up with ideas, perhaps you can give them a couple options to choose between. Giving kids a sense of autonomy by inviting them to figure out how they want to spend their time will make them more engaged.
1) Involve them in holiday preparations like cooking and decorating.
Making gifts, decorations, holiday cards, and wrapping paper from scratch
Helping to plan the holiday dinner menu
Baking holiday desserts and decorating cookies
2) Volunteer together. Some examples are…
Serve food at a soup kitchen
Pick out food, toys, and/or coats for a charity drive together
Make holiday cards to drop off at a local senior home or hospital. Alternatively, you can do it through a program like Cardz For Kidz
3) Have an indoor picnic
Just because it’s winter time, doesn’t mean you have to miss out on picnicking! Put together a little snack plate, lay out a blanket, put on your favorite tunes and enjoy your picnic!
4) Paint snow
5) Set up a spa day
Who doesn’t love to be pampered? Make some hot cocoa, slice some cucumbers, and buy a couple face masks to treat your kids to their very own spa.
6) Check out events at your local library or YMCA
7) Go on a nature walk
For bonus points, look up a couple quick facts about local plants and animals to share!
We hope you find these suggestions helpful in keeping the kids entertained through creative activities during holiday breaks. Best of luck keeping them entertained and happy holidays!
