#014 - No matter what, it's going to be a different Christmas season than we're used to. Let's not let the negativity or altered traditions ruin this time of year for our kids.
In this episode, we share 12 fun activities to do with your family this Christmas Season.
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Well, it's for sure going to be an interesting Christmas seasons here.
Amanda Norton:Very.
Daniel Norton:But we all really want to keep it fun for our kids.
Amanda Norton:Yeah. Great.
Daniel Norton:So in this episode, we're gonna give you 12 for 12 Days
Amanda Norton:of Christmas.
Daniel Norton:That's right. Fun family activities for you to try this Christmas season. So let's get into this episode.
Bumper:Welcome to working home parents helping you find stability between client calls, and potty training. Because we're all figuring this out as we go. And now, your hosts, Amanda and Dan Norton.
Amanda Norton:So, at the time of our release of this episode, we're going to be at 17 days till Christmas. This is crazy. This year is flying by, and I can't believe Christmas is gonna be here. Before we know it.
Daniel Norton:I know it's things are going by really fast at this point. Yeah. Although it was one of those years, it was like, I don't even know what it's gonna be like when it gets to this point. Yeah. And you know, whether you are staying home or not, you're, you're going to parties or not really, depending on what your family chooses. And I think it's different for everybody. Yeah, it depends on your scenario, and who you're interacting with, and whatever. So we're not here to tell you whether you're right or wrong for what you choose to do with your family. But these activities we're going to talk about, I think are fun for everyone, whether you are staying, you know, at your own home, or you're going out, I think just throughout these this season, and even if you don't celebrate Christmas, but you want to enjoy this time of year, I think these can work for you as well.
Amanda Norton:Definitely. Our first one is ornament decorating. Now, I don't know about you guys, but I love the Dollar Tree. And right now they have such awesome DIY making your own ornaments. There's, there's lots of different crafts that you may want to check out there besides ornament making. But I found that the DIY projects that they have have been like a step up from last year, they are really going out of their way to make fun ideas for just little snow globes, or just little little snowflakes you put on the tree or whatever it is. There's they have so many great ideas there. So I can get lost in dollar trade. But right now with the Christmas section, I am just like in awe, I can't wait till our son is a little older so we can do these type of things. And he so he does. So he actually has an attention span to do it. Because right now he lasts about two seconds on something. Yeah, it's
Daniel Norton:a good story thing to try crafts, because some of these craft places where you like buy, like these kits and stuff can be really expensive. Very. So just going to the dollar store and trying some things to see if they even want to do it. Yeah, I think is good because it's more affordable. Definitely. And it really depends on your dollar tree. I mean, up here, a lot of the dollar trees are really small. But you watch these YouTubers who have like these huge dollar trees.
Amanda Norton:You know, I get so addicting. I'm like, why can't I live in an area where these dollar trees that are like massive? Like, one day?
Daniel Norton:I know, we didn't even know that they were big. Yeah, cuz everything here, you know, in New York is like small, at least in our area.
Amanda Norton:Yep. I had been venturing out to other towns to different dollar trees. Like if I'm just passing through, I'll go now, because it's worth it. Because there is certain things that our son wants or whatever. And if we find a little action figure character in one store, and then they don't have the other characters of the same thing he gets like, Where's this one though? So then I do venture out and I whenever I'm in the, in the area, I do try to look for $1 tree just to find something to go with another set.
Daniel Norton:If you want an episode on Dollar Tree or us to talk more about this, let us know over on Instagram, send us a message or a comment or something. Yeah, that'll be interesting to know if you want any like Dollar Tree tips stuff.
Amanda Norton:I could talk about that all day.
Daniel Norton:We're probably gonna do more of that on our YouTube channel. Parent pacifier. Yeah,
Amanda Norton:it's great. The second idea is a gingerbread house activities. So you guys did that? A few days ago.
