Christmas is associated with a magical time when everything is possible. It is the time of year when a family gathers together in celebrating Christmas, talk about good old days, and spend the holy day with the nearest and dearest. It used to be like this, but today, humanity has faced a pandemic that it hasn’t seen in decades.
To stay healthy and keep loved ones, safe people maintain distance. This Christmas will be much different from what it used to be, but it does not mean that there will be no magic and love. We will have a great holiday ever, regardless of the situation!
Children are one of those who await holidays more than anything else. The idea of getting presents from Santa, having delicious meals, and meet up with the whole family makes little ones super excited. Therefore, your task is to bring happiness to your home and to have some of it for yourself!
Christmas has a deep religious meaning that unites billions of people all around the world. Although the day of Jesus’ birth is unknown, the church established the date 25th of December. This date corresponds to the winter solstice, according to the Roman calendar.
Christians celebrating Jesus’ birthday according to the traditions have traveled through time to our days. Apart from them, people all around the globe have developed Christmas traditions that are peculiar to a particular culture and nation.
Most of these traditions are listed below. I hope that they will help you create the best holiday for both you and your family.
Celebrating Christmas With Kids
Christmastime is a magical time of the year, and no one can prove me wrong! It is the time of miracles, presents, and family gatherings. Because of today’s situation, people can’t engage in all activities that this beautiful time of the year has to offer.
However, it does not mean that you cannot create a real holiday! Here are a few ways to celebrate a great Christmas together with your children.
Take Care of Yourself
It is the first thing you need to do. At times like this, make sure to pay enough attention to both your mental and physical health. Make sure that all of your family members are healthy and happy.
Decorate the Christmas Tree
I am not a fan of green color, but I start to adore all shades of it as soon as Christmas comes. A Christmas tree brings about magic, color, and holiday mood. Sometimes it feels that all I need is a good book, a cup of hot chocolate, and a colorful Christmas tree in front of me.
When it comes to decorating the Christmas tree, some people see it as one of the things they need to get done quickly to move on to more important tasks. Let me stop you right there!
Decorate the Christmas tree together with children, ask little ones where to hang decorations. You can turn this into a ritual or a sort of tradition. Get yourself some two free hours and enjoy the process of decorating the Christmas tree.
DIY Ornaments
Today it might be a little troublesome to go shopping before celebrating Christmas. There are two ways of what you can do: 1) you can buy Christmas tree ornaments online; 2) you can make them yourself. As for me, the second option is much better.
If you are looking for a way to keep children occupied or spend some quality time with them, you can suggest creating Christmas tree ornaments together. Find some ideas online or think of them yourselves.
Decorate the House
What can be better than a beautifully decorated house and fairytale-like rooms? Maybe a trip to Disneyland, but that’s not the point! Cut out snowflakes and iceman, hang them wherever you can, get Christmas lights, and decorate the porch, staircase, or anything you want. Let yourself and your family show their creative sides.
Gingerbread House
Personally, for me, the smell of gingerbread is my favorite. There is no holiday without it, and it is not a joke. Gingerbread house is the best and probably one of the safest ways to occupy a child of any age.
Find some time to help a little one decorate a home. It might come out messy and not very symmetric, but it does not matter. Praise a child for doing an excellent job and take a picture of both creator and creation in order to make beautiful memories.
“Go” Caroling
My relatives live far away from us, however, every year, my cousins call us on the phone and sing carols. Because COVID-19 is wandering around, it is not the best idea to go door to door caroling.
Therefore, use my cousin’s method – contact your relatives and friends, FaceTime them, call via Zoom, Skype, and other platforms that can help you connect with loved ones.
Christmas Lights Displays
Some people take decorating the house exceptionally seriously. If your neighbors or people in your town create a whole light show, then do not miss your chance to check it out!
Take your children in the car and go around to see the beauty that people create. Also, check on the internet if there are any big Christmas light displays near your town or somewhere close because it is worth seeing.
25 Days of Christmas and an Advent Calendar
Perhaps 25 Days of Christmas is one of the most versatile and exciting things a person has ever come up with. The beauty of this idea is in the fact that you can write down whatever you want into your 25-day calendar.
Some people write acts of kindness; some create Christmas traditions, which they follow every year. There are many ideas you can come up with or find on the internet.
Gather your family together and create your 25 Days of Christmas list. Let each member of the family express oneself, respect, and write down each idea. You will see how happy this will make all of you.
The same is with an Advent Calendar. You can make an Advent Calendar for one another so that you or other family members will not know what they will get.
Postcards and Letters
At times of social distancing, postcards and letters have great value. Text messages do not seem as warm as a letter with a written text. Handmade postcards are indeed the cutest thing that a person can do.
Therefore, write letters, make postcards together, and send them to family members that cannot be there with you. There is work for everyone. Children can decorate postcards and envelops while parents write wishes and put postcards into envelopes.
Celebrating Christmas is the time for miracles, but sometimes you need to become this miracle for someone else. Prepare some presents and clothes that you can donate, some food you can give, and some love you can share.
Make it a tradition in your family. Parents are role models for children. Therefore, show your kids that sharing is caring and that it is essential to be kind to people around.
Kindness Elves
Set out elves so that they could catch a member of a family and remind them about being kind. Children will like this idea and will be enthusiastic about finding them. Let each member of the family hide an elf so that everyone could participate in this activity.
Treasure Hunt
Who does not like taking on the role of Lara Croft or Professor Robert Langdon? The treasure hunt is what will bring excitement into your house and maybe a little bit of noise. Make a map, give leading questions, or makeup riddles.
