81 Ideas to do with
your Family, for Christmas.
By Patty Getz
editor@frugal-families.com
http://www.frugal-families.com
Christmas is about so
much more than presents and parties, and yet, each year, that is
the focus that we as a society place on it. Christmas has become a
stress for some, and financial hardship for others. Where there
used to be a holiday, to celebrate Family, we have some how lost
touch with our roots, and a meaningful soulful Christmas.
Following is a list of of Ideas that cost little or no money, that
you can do with your family this Christmas. Set aside some time,
and lets all get back to the basics of Christmas. Take this list,
and let each family member choose one, and then set aside an
evening, for each activity, you will be surprised and amazed how
much this will Change your and your families outlook on Christmas.
1)Make a popcorn
Garland
2)Make garland with
construction paper
3)Watch Christmas
shows together with hot Chocolate and popcorn
4)Make Decorating the
the tree a family event, serve hot chocolate and play Christmas
music
5)Make your own Christmas cards to send to people
6)Go Christmas
shopping at the the Dollar Store And Donate to a charity for
Christmas Gifts
7)Donate Clothes or toys for needy children
8)Make a Snowman
9)Have a snowball
fight
10)Make a ginger bread
house out of graham crackers and what ever you have in the house.
11)Paint Christmassy pictures on the windows with washable paint
12)Make a game out of
hunting around the house, for things to make christmas decorations
out of.
13)Build a fire, and
have a slumber party with your kids
14)Bake and decorate
cookies
15)have a wrapping
party
16)Plan to share a
plate of goodies with any elderly or young parents in the
neighborhood
17)Go Caroling
18)Go for a drive and see who wins for the best lights in town.
Make an award for the winner and present it to them.
19)Attend a Live Nativity.
20)Take a Special
drive at night to enjoy others Christmas lights!
21)invite your children's friends over to make cards or gifts for
their parents
22)go collect pine
cones and use them to make ornaments
23)make bird treat
with peanut butter and birdseed
24)sing Christmas
carols
25)have the kids write
and act out a Christmas play
26)go to the library
and borrow Christmas videos and books
27) have a game night
28)take a walk or
drive around a neighborhood that has their houses all lit up and
decorated
29)shovel the snow for
your elderly neighbors
30)read one Christmas
short story each night before bed
31)Write Christmas
letter to all the relatives with the kids all telling what they
have been up to in their own words
32)go sledding (a
personal favorite) and come back to the house for hot cider and
hot chocolate (we do this and invite the kid's friends to join us)
33)Take a picture of the kids in front of the Christmas tree, and
make it a yearly tradition.
34) Visit the local nursing home and present some of the residents
with homemade Christmas cards.
35)Do a random act of kindness for a neighbor that you know is
sick or feeling down, like take them a plate of cookies or some
homemade ornaments.
36)Attend a Church service together
37)Invite an older
person/couple for a holiday meal
38)Have a campout night, and sleep in sleeping bags under your
lighted christmas tree or some christmas lights.
39)Make up a Christmas
scavenger hunt.
40)Watch the all the videos or home movies of Christmas. Or, look
at all the photos from Christmas.
41)Make some ornaments
42)color some
Christmas pages together
43)share a favorite
Christmas memory
44)Help your local church/library/community center organize a
special holiday reading of twas the night before Christmas, A
Christmas Carol, etc. Invite seniors/families. Maybe get a local
store to donate some cookies or cocoa.
45)Have a birthday
celebration, complete with cake, and birthday decorations.
46)We make a video of
ourselves decorating the tree, making cookies, singing Christmas
carols and telling the Christmas story. then we make copies of it
for all the far off relatives (beats a humdrum letter).
47)Volunteer as a
family for the local shelter or nursing home.
48)Have your dks make
Christmas cards or snowflakes and take them to the local nursing
home.
49)Organize your scout
troop or Sunday school or homeschool group and go caroling at a
nursing home.
50)Scout or youth
group could also offer to paint the windows of local businesses
for the holiday with washable paint.
60)Ask the local
supermarket if your youth group or older kids can help carry
groceries out for senior citizens. Those turkeys are heavy to pick
up and put in the car!
61)Help sort food for
a food pantry that does food baskets for the holiday.
