There’s no question that the holiday season will be very different this year – but there’s no reason you can’t have a fun Christmas at home.

Here is a list of 12 great activities for the whole family to make sure your holidays are memorable, whatever COVID throws at us!

1. Have a Christmas-themed scavenger hunt

Make lists of items that everyone has to look for in the house and around the yard. You can make it a competition to see who finds everything first, or work together as a team to check everything off the list if your kids are younger. Include things like a star, something green, a photo of yourself, a pinecone, something glittery, etc. You might even require older or tech-crazy kids to take pictures of what they find.

2. Make greetings videos for friends and family

This year, we won’t get to visit everyone we’d like to see for the holidays, so why not have everyone put on their best Christmas outfit a few days before Christmas, gather in front of the Christmas tree, and make personalized greetings videos for friends and family? Let you kids help you decide who you’ll send them to and what to say.

3. Have a Christmas bake-off

Why not have some friendly competition in the kitchen and hold a Christmas bake-off? Divide your family into groups and have each one whip up a Christmas-themed baked good and see which one your family likes best.

4. Have a Christmas card-making session

Gather your best craft paper and decorations and set up a card-making session. Let your kids’ creativity run loose, or look online for inspiration. Consider fun twists like pop-up cards or cards with windows. You can work together or individually and make an afternoon out of it.

5. Make your own snow globes

Who doesn’t love a snow globe? It’s easy to make your own with mason jars, a simple tree or snowman ornament, water, glitter, clear glue and a glue gun – you can find instructions here.

6. Gingerbread house

Decorating a gingerbread house is a classic and fun Christmas at home activity, and this year you can go all out with decorations thanks to all that extra free time. Work on a big one as a family, or have each person make their own.

7. Make salt dough ornaments

Festive and easy enough for those non-crafty mums to pull off, you just need salt, flour and water to make cute salt dough ornaments you can decorate however you like. Get some inspiration here.

8. Play “What’s in Santa’s Hat?”

Fill up a cloth Santa hat with a bunch of small objects from around the house (a marble, a small figurine, a coin, a pinecone, a bell, etc.) If you don’t happen to have a Santa hat, a stocking or even just a bag will also work. Close it tightly and have everyone try to guess everything inside just by feeling the outside of it. Whoever’s list is the most complete and accurate wins!

9. Have a craft day

Designate a day to doing holiday crafts with your family. There are tons of age-appropriate ideas online. Whatever you make can serve as Christmas decorations or table centrepieces for years to come – or perhaps even as homemade gifts.

10. Play Holiday Pictionary

Make a list of Christmas words for your family to draw, then cut it up into little slips and place each one in a bag, stocking or Santa hat. Then grab a whiteboard or some printer paper and markers, set a timer, and pick a slip. Guessing what each person is drawing is always good for lots of laughs!

11. Have a family slumber party under the tree

Sleepovers with friends might be out of the question this holiday season, but nothing’s stopping you from grabbing your sleeping bags and falling asleep against the magical backdrop of the twinkling lights of your Christmas tree! Serve up your favourite camping dish to get the full effect.

12. Cut paper snowflakes

You only need white paper and scissors to make paper snowflakes, and this is fun for kids of all ages (using age-appropriate scissors, of course!). There are lots of tutorials online that show you how to make really elaborate creations that older kids will be proud of.

13. Enjoy Esplora’s Christmas Science Advent Calendar

Nina and I are having a blast with this! For the first time ever, Esplora have come up with a free, online Christmas Science Advent Calendar. All you need to do to get your hands on your Advent calendar and enjoy 25 days of pure fun is this:
– Download the calendar here
– Print it (we stuck it to a gold cardboard to make it festive and have it ‘stand’ on a shelf)
– Scan the QR code on the calendar everyday to see what’s in store
Take photos of your creations, because apparently there is a special gift on Christmas Day! 🙂

There are so many ways to enjoy the season without venturing out, and you may even find your family doing these activities year after year, even after the pandemic.

Here’s to a fun Christmas at home!

Love,

Nakita xxx