Christmas time is my absolute very favorite time of the year. I literally plan for it all year long. I love the traditions we do every year, and the new ones that we occasionally pick up as well. This year is going to look a little different than our norm, but I’m trying to find ways to keep our household festive and continue to build memories with our kids. So we decided to sit down with the kids and brainstorm some ideas for a Christmas bucket list. These are all the fun things that we want to do all month long to celebrate and these ideas don’t require group gatherings or a lot of public outings. Remember the kids helped me so some of the ideas are a little silly, but hey why not?!
- Drink Hot Cocoa with Marshmallows
- Wrap presents as a family
- Christmas crafts (see Pinterest for a gazillion ideas)
- Decorate the Christmas Tree
- Decorate the yard
- Pictures with Santa (Bass Pro Shop did an amazing job of socially distanced photos with Santa- plexiglass barrier and everything)
- Daddy dress up as Santa and give the kids a present (the kids obviously thought this one up)
- Grinch movie night with green popcorn (or mix in some green m&m’s)
- Play in the snow (We live in Texas so wishful thinking)
- Build a snowman
- Make ornaments
- Eat Christmas themed food (Owen requested a snowflake shaped poptart)
- Bake and Leave Santa cookies
- Make Gingerbread houses
- Sing Christmas songs together
- Snowball fight (again we live in Texas so this may be a cotton ball fight)
- Tell Christmas stories
- Make a fire in the fireplace
- Make gifts for friends
- Drop of some toys at a Blue Santa donation site
- Send donations to an orphanage
- Watch a Charlie Brown Christmas
- Drive around look at Christmas lights
- Write letters to Santa
- Read Christmas books
- Send Christmas cards (the kids really enjoyed helping me put on the address labels and stickers)
- Make Reindeer food and leave out for Santa’s reindeer on Christmas Eve
- Make Gingerbread house ornaments out of terra cotta pots
- Read Elf on the Shelf and wait for our Elf to do lots of fun things all month long
- Watch the movie Elf.
I hope that our list has inspired you to make time to do some special things as a family this holiday season. 2020 has been quite the year to navigate through but we hope each of you still manage to find joy in the small things and remember there’s always reason to celebrate.