Making Your Kid-Filled Holidays Easier
Guest post by Shanna
The holidays are filled with family, fun, and making memories. Along with all the good times, family gatherings are also usually filled with lots of cooking, cleaning and rambunctious children. Depending on where you live, you might could send the kids outside until dinner is ready or after they’re done eating; however, most of the time, around Christmas, the weather is not the best for outdoor playtime. In order to make your holidays with children (and to maintain your sanity) easier, here are some ideas to keep them entertained.
Before dinner:
- Decorate cookies – Use some help from the grocery store and purchase some break-and-bake sugar cookies, frosting, and sprinkles. Set the kids at a table and allow them to decorate their own dessert.
- Help with baking – For older children, let them help frost the baked goods, sprinkle the coconut on the cake, or place the marshmallows on the sweet potato soufflé.
- Prep the table – If you eat family style, let the kids help set the table. Show them an example of how one place setting is supposed to look like, and let them complete the rest themselves. If the napkins aren’t perfectly folded corner to corner or the salad fork and dinner fork are swapped, it will be just fine. Just make them feel special and announce whose job it was to set the table. Another easy job – placing ice in the glasses.
After dinner games:
- Pin the nose on Rudolph – Instead of a donkey, put a picture of Rudolph up on the wall, cut out red circles with each kid’s initials on them for his nose, and some tape and you have a game.
- Santa Says – Instead of Simon, let Santa give directions on what to do. Draw straws on who gets to lead first.
- Traveling with Santa – This memory game is a classic take on Going to Grandma’s by incorporating the holiday spirit. Have the kids sit in a circle and each one recite, “Santa invited me to ride in his sleigh, and I’m taking…” Start with something that begins with the letter A for the first participant. The next participant repeats the saying, says the first participant’s item and adds something of their own that begins with the letter B and so on…
- Frosty Dash – Cut carrots out of orange construction paper. Put some Vaseline on the ends of noses and stick on a carrot and play a relay back and forth with two teams. If the carrot falls off, return to home and replenish with more Vaseline. The first team to finish wins.
This article was written exclusively for www.momdoesreviews.com by LowCountry Barbecue, proud to be a leading Atlanta caterer, serving families during the holidays for over 25 years. LowCountry specializes in events, big or small, across the country; no location is too far and no party is too much.
