A Magical Christmas
Make the holidays feel magical for our children and bring the season to life! Give them memories to look back on and experiences they’ll want to recreate with their own kids someday.
Build anticipation
Try these fun ideas for getting your kiddos into the spirit and looking forward to their favorite holiday, Christmas:
- Save a day for decorating the house together. Make it a big event: play Christmas music, plan a special food and dessert menu and treats and get everyone involved. You can plan this whenever it works for your family: the day after Thanksgiving, the first day of December, the last day of school. Just mark it on your calendar as your family’s holiday season kickoff.
- Count down days with Advent calendars—and teach children to answer the “when is Christmas” question themselves.
- Go over the top with trees, lights, inflatables, etc.
- Let your kids put Christmas lights up in their room. A string of fairy lights gives a magical glow at bedtime.
- Picking out a special ornament or getting a snapshot with Santa.
- Bring out the kid in everyone with a holiday-themed game night.
- Crank up the music, load up the car, and head to a Christmas tree farm to pick out a tree.
- Start a tradition of watching a Christmas movie or reading Christmas books every night.
Set the scene
Christmas magic is all about the sights, the sounds, the smells—and yes, the tastes. Following are some easy ways to transform your home into a sensory wonderland. Put out holiday-scented candles, cinnamon sticks, and liquid pumpkin soaps. Listen to holiday music playing softly in the background.
Christmas Eve magic
Most of the magic of the holiday season comes on the day and night right before Christmas. How many of these traditions does your family do?
- Pick a favorite flick as a family and dub it your “Christmas Eve movie.” Start a tradition of watching it every year on Christmas Eve, and before long that movie will really make it feel like it’s almost Christmas.
- Let the kids have a campout under the Christmas tree (or at least near it). Bonus points if you can sneak presents under the tree while they’re asleep.
- If your family opens presents on Christmas morning, have one gift—like photogenic pajamas—that everyone gets to open on Christmas Eve.
- Get creative about what food you leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve night. Making cookies together is always a fun choice, but picking a different treat for jolly old St. Nicholas can be a fun way to shake things up, like reindeer crunch popcorn.
- You know Santa is busy, so help him out. Once kids have gone to sleep, put on a pair of boots to make footprints in the snow or coming out of the fireplace. or a little train chugging around the tree. Snuggle up under a cozy blanket you only get out at the holidays.
- Give the kids a space in the house—their own rooms, their play spaces, a spot in the family room—or a miniature treet o decorate however they want.
- Look up holiday recipes popular in other cultures and make one together as a family.