What Christmas is really about – Spending time together

When it comes to Christmas we have always tried to get the kids to think more about spending time together as a family and less about the presents under the Christmas tree. To do this we make a list of all of the fun things that we want to do during the month of December and then try to tick off as many as possible.

Christmas for us is about spending time being together baking, making and playing. It is being outdoors and enjoying the wintery weather. It is about enjoying all things festive and making some amazing memories to look back on.

Earlier this evening we sat down as a family and discussed some of the things that we would like to do in the next five weeks. It was great to see how many of these things don’t require any money and how much the kids are grasping the fact that family time is what is really important.

The activities which don’t require us to spend money (apart from on ingredients) are as follows:

Christmas Film Night

Baking Christmas Cookies

Baking Mince Pies

Bake a Christmas Cake

Making Xmas Presents (we make truffles etc)

Decorate the tree

Feed the squirrels

Make Christmas Cards

Build a Snowman

Make Snow Angels

Sledging

Visit Christmas Lights

Wrap Presents

Toast Marshmallows

Play Board Games Together

Go to the park

Pyjama Day

Visit Family

There are also a few that doesn’t cost too much such as going Ice Skating, the cinema, bowling and enjoy a hot chocolate at the Christmas markets. We will also host a small Christmas party for some of their friends from school as a nice way to end the term. We do also have a few luxury days in there such as Winter Wonderland (which is a fantastic event in Manchester) and a trip to the Pantomime but those are part of our Christmas traditions so we will always do that.

I wanted to share our list with you in the way it will be displayed on our fridge so that as we do each activity, we will cross it off. I hope it inspires you to create your own list and hopefully spend more time with your family rather than more time spending. Christmas really is about spending time together doing the things you all enjoy and those will be the memories your children will look back on in years to come, not whether you managed to buy them a Hatchimal or not.