Let your imagination do its best, and you will love the result. Admit that it is much more interesting than merely unwrapping a pile of gifts under the Christmas tree. Make it one of your Christmas traditions.
Christmas Party Dinner
For me, dinner is one of the best parts of celebrating Christmas feast. Loads of delicious food, burning candles, and a family gathered at the table make dinner even more delicious. Because of our today’s situation, it is almost impossible to get everyone together.
You can make a video call to those who cannot be there with you. Frankly speaking, I think that it is one of the best ways out of this situation. Also, because things are changing, and people adapt to the new way of life, you can try to stick to your “bubble.”
By this, I mean that you can invite close people who take care of their family’s health and put all efforts to stay safe. Safety comes first!
DIY Gifts
I am one of those people who like giving gifts more than receiving them. DIY gifts are exceptional because the person puts one’s time in making it, creativity and love. Believe me that no one will dedicate time and effort to someone who means nothing.
Kids love DIY because they can create a gift for a family member without spending money (that they most certainly would have taken from you) and bring smiles to parents’ faces.
Don’t Stress Out
In attempts to make things perfect, parents often create a long list of things to do for the Christmas Eve celebration. These things seem small, like making gifts, baking cookies, and other things.
Creative work, whatever it is, needs a lot of time. Therefore, do not stress yourself out by trying to fit all of the plans into one holiday. Make an accent on having fun and doing what you can, rather than doing all things at once.
Gift Limits
Children love toys, and the more, the better. Parents often buy many toys, which a child will be excited about for a day or two. The thing is that you can buy 3-4 god toys for a child, rather than ten useless but pretty.
Establish some boundaries and stick to them. You will see that this approach saves your money, space and that children can live without some things.
Besides, when speaking about toddlers, we can say for sure that they do not need all of the toys they point at in the supermarket. It is best if you buy a child a cool busy bag.
A busy bag bag is what you need. It is specially designed to keep a little one busy so that you could have some free time.
Unpack the toys
It is a good idea if you have little kids. Sometimes children spend more time unpacking the toy rather than playing with it. Therefore, you can unpack toys, and children will play with them right away.
Besides, it saves you energy in the morning and gives you time to have some coffee instead of sheepishly ripping apart boxes to get the toy out.
Distractions
There are many activities that a whole family can do together. However, there are also things that you need to do on your own because it is faster and more comfortable this way. Therefore, think of the activities that a child could do.
These can be some games, a busy bag, DIY crafts, playdates, etc. You can make a game out of anything, just be creative. Besides, you can use some of this time to relax.
Grab a Bite
It is almost impossible for people like me to go more than an hour without a little snack. Children are the same because they need to grab a bite if you want them to be more obedient. Parents often don’t give children too much to eat if they will be having a big Christmas feast.
However, it is not the best idea because the hungrier child is the naughtier a little one gets. Therefore, give children little snacks leading up to the big Christmas Eve celebration. Also, don’t forget to eat yourself! You need a lot of energy and positivity to prepare everything for the festival.
Calm
Bright lights and loud sounds stimulate children. They can get overexcited and hyperactive in a blink of an eye. Therefore, create a soothing and calm environment so that you could work without any pressure.
Let Frank Sinatra and Dean Martin play quietly on the background and enjoy the process. The more you rush and worry, the harder the work becomes, so don’t stress yourself out.
Also, lower your expectations a bit. We are not in a Disney movie, where everything is magical. Something WILL go wrong, for it is inevitable. It is almost a Christmas tradition.
Therefore, forget about the perfect way of celebrating Christmas Eve and accept all its downfalls as much as you would bright moments.
Follow the Routine
Small kids love to misbehave, especially when holidays come. They have tons of energy, wish to run around and play. Unfortunately, you don’t have that much time to follow a kid everywhere it goes.
Therefore, remember about routine. Try not to miss nap times and meal times. You know how hard it is to create a routine and how easy it can ruin it. So be sure to stick to it.
Make Memories
“Hold on, I’ll take a picture!” a friend of mine repeats this phrase every 10-15 minutes. She loves taking pictures and making memories. However, I believe that in this way, she loses more than gains.
Because it is easy to take out a phone and take pictures, we often don’t bother about capturing the moment in our memory. Why would we?
We have it on our phone, so there is no need to make a brain capture it. Therefore, choose only a handful of moments you want to capture and leave the rest of the celebration to leave its imprint in your memory.
Connect
At a time like this, a connection is everything. Now we know the real value of face-to-face communication, hugs, and handshakes. Funny how we start appreciating things only after we lose them.
Connect with your family, celebrate online with those who can’t be there with you, with your friends and relatives. Create an online Christmas Eve party and talk about the good days.
Final Word
Nothing can prevent Earth from spinning, time from going forward, and people from celebrating. Life goes on, and so do we. Regardless of the danger we are in today, there are many ways to keep ourselves safe and happy. All you need to do is to put some effort and share the love.
The days are becoming shorter and chilly wind urges us to wear warm clothes. Everything is screaming that the winter holidays are on their way, and it is not long before they finally arrive. Make sure to go through Christmas traditions and ideas to make celebrating Christmas Eve one of the greatest you have had.
Therefore, start preparing as soon as the time comes, let creativity and feeling of happiness overwhelm you, share moments with nearest and dearest and perpetuate the moments in your memory. After all, happy memories are one of these things that keep us going. Mary Christmas, guys!
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