Daniel Norton:Yeah, is the first time I ever bought one of those kits. Because I've never I wasn't really big into like, making these gingerbread houses. But we're counselors at our youth group at our church. And we've always done this big Christmas party that I'm kind of in charge of for the teenagers for the youth group. And because I'm a big Christmas, like nerd and yeah, stuff like that. And we do a competition where we have them build gingerbread houses, but not at gingerbread. It's like really a graham cracker competition, because we make them huge and all this stuff, and that's what I'm used to. But this is kind of fun, because, you know, he's three, he's not really gonna, you know, do much you know, it's only gonna be a little bit so at least it's like quick to put together Yeah, and it looks cool standing out instead of being like a big mess. Yeah, you know, like it looks good. So it was kind of fun, except that he had so much sugar from eating the icing that he was absolutely nuts. Yes. So there's a fair warning if you haven't done it. Beware of the icing and the sugar rush. Yeah, cuz he was nuts. He's not he's never had that much sugar i don't think so at one time. I wasn't even paying attention. He just started eating and I'm like, Oh, no.
Amanda Norton:Number three is do your Christmas baking, either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, you if you're not going to be going out and or you don't have a lot of people coming to your house and you have some free time. Go ahead and like, just look up some cool recipes on Pinterest or on YouTube or wherever you search on your social media. Definitely check out some cool, maybe baking something that you've never done before, right?
Daniel Norton:Because that was the this is the year to fail. You don't have people coming over and you don't have to go to a party with something that looks and tastes good. It's like well, if it sucks, you can just throw it out. No one's gonna know.
Amanda Norton:Hey, you know what's a good idea? Cuz Yeah, you prep for next year maybe? Right? Well, I worked really hard in quarantine to, you know, fix my big my baking skills and everything and my cooking skills, then you know, you have more time. So for next year when you actually hopefully we're allowed to all get together with more than 10 people at a time. You can enjoy showing off what you've learned. Yeah, the fun.
Daniel Norton:Yeah, I think I think that's a that's a good time. And you could actually do it on Christmas because if you're not going out and you're staying home with your family that's a great like time killer. Yeah, that you could be making a bunch of, you know, fun stuff and worry about your your diet on your New Year's resolution.
Amanda Norton:Stuffing all those cookies now guys before New Year's. Number four. We started this year in advent calendar with our son he likes taking the chocolates and having them in the morning. Yes. You know, it's the only the only time of the year that I let him eat chocolate in the morning. But it's a
Daniel Norton:really, really tight one. Yeah, whatever.
Amanda Norton:It's really cute though. Because every morning he says, Is it eight? Is it nine? Like what day? Is it? Is it the eighth? Is it the ninth like It's like he's really understanding he's
Daniel Norton:remembered it because you know, it's late at night. And he remembered what the day was? Yeah, morning quiet. So it's actually a good way to start. Like, if you have like a toddler or something to start, like learning what the day date is because he's doing the numbers of it. So I was like, that's pretty cool. Like, yeah, what the day is able
Amanda Norton:to now tell me the day of the week and the number. It's crazy at that age, you know, but this is also helping us do something. So
Daniel Norton:like this actually might be something to consider, like, other times of the year, maybe not like advent calendar, but there's ways like, well, what day is it and you get a little prize for knowing it. Maybe it's just another way to help them understand dates and times? I don't know.
Amanda Norton:Definitely. So it's really cute. Number five is check out your Christmas villages that are still going on that are doing some outdoor activity activities. They some of these places are already doing outdoor activities for years now and they just have some more safer precautions for COVID that you can check out and check online before you go check it if you're comfortable with it. I know one place that I want to check out has like a little train and I saw it in pictures that people wearing masks and they were still going forward with it. So yeah,
Daniel Norton:I mean there's drive thru ones. I mean, we've had it long before all this there was drive thru ones. Yes. I think there's a couple of them around the United States that are part of like the same company. Yeah, but out here in New York at Jones Beach. It's like this drive thru
Amanda Norton:Christmas show and
Daniel Norton:it's actually pretty fun. And then at the end there's like stuff you do inside I don't know if they'll have that or not. But it's always been a cool like little drive thru. Hopefully if they don't have that it's a little cheaper ticket. I don't know. Oh, I doubt they'll make anything cheaper.
