It’s that magical time of the year, when families and friends come together and enjoy the festivities. With so much advice available, choosing any or all of these 5 parenting tips for a happy Christmas will help.
1) Holiday Storytime
Who doesn’t love a good story? Stories abound during the Christmas season. You can either read a traditional one such as “Twas the Night Before Christmas” or make-up your own. If you cannot decide on one, take a poll of your family to see what story they think would be the most fun and entertaining. Set the atmosphere by setting out some freshly baked holiday cookies and mugs of hot cocoa or apple cider. Schedule a time during the day or evening to gather everyone together. When reading a story, remember to be animated to keep your children’s attention and spark their curiosity.
You can also form a holiday storytelling circle. Place chairs into a chair and have everyone sit in a chair. Start a holiday-related story. You begin the festivities by making the introduction. Then, shift the story to the person sitting on your right. Have them contribute 2-4 sentences to develop the plot. Do this until everyone has contributed to the story. It would be fun to video record your storytelling circle so you can play it during next year’s celebration.
2) Baking Cookies
Children love to pitch in and feel like they are part of the holiday season. One of the five parenting tips for a happy Christmas involves putting your children to use in the kitchen. Children love the cookie baking process by mixing the batter, taking the cookies off the cookie sheet and preparing pretty holiday plates full of these homemade delights. Be sure to properly supervise your children so no one gets hurt. Younger children can feel important by emulating what you are doing with plastic silverware. For instance, if you are cutting cookie dough into slices, have your little one hold a plastic knife and pretend they are doing the cutting.
What child doesn’t love to decorate cookies? There is no risk involved, either. After taking the cookies out of the oven, let them cool and give your kid a tube filled with icing. Let the creative juices start by having your kid decorate the cookies as they see fit. Sprinkling on some colored sugar is another decorating delight that can easily be done by children of all ages.
3) Enjoy Music
Christmas music abounds only at this special time of year. Have a sing-a-long time. Gather your family together, hand out tune lyrics and start the home concert. Remember to state that there is no such thing as singing poorly. Who knows, you may have a future professional singer among your ranks. Start the song and encourage everyone to join in.
You can also put on your favorite Christmas recording and have everyone do some karaoke to it. Or, just sing as a group. It depends on your preferences.
4) Encourage Present Opening
Another tip for a happy Christmas involves having one gift opened on the night before Christmas. This can not only increase excitement and joy, but can calm down the children enough to rest through the night. Decide upon two gifts that the children can open. You want to save the best for Christmas, you know.
5) Sharing
Remember that your one of 5 tips for a happy Christmas needs to concentrate on sharing with others. Teaching your children this at an early age teaches teamwork, empathy and compassion for others. Let your children see how happy they make others by placing others first. Go to a retirement community and have your children take some balloons or a homemade craft item. Many seniors are in retirement homes and this can be an especially lonely time of the year for them. Taking joy in watching the seniors’ faces light up from the attention and gifts can leave a lasting impression on your children.
A guest post by Michelle Pratt from AuPair.org
