As the holiday season
ramps up towards Christmas, kids’ excitement reaches a boiling point with their
anticipation of the gifts they’ll receive and all the fun they’ll get to have.
For parents, the challenges are just beginning because when kids have too much
time on their hands, they often get bored and restless. When they’re restless,
bad things can happen. Therefore, as a parent,
you must plan out the activities in an organized manner to avoid this scenario
and have a happy holiday season.
Here are a few fun
ways to ensure that kids stay entertained and occupied during their vacation
time.
Get the Decorations Up
Some children look
forward to the trip to go out and buy the Christmas tree. Just picking out the tree
is the beginning of Christmas for many kids. Take out the box of decorations
that haven't seen the light of day since
last year and assign tasks to your son(s) and daughter(s) based on their age
and sense of responsibility. Let the kids untangle the Christmas tree lights that will be in knots by now. Another kid can
carefully extract the hanging decorations that will string along the walls. The
Christmas tree ornaments are also in the box somewhere and a star or Angel for
the top of the tree too.
When messing with the
Christmas lights, make sure the kids don’t plug them into the power outlet
unsupervised. Be gentle when untangling the lights because they’re fragile and
easily broken. Also, if you assign a kid to hang up the decorations on the wall, make sure they’re not climbing dangerously
on the furniture to do so.
Choosing a Face
Smaller kids may enjoy
trying out the RageMaker.net site which has many types of drawn faces based
on different emotions from happy to angry to sad or enthusiastic. They can take
the faces on the site and try to hand draw them with the parents judging the
winner and awarding a prize.
Playing in the Snow
If you’re lucky enough
to live in an area that gets plenty of snow each year, then make sure you take
advantage of it. Sledding down the hill, building a snowman with a carrot for a nose,
or having a snowball fight is all part of the chilly experience.
Make sure the kids are
wrapped up warm before they go out. You don’t want any cold fingers and toes leading
to them getting a cold, which would really spoil the fun of the holidays.
Cooking a Christmas Meal Together
Learning to cook is a
skill that too few adults know by the time they’ve grown up and left home.
Getting everyone involved in preparing the Christmas meal is a good time to
work as a family unit with the whole family pitching in. Whether that means
someone is peeling the potatoes and another older kid is cleaning the
vegetables, assign tasks that they can learn from and aim to add new more
advanced tasks every year, so older teenagers will eventually be taking the
lead. If you add in some of their favorite foods, you’re more likely to get their
cooperation too.
Keeping the kids happy
and busy during the holiday season avoids them getting up to no good when they’re
too idle. Join in with the games they invent or want to try for the first time
to encourage their experimentation under your careful supervision.