62)Make paper
snowflakes to decorate your windows
63)Organize or
volunteer to work in a Christmas wrap booth that gives the
proceeds to charity -
64)volunteer as food
servers at shelters that provide christmas/thanksgiving dinners
65)light up your
walkway/driveway with handmade luminaries
66)collect pine boughs
and pine cones and make wreaths - can be shared at nursing homes
or with elderly ones nearby
67)We decorate our
stocking each year. I buy the ones from the Dollar Store,
andwhatever we wish to decorate with. Last year we used sticky
faom shapes, this year we used glitter glue pens
68)Get out your old
records - or borrow your parents- and listen to the Golden oldie
Christmas songs from your youth, and share the memories of
Christmas past with your children
69)Learn about
different cultures celebrate Christmas.... and about what they did
years ago.
70)Sing silly
Christmas songs with your kiddos... (Grandma got ran over by a
reindeer)
71)Find an angel tree
and have your kids help pick out a toy for the needy childs name
on the angel tree.
72)Make a manger scene
out of playdough or clay or even construction paper. Whatever is
handy.
73)Create a calendar
that the kids can mark off the days til Christmas.
74)Have a Christmas Past, Present and Future evening/afternoon.
Get out your photo albums/scrapbooks and talk about Christmas
Past, remembering those who are no longer here to share it with
us; for Christmas Present, discuss what one thing makes Christmas
special for each person; for Christmas Future, talk about your
hopes and dreams for the coming years ahead.
74)Make Christmas
gifts for your family's pet and other relative's pets.
75)Take a little
Christmas tree and decorate it with your pet's toys and set it in
the livingroom with your bigger tree - just for the pets! Wrap up
some treats and place them under the pet's tree, too, like a small
can of some fancy cat food or a package of doggie treats.
(Hopefully the dog won't tear it apart to get at it until
Christmas day.
76)Let the kids make
their own stockings out of felt and stocking "packages" out of
paper grocery sacks to put gifts for others in.
77)Gingerbread people
made out of brown grocery sacks are very cute, too and inexpensive
and make great tags on presents and ornaments for a tree or
wreath. You could glue on google eyes and a small candy cane to
the gingerbread people, too and make them even more dimensional
and if using two sides, you can tape or glue them together and
stuff them with cottonballs to fill them out if you want to make
them puffy.
78)Let your child
decorate their bedroom door for Christmas. A wreath with some
small trinkets on it is charming on every door inside the house,
too.
79)Make snowmen out of
styrofoam ball ornaments or styro balls or old Christmas bulbs
(the breakable kind) in 2 sizes (one larger and one smaller glued
together), paint white or glue on cottonballs or fake snow and add
glitter. Use google eyes or dots punched out of a paper punch for
eyes, Orange pipe cleaner twisted to a carrot shape for the nose,
little buttons or mini m & m's or small pom poms can be buttons or
even the gold top of a paper fastener clip. Also can use yarn for
eyes, smile, eyebrows or braid yarn for a scarf.. use your
imagination and whatever you have around the house, toothpicks or
tree branches for arms, etc. An old sweater and flannel shirt can
provide scarves and hats, mittens for all the snowmen and
snowwomen which can be grouped together under a tree branch from
outside. Provide all the scrap materials you have and let the kids
have a great time making them.
80)Make some snow
globes with old jars.
81) Create a God Can
for family members here is how
use a tall odd shaped can, the one I found was a solid gold color,
was maybe 6 inches tall and semi squared with a rounded bubble
shaped lid. (Found it at Dollar Tree last year)
This is what I
attached.
God Can
When your worries get too heavy
Follow this little plan
Just write it on a little note
And drop it in this can
You know that any problem
That you place in Our Lord's hands
Will soon be taken care of
Because we can't but God Can!
~~~~~~~~~~~~
This Article Written by
Patty Getz is the owner, and editor, of Frugal Families, and Old
Fashioned Families, and loves to spend her time with family, in
the kitchen, and teaching others, how to have a more fullfilling
life.
Webmaster and owner of
http://www.frugal-families.com
http://www.frugalcooking.com
http://www.oldfashionedfamilies.com
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mailto:editor@frugal-families.com
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