Amanda Norton:Number six is check out your local zoo. Believe it or not the one by us. The Bronx Zoo is actually having an adorable like, animal christmas light show or I don't know if it's a show but like having like a walk through and walk through it. They've
Daniel Norton:always had trouble, right. So but it's outdoors, it's walking.
Amanda Norton:Yeah. So check out your local zoo because they might be doing something like that, which is great. It's an evening activity and put your kids in their pajamas maybe or dress them in the car in the pajamas at the end of the night and there'll be asleep by the time you guys get home and be ready for bedtime. So it's great. Look forward to that. Number seven, making fun Christmas videos. I know Tick Tock has been like blown up at this point. And you don't have to post videos of your family making Christmas silly Christmas videos or whatever. But that's a really cute idea to do this year cuz Yeah, you want to make memories of being home this year. This is like the year of being home and quarantine. So this is the time where your kids Maybe more open to making some funny videos and they let make these short things like Instagram
Daniel Norton:reels or tic tocs. And you could edit, you can make them right in the app and just save them if you don't want to post them publicly. So you can just send it as like a text message to family, man, everything is right like, but it's fun. And if eating, if you get your kids involved, they may enjoy the music and whatever you can use. It might be a fun thing to do, maybe on Christmas Day, or leading up to it as doing like little video, like fun little video, things that they might enjoy. If they're not already making videos themselves. Because kids are loving
Amanda Norton:your video, they're loving it. Number eight, take a drive in your neighborhood to go look at the Christmas lights that your neighbors are putting up. They're beautiful. Even during the day, I just look around. And it's so nice that you know even even though we're all kind of stuck at home throughout this this year, it's so nice to see that people are still putting out their Christmas decorations like it's normal. And I would suggest in your car ride, bring some hot chocolate with you bring some snacks, bring, bring some popcorn,
Daniel Norton:go to the Starbucks and buy expensive hot you
Amanda Norton:know, make it at home, put it in a thermos pour your kids their little cups. So yeah, that's a great idea to just like having another night activity before bedtime, you could definitely put them in their pajamas and drive them around as long as you want. Yeah,
Daniel Norton:it's a good excuse to go get those rides. If your kids fall asleep in the car like ours does,
Amanda Norton:yes. And go to different neighborhoods, like check out your friends, neighborhoods or whatever. And so I think it'd be great to just like do a little night activity, I think we should do that one night. Number nine, make your Christmas cards with your kids. I think this is such a cute idea. When our son is a lot older, I would love for him instead of taking maybe take a picture of him for the Christmas card, but put it on a card that he makes, you know, so he can put his little personal touch and cut out on construction paper and decorate a nice beautiful card to send somebody I know grandparents love handmade anything. So this is great, or even another distant family member that they just love to see the little love and the time and the effort you put into a Christmas card or any card. So this is a great time to get your kids involved with that, you know, maybe it'll save you a little money even on online. You don't have to print out pictures even of your kids, you just or you could and just spend less doing it on your own printer.
Daniel Norton:If they're willing to draw and write up all those. It might just be a few. Yeah,
Amanda Norton:yeah. So I think it's a really cute activity just to save some money and have some fun and
Daniel Norton:decorate. You have multiples. Maybe they do it all together for exchanging with each other on Christmas Day. Yeah, because it's kind of if if you normally have a tradition where you're leaving the home and you're not leaving the home this year, you got to try to fill that time. So filling it with some kind of crafts where they're doing something and not just on, you know, devices. Yeah, that that potentially could be something to add and maybe becomes a new tradition.
Amanda Norton:Yeah. Number 10 have a family game night with like, Christmas themed games. I saw that. Some people are doing like the heads up game. And just these fun, like charades games that are really cute. Make that a Christmas themed one that would be so hilarious to see like, make somebody act out something that's Christmas theme and put some Christmas music on and just make it a fun Christmas theme night. You could turn probably almost any game into Christmas. But your fate your favorite games, your fate or even if your kids are not into games, but just make it silly. Make it fun. And that stuff is memorable.
