Christmas can be overwhelming as a parent. Trying to achieve the perfect Christmas is not going to make for a happy one. Here are some little tips that are achievable and will make happy family memories for years to come.
1. Go Christmas Tree hunting
Lots of places offer much more than Christmas Trees now, there are lots of farms that offer mazes, play areas and lots of festive activities for the family. Make picking your Christmas Tree mark the start of the celebrations. Remember to plant your tree in a pot after Christmas and then you can use it again.
2. Festive baking
Dust off your cookie cutters and get everybody in the kitchen making Christmas themed cookies and good old mince pies, nice and easy and the children will love both making them and eating them!
3. Elf on the Shelf
That naughty elf, what’s he been up to now?! The adults can have loads of fun with this one (link Pinterest https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/384776361888564321/). The children will be on their guard until Christmas day making sure they are on their best behaviour in front of them!
4. A time for giving
Teach your children that not everybody in the world gets to open lots of lovely presents on Christmas morning and encourage them to give something of their own to somebody who isn’t so privileged. There are lots of initiatives to give toys and packages to other children either in the UK or abroad. Even baking some of those lovely Christmas cookies and giving them to your elderly neighbours will teach them that giving is just as pleasurable as receiving.
5. Being together
I see Christmas as a time for all the family to enjoy time together. We all lead such busy lives and I love nothing more than settling down in front of a Christmas film in all cosy and snug in front of the fire on a cold winters day.
6. Memory Jar
We have a memory jar that we start on 1st January each year, we have a little notepad and pen inside and we write down all the good things that we’ve done during the year. We like to go away for the Christmas period and have some family time away from the hustle and bustle and we use this as our savings for the holiday, putting in £10 every week as well as our notes as to what good things have happened in that week. On New Year's Eve, we get all the notes out and read them, reminiscing about all the nice things we’ve done.
7. Christmas Eve box
Each year on Christmas Eve, we go out for a meal. When we arrive back home, the Christmas Eve box miraculously appears for the children to delight in its contents which are new PJ’s, slippers, a Christmas DVD and the Night Before Christmas book which we read to them before they go to bed.
8. Oh no, it isn’t….Oh yes, it is!!!
Children love pantomimes, there are so many on at this time of year, be it the big productions in city centres or at the local village hall. Make it your thing to go and belt out the traditional lines of ‘oh yes he is and he’s behind you’
9. Make a tree decoration
Hands up who still has the toilet roll Santa in their decoration box? My mum still has a whole host of my homemade robins, Santa's and snowmen that she rolls out every year and I’m nearly 40!
10. Keep it simple
Christmas is so overwhelming. Don't go over the top trying to make it social media perfect. Your good enough is ok. Your little ones want a happy sane mummy, not a frazzled one. So keep it simple and enjoy the festive season.