Christmas usually brings entire families together. It can be a great time to catch up with the siblings, nieces and nephews you don’t see too often. While it’s usually an exciting time for children, you should be prepared with ways to keep them entertained when the family isn’t eating, going to services or opening presents. Keep your children and their cousins occupied by showing them how to play a few Christmas-themed games.
Types
Christmas games can be simple variations on classic games, such as Christmas-themed Bingo. You can also play games that are special to your family, such as a Christmas time family trivia game, where family members have to rack their brains to remember just what presents Uncle Mike received last year. You can also take games commonly played at other holidays, such as an egg hunt or bobbing for apples and give them a Christmas twist–such as having a candy cane hunt.
Function
Although Christmas and the winter holidays can be joyous, spending so much time in close quarters with family can make people a bit antsy or snippy. Playing games helps to soothe things over, prevents both children and adults from arguing with each other, and may make the holiday time fly by. Playing games together can help your family bond, as you will more likely than not create a few silly moments together.
Time Frame
A good time for children to play games is immediately following the family meal. Gather up the children and set them up in the living room while the other adults clean up the meal. Have them play a short game that takes about a half hour. When the adults are finished cleaning up, they can join the children in playing a game or choose their own activity.
Prepare for Christmas
You may also want to have your children play games while you prepare for Christmas. Turn wrapping presents into a contest by seeing who can wrap a the fastest while still making the present look nice. As you bake cookies together, listen to Christmas music and play a game to see who can identify the songs first. If you have a partner and two or more children, you can have a stocking stuffing relay race. The team the stuffs the stocking first gets to keep it.
Quiet Games
Not all Christmas games need to be played with a large group of family members. If you can’t think of ways for your children to help you prepare for the holiday, give them some quiet games to play while you bake, cook or decorate. Have them work to see how many other words they can form from the letters in “Christmas.” They could also play Christmas Clue or 20 Questions, where you have to guess what holiday-themed object they are thinking about.
Photo Credit
- christmas presents under christmas tree image by Maria Brzostowska from Fotolia.com
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