The normal image of Christmas is one with 3 or more generations celebrating together over a family meal, but how can you have a family Christmas without all your family?
It looks as if Christmas 2020 may see us limited to just 6 people in the house, The chaos of different people (who all bring your kids presents!) is part of the magic of Christmas so if you have small children how can we have the fun of a family Christmas without the family? The challenge is how to make the day as special for everyone rather than just a day which begins very early with presents.
We have been chatting in the office for ways in which we can make the day special without the excitement of guests.
Firstly, there can be some benefits.
You can concentrate on the kids without the stress of preparing dinner for a large group.
You won’t have to worry about over tired and grumpy kids having a complete melt down just as your father wants to listen to the Queens speech.
You can start new family traditions.
Obviously our first suggestion to make any day more special is add in a knitted dinosaur toy but apart from that these are our ideas so far to make this Christmas every bit as special. Hopefully we’ll add more as we hear them.
Arrange a day when grandparents come round to decorate a Xmas tree while you go out Christmas shopping (or just relax somewhere!). Decorating the Christmas tree is such a special thing to do with small children but you can have more than one so a great way to spread the magic of Christmas. Don’t forget we have Dinosaur Christmas decorations that the kids will love!
If your kids are old enough they could help wrap presents for other family members and get involved with making the Xmas cards and sending out parcels.
For those people with very distant family members the last day for Xmas post to Australia or China is 9th December.
Within the UK last post for 2nd class is Wednesday 18th or Friday 20th for First class.
We have some ideas for Christmas gift ideas you can post without it costing fortune or if you order a Christmas gift from us we can include a personalised message.
Spread the joy – many cultures celebrate different days, 6th December is the Feast of St Nicholas where children put their shoes out over night and find them filled with treats in the morning and in Europe Christmas Eve is the big family day. For many years Christmas was celebrated for the 12 days from December 25th to an 5th and while this may be a bit much to sustain you can use these Xmas days to have lots of small Xmas days with different parts of your family rather than one big celebration.
If you are close enough, and the weather is ok, put your Xmas jumpers on and take the kids carol singing outside family houses. If you are too distant then you can also do Zoom Christmas carolling.
Christmas morning, make Christmas cookies, decorate them and take them around to the neighbours.
Sleep under the Xmas Tree! Camp in the sitting room, put on a Xmas movie and see if the kids can see Santa when he comes. There is even an app called Capture the Magic where you can add Santa to a photo so you can then “prove” to the kids he visited while they slept under the tree.
Christmas crackers and table bombs can add excitement to any meal, or even dinosaur Christmas decorations on every plate. We would also recommend Pinterest for ideas on how to decorate the table to make it both Xmassy and child friendly.
If you have any other ideas please share them on our Facebook or Instagram pages as we’d love to hear them.