Daniel Norton:Yeah, for sure. I think, you know, again, the idea of starting new traditions, like we talked about in our Halloween episode. And, and the thoughts that this year is the year to try new things, try new traditions. Whether you're staying home or not, you could still add those things in to try to just make this year fun. Because all of us are having to deal with different things that aren't necessarily fun. on whatever side of the spectrum you fall with. You know, the thoughts on what's going on. So, yeah, I think enjoying enjoying some games, some things that are non device games can make it fun.
Amanda Norton:Yeah. Number 11. Christmas Eve scavenger hunt. And you can include the elf on the shelf. If you're if your kids are totally into that this year, you can make that totally part of the scavenger hunt. Even though you're probably doing it every single day.
Unknown:Yeah.
Daniel Norton:But yeah, I think I like the idea of the scavenger hunt. Seems like that's like an ongoing thing. So we talked about that for Halloween. Yeah, like trying to, you know, trick or treating. If you're not doing that to go and find, you know, use your Easter eggs, like maybe taking that same thing and putting stuff around like on a Christmas Eve. You know, fun treat or candy or Yeah, you know, early presence. Or something that they go and look for? Yeah. to, to add some because for me like I celebrate Christmas Eve, that was always my thing. And on random side is Christmas Day. Yeah So for us it always worked out really well because that's the way I celebrate is we celebrate Christmas Eve. Right? And so it'll be a little different this year. I mean a very different this year for us. But I still want to be able to do stuff Christmas Eve because that's for me. That's Christmas.
Amanda Norton:And for me is Christmas Day. Yeah. Number 12. Watch your favorite Christmas movies or Christmas shows. I know we love and I'm so happy. Our son loves it to Charlie Brown and Charlie Brown Christmas or Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. So I'm so excited because he's totally into it this year. So we could put that on. He likes the Grinch she likes he's really into home alone. Yes, he's three and he loves home alone. At home he own. He is hilarious. He loves all those like, silly funny.
Daniel Norton:I mean, trying to get him into elf. I think he's finally had an interest in it.
Amanda Norton:Yeah. But it's randomly the other day. So hopefully
Daniel Norton:he didn't love it at first, but that seems to be the way it goes.
Amanda Norton:Yeah. So there's a lot of fun Christmas movies out right now. Even some new ones. So check out and maybe they'll find something that they really like. I know he The biggest thing that we watch basically all year round is Christmas Muppets. Well, he
Daniel Norton:he The Muppets Christmas carol on Disney plus, literally, we've watched that all year all year. We watched it more, I think in the summer than we have during actual Christmas time. But it's for some reason he likes he loves anything. Music. Yeah, we've been watching Christmas stuff wrong. He's definitely my son. Yeah. And he's willing to listen to Christmas and watch Christmas stuff all year round. But totally Yeah, it's a good time for for that or finding something on YouTube and all the different streaming apps that we all have to subscribe to, to get everything.
Amanda Norton:So that's all that's our
Daniel Norton:12 ideas of Christmas activities or Christmas
Amanda Norton:for 12 days.
Daniel Norton:What what activities do you have? Are you going to plan we'd love to hear from you. If you go to working home, parents calm and leave us a voice message. We'd love to hear what other ideas that we didn't mention that you're doing or that you have, we'd love to have it and maybe we'll feature it on an episode coming up just as a little bonus to add some more ideas for Christmas as we've got a couple of good episodes coming up to end the year with which is crazy. Yeah. But here it is. This is Episode 14. So there we're just chugging along with these. Yeah, going into it. If you want any show notes for anything mentioned, on today's podcast, you can go to working home parents.com slash 14 and you can find the transcription and everything there. And just reminder, if you haven't already, remember to hit subscribe so that you get every episode to your podcast listening app of choice every single week.
Amanda Norton:Thanks for listening, everybody,
Daniel Norton:and we look forward to chatting with you in our next episode.
Bumper:Thank you for listening to working home parents find show notes links mentioned and more at working home parents.com