Making Christmas a bit different

Essexbabe · 25 September 2016 at 3:42PM

Since my daughters have stopped believing, I have found that Xmas has lost a bit of the magic. We have a fairly small family (7 of us with grandparents) and I found last Xmas a bit same old same old, and funnily enough, my youngest daughter said the same.

So, whilst I love tradition and some things like the annual family photo in front of the tree will never change, I want to try and inject some new ideas into our celebrations.

Already have the following ideas: Dice game for funny gift exchange and an Xmas family quiz, but would welcome any other fun suggestions that you know of

kingfisherblue · 25 September 2016 at 5:26PM

My kids are adults now, but we all enjoy Christmas style Headbanz - you have a Christmas character on a headband above your head, and you ask questions that can only be answered yes or no. You have to guess who your character is.

p-pincher · 25 September 2016 at 5:40PM

We love headbandz. Last year we bought undecorated gingerbread houses and had a decorating competition, We do a secret santa for £5 that we exchange just before we eat dinner. Last year I bought everyone the head bopper head band things from the pound shop for everyone to wear whilst eating dinner. We also make or adapt shop bought crackers. I normally fill with the christmas scratchcards.

We go pictures and have a takeaway every christmas eve. There's loads more stuff we do. I try to make a real effort to do things as a family.

neezy · 25 September 2016 at 8:09PM

we sometimes have a gift challenge with the grandparents, £10 limit but nothing smelly, nothing edible, no books, or dvd/cd. It makes it fun as so much effort goes in.
Could try a charity element? volunteer somewhere christmas eve? We help pack toy parcels about 3 weeks before Christmas that have been donated to the local food bank. We also do the shoe box appeal. Could be fun,

Essexbabe · 25 September 2016 at 8:49PM

Thanks guys. Yes, was thinking about volunteering anyway, and have put name down to help at local food bank, so if that comes off, I would suggest we all did it at Xmas.

Shoe box appeal a good idea too, and I also like the cinema idea. We used to do that when they were young, but maybe we could resurrect it again with a less kiddy Xmas film.

We have Headbanz too and have played that over the years, but not for a while. Could dig it out again though.

Keep them coming!

neezy · 25 September 2016 at 8:58PM

how about a Christmas time capsule? This year on Christmas day all sit and write the answers to a list of questions then put them away (unread) open next christmas and repeat. Make them mix of serious things like hopes, dreams for the coming year etc to fun things like current celeb crush, fav song, current weight! add some photos etc.

Gwendolyn · 26 September 2016 at 6:26PM

Love the Christmas capsule idea.
We used to volunteer at an old folks' home on Christmas day and cooked them a three course lunch, complete with crackers and chocolates etc. We would then go home and cook our own dinner which we would eat about 8pm. It was a great way of spreading cheer. Though washing up for about 60 was hard work.

Craftyblue · 27 September 2016 at 9:40PM

I can really relate to this. I'm 29 and there are six of us in our family, all adults and it can get a bit samey. Last year we did a variation on the white elephant game. My mum and I bought 3 gifts each that cost under £2 and wrapped them all differently. They were all silly, fun things. We put them in a sack and everyone got a chance to choose a gift, starting with the youngest or oldest person. The first person chose a gift and opened it, the second person then got the choice of choosing a different gift or stealing the first persons gift. It then went round with everyone getting the chance to open a new gift or steal someone else's. We made it so that you only got to steal three times, otherwise we would have been there all day! It needed up being really good fun and my boyfriend and my brother spent hours making balloon animals (the kit was one of the gifts) and hitting each other over the head with them! You could get everyone to buy one gift and wrap it so there's more of an element of a surprise.
Hope that helps.

Making Christmas a bit different

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